What's the difference between coaching and mentoring?

Video transcript:

Another common question about coaching is
What is the difference between coaching and mentoring
and that's a really important question.
Coaching is about performance.
It's about improving performance
from whatever level you are at
in terms of the professional coaching game.
Mentoring implies some kind of expertise or
experience that the mentor brings along to the game.
Now to be frankly honest, a really good coach
will tend to do both.
Certainly in my field; I come from a science and
engineering background and I've had extensive
management experience. So when I'm coaching a
manager or engineer or something like that
I can bring some experience to the game and
sometimes switch into a mentoring kind of role -
in terms of actually sharing information.
So that's the fundamental difference.
Coaching is about helping people take
accountability and responsibility for
their own performance and helping them move forward.
Mentoring is about the sharing of information and ideas
A really good coach will do a mixture of both
depending on their experience.
That's why the answer to the question
Does a coach need to understand my industry or have
some kind of experience to understand my role?
Well if you're looking purely for a coach then no.
If you're looking for a mentor then of course yes.
Ideally, I would say the best balance is a
Coach - mentor. Someone who has some experience of
your role and what you do, and in your industry
who can lend their expertise as and when needed
or when appropriate in the coaching kind of role
but it's backed up by really solid coaching skills
so it keeps the ownership and accountability and
the responsibility for making things happen
firmly in your place as the coachee.
Ok, do you agree with that?
Disagree with that?
Let me know in the comments below. I'd be really
interested to hear.