How does mentoring differ from coaching?

Mentoring is characterized by its focus on long-term development and capabilities. Unlike coaching, which typically addresses specific skills or tasks and may have a more hands-on, performance-focused approach, mentoring emphasizes guiding an individual’s overall growth, career advancement, and personal development. Mentors often draw from their own experiences to help mentees navigate challenges and build skills that will benefit them over time, fostering a deeper understanding of their career paths and helping to cultivate leadership qualities.

This long-term perspective allows mentees to explore broader topics such as professional identity and networking while also reinforcing foundational skills. The depth and duration of these relationships enable mentees to gain insights that contribute to their development as professionals, rather than just focusing on the immediate tasks at hand.

This distinction sets mentoring apart from other forms of developmental relationships, making option C the accurate representation of how mentoring operates in contrast to coaching, which is typically more focused on short-term goals.