Know your learning objective

I remember the days when I took weeks to reach upto my Teacher to get a doubt cleared. But today, my 8 year old son, the moment he wants to know something, he immediately reaches out to my mobile and seeks information in seconds, just by a finger tap.

Like Air, Information is around us and like Oxygen, Learning is Key for our survival today. 

If we are not a little bit uncomfortable everyday, we're not growing. All the good stuff is outside our comfort zone. 

~ Jack Canfield

The web-world and technology has made learning experiential, easy, interactive, and just a tap away.

But having information is just not enough. We always need a GURU to explain, help us understand & transform. Each of us has a different requirement, a different style of learning, a different level of comfort using technology, a different  culture, a different way of relating to work.

To keep us on pace with the growing requirements and ever changing demands, we need to have a clear understanding  of different methods of learning available and choose the method that suits our requirements and needs.

Training, Coaching and Mentoring are the three corporate buzz words of Learning from a Guru. Often, we use these terms interchangeably. This makes it difficult to plan or measure the right outcome. Let us closely examine these terms and understand the difference.

Training

Training, whether it is class-room training, online training, webinars, a guru, in this senario, the Trainer, teaches us a particular skill or type of behavior through practice and instruction.

Examplese for this can be new-hire Orientation, upgrading new technology, upgrading new skill, focusing on a few behavioral attributes, learning new regulations and more.

The key characteritics of Training are:

• Learning Objective Focused
• To impart desired knowledge and skill (identified during skill-gap analysis)
• Targetted to a group of audience
• Defined and structured approach of delivery

Training is  more about Telling, instructing, answering. Trainer is often an expert of the subject and imparts his knowledge to the participants. They help the participants find solutions for their problems. They guide them with a suggested approach to implement.

Coaching

Coaching is exactly opposite to training. It is an approach that enables the learning to occur and thus helps in performance improvement. Here, the coach is not an expert. Coach doesn't give answers, instead, asks questions. Coach explores the present of the coachee and helps him design his future. However, Coach doesn't teach.

The key characteristics of Coaching:

• Development Focused
• Caters to Individual needs and requirments
• Usually happens One-to-One
• More informal yet can be structured
• Helps to improve performance and behavior

Coaching is about listening and not telling. It acts as a catalyst to the coachees to have a deeper understanding about themselves. A coach may take an independent and different approach for every coachee. 

Mentoring

Mentoring on the other hand is sharing the experience. A mentor helps a mentee to develop specific skills and knowledge for their professional growth and advancement.

Key Characteristics of Mentoring:

• Specific Niche Focused
• Individual and Requirment based
• One-on-One interactions
• Resolve career-based issues

Mentors often lead by examples, are focused and are subject matter experts. Mentoring helps in long-term career development of a mentee.

By understand our requirment, learning objective and defining our learning outcome, it is important to choose a right method of learning. While Training and Mentoring are for professional skill development, Coaching helps in overall personal development, performance improvement, career building, professional development and self-empowerment.

Success doesn't come to you. You go to it.

Marva Collins

Choose your right method of learning by understanding your exact learning requirment.