While clear distinctions must be drawn between the roles of counseling, consulting and coaching, in reality, these three roles often overlap. In some cases, we find that two or all three of these roles are blended in a single initiative. In other cases, the person who serves in a helping role will shift from one role to another, depending on the needs and roles played by her colleague. While there is considerable overlap between coaching, counseling and consulting, there also are some clear demarcations.
For instance, Sperry states that: “coaching primarily involves the teaching of skills in the context of a personal relationship with a learner.”[ii] Furthermore, coaching “is the most useful means of teaching human relations skills.” He distinguishes coaching from counseling and consultation: coaching does not require a deep level of self-disclosure on the part of the employee nor is there a need for a close personal bond coupled with confidentiality. Coaches, according to Sperry, provide feedback to their clients with respect to their performance in a number of different settings. Coaching can also be employed as a means of team building.
This brief introduction to both mentoring and coaching will have to suffice in this broad survey of strategies for promoting employee development. Before leaving these approaches there is one additional point to be made. This concerns the ways in which mentoring and coaching activities are supported by the organization. Are mentors and coaches paid for their services or are they compensated in some other manner? There is presently no one widely accepted policy with regard to this issue. In some organizations, mentors and coaches are paid. This is particularly the case with coaching, especially when the coach comes from outside the organization.
It is interesting to note that the funds for paid coaching services often do not come from the organization’s training or education budget. Rather, coaching is often treated as a component of the employee benefit program. Hence it is placed in the same budget category as health insurance, disability and retirement funds and Employee Assistance Programs. This is worth keeping in mind, especially if a HR director wishes to establish a coaching program but is strapped for HRD funds. This director may wish to redefine the coaching services as an employee benefit and seek funding from this different and often much larger pool of money.
Mentors and internal coaches are usually not paid directly for their services. Typically, there is no direct pay for services rendered; rather, the mentors and coaches inside most organizations are compensated indirectly, if at all. As in the case of employees who are asked to take a few days off from their current job to provide some training, the mentor or internal coach is often given some release time to provide the services. It is assumed, in such cases, that the mentor or coach will benefit the organization through the provision of these services. Furthermore, mentoring and peer coaching programs yield the same indirect benefits as peer-based training programs: the employee who is providing the mentoring or coaching will often learn as much or more than the employee who is receiving the mentoring or coaching services.
