Is there a difference between a coach and a mentor?

When I was in management supervising large groups of 80 people, I coached, mentored, guided, nudged, counseled, trained, educated, instructed, and fathered until the needs of the operation were met. I like your post and description of the dynamics that are essential to getting good business results and good personal growth too...well done

Love this - Suggested - I just hired a coach and one of the things I told him in my first session was that I hope to have/attract more mentors in my life (both personally and professionally). I see the business coach as the guy who is helping me hone my personal plan and I hope to have mentors around me in my daily work life to guide and inform as I hope to do with others for whom my expertise is helpful. I love to get and to give assistance and good advice. That is one reason I am here in AR.

The real estate industry adopted words like "coach" and "team" some years ago for a number of reasons.  Adults (and Realtors in particular) don't like to think of themselves as being taught.  So a real estate educator is forced to don a warm-up jacket and carry a clipboard, pretending that they're a "coach".  Real estate folks just love sports analogies.

Lynda, I've been on the edge of hiring a coach to get my business back on track. I seem to mentor many but need a coach of my own.

As times change we might find ourselves as being the Coach and/or Mentor and then needing the Coach and/or Mentor. Either way, so long as we keep teaching and/or learning we keep growing as agents and as people. Great Post. Thanks... Mike

Lynda - Funny you should mention the zebra-striped shirt.

Last spring, I attended an education-related event in Chicago.  The day one speaker was a fairly well-known real estate educator who prefers to call himself "coach".  He showed up in class wearing the black-and-white striped referree shirt and cargo pants, with a baseball cap pulled over his forehead and a whistle around his neck.  This fellow then began "coaching" a room full of mature, experienced agents, many of whom found his presentation patronizing and dumbed-down, more of a long-winded motivational speech than a class.  People in the room began ignoring the guy and talking to one another while he was speaking. 

These "coaches" can sometimes carry their routine a bit too far.  Instead of dressing up in a clown suit in order to put their message across, they might do better if they'd concentrate on course content and curriculum and giving value.

Eric, I can remember the first real estate coach I was introduced to. Ever heard of Daryl Davis? I was at Triple Play, a real estate convention typically for NJ, NY and PA real estate agents, in 2006 for the first time in my RE career. Many agents in my office knew I was going to the convention and told me to check out Daryl Davis, one of the speakers. He was super energetic and comical. He came out to stadium style music and leaped on stage. I was, for all intents and purposes, a newbie back then and I responded to his style. He had good content and his own curriculum if you will. Of course, he was selling his one to one or group coaching sessions. I was apprehensive as to if I should buy coaching. My manager at the time said something like, "Why would you need "outside coaching." We have all that you need in our university section of our website." To your point, some real estate trainers or coaches have a style that will or will not resonate with different audiences. When you are presenting to an audience, specifically real estate audiences, you just never know where people are at in their real estate career or what style they will respond to. A good speaker knows how to read an audience and knows if he/she has to change it up. 

I agree with Lynda above. Coaching, in general albeit with us (AgentKnowHow) or someone else, is not a one-size fits all approach.  

P.S. I did eventually get coaching. I did an 8 week program with Ed Escobar called Sweathogs and it totally changed my business life. Over the course of the 8 weeks, I was forced to focus on the mechanics of real estate: dialogues, scripts, and how to prospect successfully like I had never done before. I had to face the music. When I started selling real estate, August 2005, I didn't have to know much about selling. The market was still booming in my area. But in August 2007, I started to feel the pinch. At that moment, the moment of pain, it was a feeling that I have never experience before, and unfortunately, it's almost already too late. At that point you definitely need coaching. But in your career, you shouldn't wait until your business is broken to fix it. I learned that lesson the hard way. But, I managed to get back on track and now assisting other agents do the same.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that your Black Friday won't get too stressful and mess up the rest of your weekend!