Seeking Career or Life Advice? Here’s How These 3 Options Could Help

It’s an empowering step to decide that you want to get help in your career or life, but once you start to search for support, the options can quickly feel overwhelming. Not only do you need to choose the right person, but you also need to decide between executive coaches, mentors and licensed mental health professionals.

If you’re a leader feeling stuck, how do you decide whether you should invest in executive coaching, mentoring, therapy or all three? In this article, I break down the similarities, the key differences and how these approaches can be strategically woven together to maximize your professional and personal growth.

Executive coaching

Executive coaching is like having a confidential sounding board or mirror when you’re navigating uncertainty, stretching into growth opportunities or simply wanting another perspective. Common topics you might explore with a coach include:

• Navigating relationship dynamics with difficult colleagues
• Improving your skills as a manager, leader and coach
• Combatting feelings of imposter syndrome and strengthening your confidence
• Managing your time and energy, including delegation and team empowerment
• Elevating your presentation skills, influence and impact within and beyond your company

While far from exhaustive, you’ll notice that these topics tend to center on leadership growth and overall manager effectiveness. An executive coach won’t usually hand you the answers. Instead, they’ll partner with you to uncover what’s working well, identify what you might need to change, keep you accountable through the process and provide tools and resources to accelerate your progress.

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Mentorship

Mentorship is typically provided by someone who is further along in their career. The support tends to be more advice-driven and one-directional, though reverse mentoring flips this dynamic.

Compared to coaching, you’ll find that the topics you explore with a mentor are often very specific:

• “How do I handle X situation?”
• “Can you tell me how you’ve done Y in the past?”
• “I want to run Z by you and get your advice…”

Whereas a coach would typically respond with open-ended questions to empower you to generate your own solution, a mentor will usually offer concrete advice that is based on their experience. This can be incredibly helpful when their path mirrors yours, but may feel limiting if your challenges differ or you crave more exploration.

Therapy

Therapy is a powerful tool for more deeply understanding who you are and learning to cope with the challenges of life. In the context of work, a therapist can help you effectively process stressors and navigate complex dynamics.

A trained mental health professional can support you with:

• Receiving a formal mental health evaluation or diagnosis for workplace accommodations or a leave of absence
• Processing difficult feelings, emotions or trauma, or managing persistent hopelessness
• Addressing active suicidal ideation, self-harming behaviors or an eating disorder
• Recovering after a hospitalization for a mental health or substance use disorder

Just as with coaches and mentors, there are many types of therapists with different specialties and approaches. You’ll want to find a therapist who best aligns with your therapy goals.

Related: Entrepreneurs Are Struggling With Mental Illness. Here are 5 Ways to Manage Your Mental Health As An Entrepreneur

How executive coaching, mentoring and therapy can come together

Coaching, mentoring and therapy aren’t either-or choices. They’re natural complements, especially when you’re an executive looking to grow in your career. Many top leaders use coaching to identify their goals and stay accountable, mentorship to gain wisdom and potential shortcuts from someone who’s been there and therapy to process the difficult emotions and feelings that surface along the journey.

There’s also a common misconception that coaches only focus on the future and therapists only on the present. As someone who regularly trains coaches on how to be more effective in supporting leaders and employees, this is oversimplified and far from reality. In reality, both can flex. Coaches may delve into the past and help you explore recurring patterns holding you back. Therapists may help you set future goals and hold you accountable. The difference is their scope, not their timeframe.

At the end of the day, it’s ultimately up to you who you work with. Try not to get caught up in searching for one practitioner who checks every box. Many of my clients engage in coaching while also meeting mentors and working with one (or even two) therapists. The work you do in one setting can complement and amplify the work you do in another. You’ve got this!

It’s an empowering step to decide that you want to get help in your career or life, but once you start to search for support, the options can quickly feel overwhelming. Not only do you need to choose the right person, but you also need to decide between executive coaches, mentors and licensed mental health professionals.

If you’re a leader feeling stuck, how do you decide whether you should invest in executive coaching, mentoring, therapy or all three? In this article, I break down the similarities, the key differences and how these approaches can be strategically woven together to maximize your professional and personal growth.