We all know that self-development is one example of the non-material facilities that the company provides for employees. Basically, the quality of good employees is directly proportional to the company’s achievements. It is not a wonder if the company makes a special budget for self-development of employees.
There are three types of self-development methods to improve your working skills, including coaching, mentoring, and counseling. Of course, all three look the same, but they are absolutely different. If you want to know the differences between coaching, mentoring, and counseling, you can dive into our post below. Here you go!
Differences Between Coaching, Mentoring, and Counseling
In the book “Team Management & Coaching: People Skills for Managers,” Malone states that coaching, mentoring, and counseling have three similarities: communication, interpersonal relations, and learning. It means that these activities are carried out with two-way and one-on-one communication aimed at gaining new learning.
While the difference between coaching, mentoring, and counseling can be seen from the following three perspectives:
1) Object of Discussion
In the case of the discussion object, coaching emphasizes a specific problem, such as skills and performance that are directly related to the job. The topic of discussion focuses on future interests and performance.
While mentoring is performed to empower or encourage an individual with a broad topic such as discussing knowledge and expertise in one field, personal and motivational matters are also considered. The process of mentoring is carried out over a long period of time and is very beneficial for someone’s success in the future. A mentee (someone who will be involved in mentorship) will be invited to discuss and talk about anxiety and future plans.
Last, counseling generally discusses psychological problems and aims to promote self-understanding and self-acceptance. The counselor will ask about past experiences to find out the root of the problem. Then, it directs the client to find a way to solve the problem.
2) Who has the right to impart knowledge?
Coaching can be performed by superiors or external parties. The companies sometimes use organizational consulting services since external parties have more experience and can see problems more objectively. Afterwards, the company will appoint a consultant who has experience in an industry.
Mentoring can be performed by someone who is more experienced and has more in-depth knowledge. A mentor will be selected by direct superiors, leaders, and external parties. A mentor will be a kind of role model.
Counseling focuses on psychological problems, so it must be performed by someone with a background in psychology or a psychologist. If you want to become a counselor, you have to go through formal education, so not just anyone can provide counseling services.
3) Results
Evaluation of the results of coaching activities is relatively easy and can be seen. The changes can be seen in the behavior during implementation in the field of work. During coaching, the discussion also leads to one thing, so the results gained will be clearer and more immediately felt.
While the results of mentoring activities are slightly hard to see since the topics of discussion are very broad, both work-related and personal, they can be applied in the future. So, the evaluation of learning cannot be seen in a short time.
Basically, the hope of counseling is that individuals can make decisions or solve their problems once they receive direction. They will feel self-understanding, get the meaning of life, and have mental well-being. However, changes in oneself cannot be immediately seen since they depend on the process of self-acceptance.
To make it easier to understand, we will show you the table of differences between coaching, mentoring, and counseling. Here’s it!
| Coaching | Mentoring | Counseling | |
| Object of discussion | Specific, related to work & future | Spacious & future | Psychological & past |
| Who has the right | Organizational supervisors & consultants | Bosses & external parties in one industry | Psychologist |
| Results | Easy to see & fast | Can be seen in the long term | Self-understanding, mental well-being & meaning in life |
Practical Examples of Coaching, Mentoring, and Counseling
To make it easier for you to understand the difference between coaching, mentoring, and counseling, we will show you an illustration that we got from kampuspsikologi.com. Those examples will be explained using the background of an employee in the field of digital marketing named Bobi.
Here are some practical examples of coaching, mentoring, and counseling!
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- Coaching
Bobi recently moved to the digital marketing division. He is still confused about how to create content for social media platforms, especially Facebook. The company appointed a digital marketing division manager to help and direct Bobi as he learned about the basics of digital marketing on Facebook. After the coaching was over, the sales graph on Facebook continued to improve.
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- Mentoring
Bobi then sees a career in digital marketing as having great potential. At this phase, he really needs someone who is an expert and experienced in the field of digital marketing to be able to accompany him.
After that, Bobi decided to select a mentor from an external party in order to get direction about knowledge or personal matters in the digital marketing field. After becoming involved in mentorship, he finally gained many new insights into the professional world. The lessons he learned were preparation for his future career.
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- Counseling
Recently, Bobi has been suddenly dizzy and nauseous. When he sees a doctor, his psychological condition is very good. Then, he realized that the dizziness and nausea that he was feeling were caused by stress. Afterwards, he decided to see a professional to solve his psychological problems.
After going through some counseling, Bobi realized the causes of stress and began to accept her past experiences. He is no longer psychosomatic.
Well, those are practical examples of coaching, mentoring, and counseling. You may already know that coaching, mentoring, and counseling are activities for self-improvement. Of course, the issues experienced by an individual will determine the type of self-development activity. So, can you now distinguish between coaching, mentoring, and counseling?
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
