The professional world today offers various solutions to meet the demands of an increasingly challenging business landscape. Each offering has its place but what are the differences and when do you use which service? Hopefully, this can clear things up a bit.
Neshica Bheem
Director, Founder and Business Coach
20 November 2020
Mentoring in the workplace is usually a relationship where a more experienced, senior colleague shares their greater knowledge and experience to support the development of an inexperienced colleague. This method of intervention can be used effectively as part of succession development programmes. Mentoring is an approach that says, “I am more senior, I have extensive experience, I can tell my story on how I have done this.” Mentoring is often an informal relationship with loose structure that offers advice, knowledge, and experiences. Mentees gain value from tried and trusted approaches to navigating the workplace and use the knowledge and life lessons shared to inform their own personal journeys.
Consulting is a professional service that provides often much-needed capacity, expertise, and assistance where it is lacking in an organisation. With consulting, you can get best practice tools that can support you in achieving your objectives. If it is your intention to get outside expertise to get a particular job done and executed according to best practice, then consulting can meet your needs. Consulting is an approach that says “I am an expert, and I am familiar with the industry best practices are therefore I can offer expert advice to your professional or technical challenge". Consulting offers expert advice or industry best practice ‘recipes’ to follow to achieve a company objective that often leads to a project.
Business Coaching can be described a partnership that elicits solutions from the coachee, creates self-awareness and builds internal capacity within the coachee to address their current and future challenges. Coaching focuses on internal growth that enables coachees find their own clarity and answers for their unique situation and creates clarity on how to move forward. Coaching takes the approach “I can work with you to unlock potential so that you can uncover the possible solutions to the challenges you face.” Coaching creates self-awareness, allows the coachee to take responsibility and affords them space to think through options and decide upon their own course of action.
Each service services a different objective and has its place in the professional world. The key is to understand your requirements before deciding which of the service offerings can meet your needs.
CONTACT US
Neshica Bheem
Coachfluence(Pty) Ltd.
Director, Founder and Business Coach
neshica@coachfluence.com