Coaching, Mentoring and Therapy are productive journeys anybody can take. Often, we mistake one for the other. Before I started coaching, I prided myself as a leader who can coach my teams well. Little did I know that I still had so much to learn to be truly effective at coaching. Most leaders, in my experience largely mentor and advice.
A mentor will often come up with something that has worked for them in the past that may help their mentee. Often a mentor has a specific experience you want to derive from (e.g. leadership, marketing, etc) or may be more senior or more experienced than you on the topic, industry or circumstance.
A therapist or counsellor will deal with emotional or psychological trauma. Often they provide direct advice, medication or a way of coping with a mental health challenge.
A coach on the other hand, will guide the conversation so you can come up with the answers that are authentic to you, within your context, guided by your own values. I know of people who are unable to bring their anxieties to a therapist because of the stigma attached to this is most cultures. If your anxieties are preventing you to function or have become debilitating, always seek the help of a counsellor or therapist. However, sometimes these anxieties are only the result of a yearning for something more meaningful or a change we need in our lives.
Coaching is a good first stop. Often people think of coaches as question factories, shooting them left, right and centre. It is not always the case. Coaches will give you space to reflect on your own language, patterns and limiting beliefs. They will challenge you when necessary and encourage you to celebrate parts of who you are that you have not even looked at for a long time.
To me, being in a coaching space is like being in your own playground where you can test your own beliefs and challenge your own assumptions, where you can dream your biggest dreams and mourn and accept your failures and where you can get the will and the courage to move forward towards what truly matters to you.
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