The field of life coaching has blown up in the last couple of years, and it has become one of the fastest-growing professions. Life coaching is all about helping people reach their best selves, but sometimes the professions confuse with membership. Both can be necessary, but they are not a substitute for each other.

Let’s compare: Life Coach vs Mentor

What is the difference between a mentor and a life coach?

Depending on your goals in life, you may need both a life coach and a mentor, but neither of these positions is interchangeable. A coach and a mentor have different jobs. A life coach is a person who is task and performance-oriented. Life coaching aims to accomplish a goal, whether it be improving your financial health or making a plan to go back to school for the career of your dreams.

On the other hand, mentorship is about creating a partnership with the one being mentored. The mentor is invested in teaching the student everything they know about a particular industry. Mentors are often experts in their particular industry, and rather than being performance-driven, they are development-driven.

When you think of hiring a life coach, it is all about setting a time frame and achieving a short-term goal. The relationship tends to be strictly professional, and the structure of communication is formal with regularly scheduled meetings.

Mentorship differs from this because it tends to be a long-term, fluid relationship that is driven by the development of the mentee. While these relationships can be professional, they are informal and unstructured.

Put simply, if your client is looking to learn from an expert in their chosen field, you may want to direct them to a mentor. It’s important to know your limitations and not try to take on every single project. If you are still in the beginning stages of developing and marketing your business, you may be interested in our Certified Coach Program to hone your life coaching skills and develop a thriving practice in just six months.