Michael Fox
Mentoring can be a valuable strategy and tool for fostering your professional and personal growth. It helps individuals navigate career paths, build skills, understand industry nuances, and gain insights from the mentor's wisdom and past experience.
I start all mentoring by asking you to schedule a first call and a 3 month commitment with calls every 2 weeks.
6
sessions to start
2x
per month
$0
first call
3
month commitment to start
During the first call we will introduce ourselves, discuss relevant experiences, share backgrounds, goals, and specific areas where you are seeking guidance.
This call is a space for both of us to align on your objectives and my role in helping you to achieve them.
Additionally, we will discuss the preferred mode of communication, frequency of meetings, and any potential concerns.
These calls are typically a blend of professional discussion and personal interaction.
After Our First Call
Ongoing calls involve a structured yet flexible dialogue that focuses on your progress, challenges, and goals. You share updates on your actions since the last meeting, discuss successes and stumbling blocks, and seek advice on specific situations or decisions.
In turn, I provide feedback, insights, and guidance, sharing relevant personal experiences and resources. Sometimes these calls may also involve brainstorming sessions, role-plays, or skill-building exercises depending on your needs.
Over time, the conversations contribute to your personal and professional growth and deepen the mentor-mentee relationship.
How does mentoring differ than coaching?
Mentoring is a long-term process based on mutual trust and respect. Mentors are a senior, experienced individual who provides guidance, share knowledge, and uses their personal experience in a specific area to support the mentee's personal and professional growth.
Mentoring often evolves into a personal relationship, extending beyond the immediate learning goals and involving holistic career and life advice.
Coaching is generally more structured, short-term, and goal-oriented. A coach does not necessarily need to have personal experience in the coachee's field. Coaches apply specific techniques and tools to improve their coachee's performance in a specific area or help them overcome a particular problem.
Coaching often remains confined to the set objectives and does not extend to personal life or career guidance in the broader sense.
- Experience and Expertise: A mentor typically has a wealth of experience and expertise in a specific field or industry. They are often well-positioned to provide guidance based on their own career paths, mistakes, and successes. This type of personal and anecdotal guidance can be invaluable for a mentee but is not typically part of a coaching relationship.
- Long-term Relationship: Mentoring usually involves building a long-term professional relationship, which can be mutually beneficial and rewarding. The mentor gets the satisfaction of helping someone grow, while also learning from the fresh perspectives of the mentee.
- Less Structured: Mentoring is typically less structured than coaching. While coaching usually involves specific goals, strategies, and timelines, mentoring can be more flexible, allowing the relationship to evolve organically over time based on the mentee's needs.
- Holistic Approach: Mentors often provide guidance on broader aspects of career development and life beyond the immediate work scope, whereas coaches typically focus on specific performance goals or issues.