Are you teaching your team how to do the things they need to get done for their role? Are you spending your time training everyone to take tasks so you can work on other things? If so, are you mentoring those people?
We use the term “mentoring” quite frequently when we talk about teaching skills and training for the short term. However, that behavior is more appropriately attributed to coaching. I’m not talking about the kind of coaching that you see from Bill Belichick. Instead, I’m talking about the textbook definition of coaching and how it differs from the long-term kind of work that it takes to be a true mentor.
Are you really coaching instead of mentoring? How can you tell the difference? And does everyone need to be mentored?
