Mentoring & Coaching
Cornell offers mentoring and coaching programs to staff and faculty. Both provide personalized guidance that can boost your skills and help you advance in your career goals.
Mentoring vs. Coaching: How To Choose What's Right For You
Mentoring
- Mentoring serves the client as a trusted advisor and guide
- Short-term
- Informal, flexible
- Skills-Based (i.e., learn about a particular type of work, such as websites or project management)
- Anyone can be a mentor (Learn about being a mentor!)
- You choose your mentor or are matched in Workday
- Mentors have answers for your questions
- "I know what I want to learn about"
- Good choice for: employees seeking to expand skills, take on new projects, improve performance
Coaching
- Coaching holds the client as their own resource for answers
- Four to six month program, meeting every 2-3 weeks
- Structured
- Focused on developing behaviors or "soft skills" (i.e., working smarter not harder, developing decision-making or strategic skills)
- Coaches are professionally certified and confidential
- Coaches are assigned individually through Organizational Development and Effectiveness and may involve a sponsor
- Coaches ask you questions to help you explore, think, discover, and grow
- "I want to be better, but I'm not sure what I need"
- Good choice for: new roles, feeling stagnant or blocked, understanding what you need to do to move from "x" position to "y" position