May FAQ – Should I get a Mentor or a Coach?
One Friday each month, I dedicate the post to looking at some questions I have heard recently from developing leaders. Sharing those questions and my thoughts for them is a way for me to spread the information to as many leaders and future leaders as possible. If you have a question about leadership, or just a situation you would like some additional insight on, please email me at Effective Retail Leader. Let’s take a look at this week’s question.
I want to improve my personal development, should I get a mentor or a coach?
Yes is the short answer. The longer, better answer is more complex than that. Finding a mentor or coach doesn’t have to be as complicated or expensive as it sounds, either. There are ways to find support and continue your development without huge investments or spending a lot of time finding just the right person for that support role.
What’s the difference between the two?
Mentor
Mentors can be either someone inside your organization or external to your company. Think of a mentor as a professional friend that can listen and help talk through any issues that you face. Typically, a mentor for development purposes would not be your immediate supervisor or someone in your direct command chain. People in those roles can serve as people to learn from, but as a true mentor, it could muddy some waters (in my opinion). Mentors may have a vested interest in your career track even before you begin the mentorship relationship, but almost certainly will take a significant interest in your progression once the relationship is initiated.
In many instances, the best mentors are internal to your organization, or certainly within your industry (other retailers), so that they will have a good understanding of your day-to-day environment. I am a firm believer that leadership transcends any business, but there is no replacement for truly understanding what it is like to be running a retail store, district, or region. Mentors are listeners. Mentors are curious. Mentors should ask a lot of questions. Their experience is where the benefits truly come from. They can help to guide the mentoree based on asking good questions, listening to what is being said, and steering the learner through a path to their own answers.
Mentors are also great for bouncing ideas off of, chatting through your thought processes to get feedback, without a feeling of judgment or performance pressure. Mentors should allow for open dialogue where any question can be asked, and most often thought-provoking questions can be pushed back to the learner.
Coach
Coaches can also be internal or external. The nature of coaching should allow for both to be beneficial. After all, I would argue that your supervisor should be a coach to you. Peers can be a coach to you. Anyone else in your organization can be a coach for you. That doesn’t mean that getting some additional outside help wouldn’t be helpful.
Coaches are more likely to provide direction and specific guidance, versus a mentor who is likely to ask you as many questions back as you ask of them. Coaching can do some of the same, but tends to lean more towards helping to show the way. Coaching also is led more by observation than what I would call ‘coffee-shop discussions’ that you likely would have with a mentor. There is a difference between someone watching your actions in real time versus you explaining what happened after the fact to someone else. Nothing replaces the first-hand experience of seeing and hearing what actually took place. Again, that scenario is more likely to occur with a supervisor or peer acting as a coach versus someone external.
Finally, you should expect a coach to push you forward and expect results. Even coaches you pay for (external to your company) play the role of holding you accountable to what you want to accomplish. It is almost like a trainer you hire at a gym. Their job isn’t to make you feel better about exercising, it is to push you into new routines that will make you better. Yes, they can be a cheerleader, but they will push you to achieve your goals as well. If you don’t reach those new levels, you’ll end up questioning what value they add, so they will push to get you to where you said you wanted to go. Embrace that in your leadership coach as well. They are not there as a friend, they are there to help you get better.
What are the benefits?
The benefits of both having a coach or mentor are very much the same — your personal growth and development. Both are there to help you make improvements in areas that you want to improve. Depending on your situation, this can even be assigned to help you improve (which could be part of a performance improvement plan), or it could be part of a development plan to prepare you for additional responsibilities. Personally, I think that anyone aspiring to reach the next level, especially from the Store Manager to a District Manager type role, should have a coach and mentor to help make that transition. It is a bigger gap than most people realize, and it can be hard to adjust to managing and leading on-site to managing and leading from afar.
Whether you engage in a mentoring or coaching program, or both, it will be an investment in time. You should expect a return on that time investment, but you’ll also have to do the work. That may be the biggest benefit that comes from actively engaging in a program. You’ll learn how to manage time better, take feedback and act on it, build discipline to new processes, and acknowledge your progress in your development. All of those are critical growth oriented developmental steps, and significant benefits of utilizing a mentor or coach.
Do I have to pay for coaches?
Professional coaching will cost money, and in some cases, a lot. Executive coaches can be upwards of six-figures annually for a coaching program. For almost any retail field leader, that would be well above the affordable range. However, you can find smaller programs that come at a lower cost and can be done on a more as needed basis. You may also be able to find group programs that can make it much more affordable, the trade off being personalization of the program you’re involved in.
That said, I think you can also find ways to ‘get coaching’ without spending a lot of money. If there are specific areas you are looking to improve in, start researching those topics through Google searches or online videos. There are also numerous learning options online for courses in leadership topics. LinkedIn Learning is a great resource to start with and is a reasonable cost. A service like Skill Share is another affordable option. Many business leaders have courses on their own websites and often contain free resources to try out before having to commit to lengthy or monthly payments. They may also have free webinars where you can chat with likeminded leaders to make additional connections.
Mastermind groups could be another affordable option, and frequently they are virtual in nature, making them easier to attend and affordable for many more people. Again, through some research in areas you are most interested in can yield plenty of options that would fit any budget based on your current and desired position. Don’t be afraid to invest in yourself and your future. It can also be a great way to ensure you hold yourself accountable to using the tools and resources you pay for.
The most important thing you can do for yourself whether you work with a mentor or coach is to be honest with yourself, and take time to plan the actions you will take. Then, do it. If there is one piece of advice I would give my younger-self (and still good advice for my current-self), is make this time to take the actions you know you need to take to make a difference for yourself and your development. It is too easy to let ‘the job’ get in the way of doing the job even better.
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