A coach, a sponsor, a mentor, and a boss walk into a bar.
How can you serve, and where do you need support?
A coach, a sponsor, a mentor, and a boss walk into a bar.
She sits down.
Bum-cha!! 🥁
Sorry. Sorry.
Here’s what I’m getting at: Ideally, those roles are inhabited by different folks and we have a veritable stable of professional coaches, mentors, cheerleaders, and advocates - both for ourselves and for the teams we manage.
But, in reality, many managers are now or have in the past performed all of these roles for their teams at once. 🙋🏼♀️
Across multiple eps of Content People Season 1, I talked to coaches, mentors, bosses, and career strategists. I was curious about how they’d define and advise on the differences between these roles. Here’s what they had to say:
A Mentor. Someone who has done exactly what you’re doing right now. They have exceptional insight into your experience and can offer very good advice.
As Dina Denham Smith said in Episode 11: “A mentor is somebody who has walked your path before and can provide guidance from a ‘been there, done that’ perspective.”
A Coach. Someone who supports self-discovery by asking the right questions. They also support progress through consistency and accountability - you will meet regularly and likely have some homework between sessions.
In Episode 10, Ellen Gillis defined a coach as: “That neutral party, asking questions to get at the heart of the matter, the goal, the challenge. And it’s really about not advising without permission.”
A Sponsor. Someone in a position of power and influence who sees significant potential in you and advocates for your advancement.
Here’s how Kimberly Brown described it when we talked (Episode 5): “Sponsors pick you up from where you are and put you where you rightfully belong. [With a sponsor] you can skip levels and skip processes because your sponsor has the power to make that happen.”
A Manager. Pretty straight-forward. You know this one. Managers have a job to do. They’re accountable for achieving results from the people and resources they oversee.
As Brianna de L’airre said in Episode 7: “You coach to behaviors and manage to results.”
Good questions for managers to ask themselves and their teams:
→ Which role can you play for the folks in your network?
→ Where do you need to make an effort to find additional support for yourself?
PS - If you want to check out these eps you can find all of Season 1 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.