Coaching and Mentoring: What's the Difference?
by | Jan 15, 2025 | Coaching Articles
Coaching and mentoring have many differences. Here are five of the most prominent ones:
Feature | Coaching | Mentoring |
Core Function | Facilitating the learning process, development, and performance improvement; empowering the individual. |
Giving advice, guidance, and support. A mentor can also test new ideas. |
Expertise Required | The coach usually does not need to have specific knowledge about the subject of coaching. | The mentor uses their own knowledge and past experience to guide the individual. |
Outcome/Focus | Individuals, through coaching, are able to find their own solutions, develop skills and behaviors, and change their attitudes. | The mentoring relationship is usually a long-term relationship designed to help the individual invest in future opportunities and learn from past mistakes. |
Relationship/Interaction | Focus on empowering the individual to find their own path. | More directive; the mentor shares their experiences and knowledge. |
General Comparison | Both coaching and mentoring are interactive methods. Although advice and guidance are usually more prevalent in mentoring, the techniques and approaches of both are similar. | Both coaching and mentoring are interactive methods. Although advice and guidance are usually more prevalent in mentoring, the techniques and approaches of both are similar. |
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Who is the expert?
- A mentor usually has expertise in a specific field such as business or communication. The mentee goes to the mentor to get advice and grow in areas where the mentor has been successful.
- However, the client goes to a coach to use the coaching process on their topic of interest. Therefore, the coach is not a role model but a master of using the coaching process.
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Who sets the agenda for the session?
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- In mentoring, it is the mentor who knows what the next step is, and the mentee simply waits to hear the answers to their questions.
- In coaching, the client sets the agenda. The coach asks, “Where do you want to go?” and the session begins with the client’s instructions. If the client does not know what they want to achieve, the coach asks questions to help them visualize it. It is the client who sets the agenda in the coaching process.
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Who asks the questions?
- In mentoring, it is the mentee who asks the questions, and the mentor is the one who has all the answers. Even if they occasionally ask questions, they are still the wise ones whose role is to transfer information and experience.
- Coaching is different. The coach’s role is to ask questions to gain an understanding and insight that will cause the client to learn from themselves. Learning in coaching comes from powerful coaching questions.
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Who is the role model?
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- The goal of mentoring is to reach the same role model that the mentor symbolizes. The mentor has achieved success in certain areas and says, “You have to go this way to get where I’ve gotten.”
- However, the goal of coaching is for the client to find their own answers. The coach’s goal is to help the client access their own potential to “get where they want to go.”
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Who has the experience?
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- A mentor is someone who uses their own experiences to advise and guide the mentee. They talk about their own life, relationships, and work and give examples from them.
- In coaching, everything is different. The coach invites the client into their own life. They help the client see their own life from different angles.
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You have read the differences between coaching and mentoring. Both methods have their own values. If you want to use the experiences and advice of someone else in your life, look for a mentor. But if you want to travel to your own world and access your own answers, go to a coach.

Taymour Miri is an ICF master coach and a Gallup certified strengths coach and more recently one of the first 136 coaches world wide to be awarded an Advanced Certificate in Team Coaching. He has 30 years’ experience in leadership roles and 20 years of experince in coaching. Taymour has trained over 1,500 coaches across five continents and is the founder of International Coaching Education (ICE).