When to use training, mentoring and coaching at work is important as each of these staff development approaches are different. These terms are used interchangeably at work by most so it is easy to be unsure of the differences between training mentoring and coaching.

 I hope everyone has experienced training as it is widely used in most business as the go to method of staff development. Training is the cheapest method of development mainly as it is short in duration (hours to a few days) and can be given to many people at once.

 Mentoring and coaching are both different to training in many respects and usually occur on a one-on-one basis. Mentoring is an expert giving tailored advice and help to a less experience person. Mentoring is a form of training on a personalised basis. 

 Coaching is facilitating a person’s learning. The coach does not need to an expert which is required by training and mentoring. The person being coach creates the solution, driving much higher ownership of the solution and retention of the learning.

 Coaching vs mentoring is quite different, though as you might expect, both mentoring and coaching can be used in the same development session.

 So how to use training mentoring and coaching at work. Which development method you choose depends on several factors:

1.      How many people you need to develop

2.      What the skills and attitudes are of those being developed

3.      The skills and knowledge you need to improve

4.      The importance of the learning being retained

5.      The time you have available to develop others

6.      The budget you have available

 These 6 factors help you decide on training vs mentoring vs coaching.

  Mentoring and coaching are both time intensive, are highly personalised forms of development and give you significantly better results in terms of skills, solutions, and knowledge retention. 

 How to drive team performance depends a lot of assessing what skills gaps can be closed by each development method. Identifying and then coming up with a clear plan of how to close the gaps and why these will give you increased team performance.