As a certified career coach, I frequently get asked what the difference is between a leader, mentor, and coach. I think all three are equally important and useful in developing your own leadership skills. However, each one of these roles serves a very different purpose. So let’s look at each one a little deeper to understand what they are and why they are so vital in your development.
First, let’s look at a leader. You have many leaders. You have them at work: your immediate manager, your “chain of command” up to and including the head honcho at your company. You have them at Manchester Christian Church: the staff person over the ministry in which you serve, the head pastors, and the elders. And you likely have them in any official clubs you belong to. These are what I like to call “assigned leaders”. They’re the people appointed over you. You didn’t necessarily pick them.
Then there are your chosen leaders. These are the people you look to because they inspire and empower you. And in the Christian setting, they inspire you to grow closer to Jesus, trusting in Him even more. And if you’re really lucky, your assigned leaders are the very same people you would have picked as your chosen leaders.
The funny thing about leaders is that they don’t ever have to have done what you are doing in order to inspire and empower you. The inspirational leader gets you excited about the work you are doing by motivating you without having to enter into your world. A wonderful Biblical example of a leader is Jesus. He inspired countless followers without ever interacting with them personally before the Resurrection.
A leader is a Christ-follower who inspires and empowers others to drive positive change.
Some may confuse leaders with mentors. Mentors are a bit different. They are people from whom you are getting knowledge and wisdom through experience. In other words, in order for someone to be a mentor for you, they have to have done what you are trying to learn.
Additionally, you need to actually interact with the mentor where you do not with a leader. Remember you can be inspired by leader that you never actually speak to. However, with a mentor it is a requirement. Mentoring is one on one teaching to impart some skill, knowledge, or know-how.
This relationship is designed to allow the mentor to share beyond just the steps and actions, but the thought process and motivations as well. Mentoring allows the individual to learn a topic to a deeper level. We can see this mentoring model in the Bible between Jesus and His disciples. It’s especially noticeable with Peter. Jesus was intentionally imparting knowledge upon Peter.
A mentor is a Christ-follower who shares wisdom, knowledge and experience with one person with the goal of instructing them.
By contrast, coaching is the act of objective observation by one person on another person. Just like with mentoring, coaching has to have a personal relationship. However, it’s like leading in that the coach never has to have done the role the person being coached does. A coach is just as effective, if not more so, without having the knowledge or experience the person being coached does.
The real nature of coaching is to ask hard questions on motivations, intentions, thoughts, and then actions. It’s designed to be a challenging relationship. Coaches use wisdom and observational skills to point out things hindering a person’s growth. Coaching is different from mentoring because it’s not teaching. It’s different from leading because there has to be interaction between the two people.
In fact, what sets apart a coach from a leader or mentor is the personal relationship with an objective viewpoint. In other words, the less the coach knows the person the more effective they are. Our best Biblical example of coaching is Jesus. Every time He asked a question of those who followed Him causing them to seek the answer within themselves, He was coaching.
A coach is a Christ-follower who challenges a person because the coach can see the blind-spots that hinder the person’s growth that the person cannot see.
Leader, mentors, and coaches play an important role in your development. A leader inspires and motivates you. A mentor teaches and guides you. A coach challenges and supports you. If you surround yourself with effective people in these roles, you give yourself a great shot a achieving your leadership goals.
Rebecca Murphy is a member of Manchester Christian Church and has served in a variety of leadership roles. She is a certified career coach helping professionals achieve their next level of leadership skills. (c) 2014 Rebecca Murphy
