Novak Djokovic is the current world no 1 tennis player. Who was his mentor?

That is a good question. It seems that Djokovic has had a few different people as his coach/mentor. So were they his coach or his mentor?

This brings us to the topic of what is the difference between mentoring and coaching?

Whilst coaching and mentoring do share many similarities, those who are familiar with both, agree that they are quite different. But at times it can be a little confusing as the two roles do overlap each other’s as in Djokovic’s case.

To help understand this better, we have identified some key points that identify their similarities as well as differences.

Similarities:

They both:

• Assist the individual to explore their needs, motivations, desires, skills and thought processes, to be able to make helpful and meaningful changes. 
• Help the individual to clarify their thought processes, to be able to identify the necessary solutions and actions to make positive changes. 
• Help the individual with their goals and assess their progress in relation to these goals.
• Recognize a person’s commitment to take action in order to develop lasting change and personal growth.
• Maintain a supportive and non-judgmental approach to helping the person.
• Enable the person to develop professional competence and independence.
• Evaluate the outcomes to determine the person’s success in reaching their personal goals.
• Encourage the person to develop alliances where necessary to achieve their goals. 
• Address issues within their area of competence and expertise. 

Differences:

• Coaching is task orientated where the focus is on concrete issues, such as managing more effectively etc. The coach is usually a content expert who is capable of teaching the individual to develop the necessary skills to perform better. 
• Mentoring on the other hand, is relationship oriented. It requires a safe environment where mentees can share personal information, and discuss any issues affecting their professional and personal success. There needs to be a level of trust from both sides; because today there are times when reverse mentoring may take place, and mutual sharing can naturally occur as the relationship develops. 
• Coaching is a profession where coaches are generally not required to have firsthand experience of the person’s role unless the coaching is specific and skill focused. 
• Mentoring is not a profession but a relationship, where the mentor is foreseen as an “expert” based on their life experiences. In the traditional sense, mentoring required an older and wiser individual to pass on their knowledge and experience to someone more junior or less experienced; opening doors to otherwise out of reach opportunities. 
• Coaching usually focuses on high performance and improvement within the workplace and concentrates on specific goals and skills; although at times these could impact on the person’s personal attributes such as social interactions etc. 
• Mentoring on the other hand focuses more on development, not only in relation to their current job, but also for the future. 
• Coaching is a more formal procedure; whereby the coach brings an agenda, more structure and formality to the process. They also focus on specific performance issues to be addressed within a set timeframe. 
• Mentoring relationships are more relaxed and adjusts to what the situation calls for based on the immediate need. It is also less planned and more self-directed.
• The coaching process typically lasts a short period of time either defined by a specific period of time or on the basis of an on-going management arrangement.
• Mentoring relationship tend to have more relaxed timeframes, however the relationships do seem to be based on longer term arrangements.

In professional sports, one can clearly see how these two roles may overlap one another. So coming back to Novak Djokovic, Jelena Gencic was his mentor/coach as a boy, Marian Vajda his coach/mentor and Boris Becker who seems to be more his mentor/coach.

You will need to decide which works best for you, but “one thing is clear: mentoring and coaching in the workplace have shown to contribute to enhanced performance and career development, increased compensation, upward career mobility, overall career satisfaction and greater self-esteem at work.” How Coaching and Mentoring Differ

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