Where do you get your new ideas?
I thought I’d use this to shed a little light on what I see as the difference between Coaching, Mentoring … and Masterminding. Each of these can help to give you new ideas and new experiments to try. And for each of them the source of the new ideas is different.
Coaching
Lets start with Coaching. In coaching, the coach, uses their curiosity and engages in provocative conversations to reveal the coachee. to themselves. In this instance the ‘new’ ideas come the deeper understanding that arises from the coachee. By helping the coachee make new connections with their own knowledge and experience of the challenge. In this way the coachee can explore their deep connection to the challenge, reframing and revisiting their own experiences, leading to new ideas and new experiments to undertake.
Mentoring
Next lets consider Mentoring. When working with a mentor the mentee leans on the experiences and expertise of the mentor. Having a breadth of knowledge and experience within the area of the challenge, the mentor can suggest experiments and actions that the mentee may not have considered from their own understanding. In this way the mentee can learn from the experience of someone who has made the mistakes, learnt the lessons so that they avoid some dead ends.
Masterminding
While I am comparing Masterminding with both Mentoring and Coaching, it is the only one of the three activities that is at its heart a group activity. Mentoring and Coaching can be done in a group and is powerful when undertaken in that way, it is mostly undertaken in a partnership as a 1:1 activity. Masterminding involves a collaboration between individuals as a group. As with mentoring, the members of the mastermind bring their experiences and expertise to the challenge. They also bring the curiosity of a coaching relationship, helping to also reveal a deeper understanding of the challenge, assumptions and biases that may be held by the members. In this situation the ‘new’ ideas come from the GROUP, with both the member bringing the challenge and the others in the group contributing actively.
Each of these activities can be extremely powerful and I would encourage you to look for situations where you can take advantage of all of them. Mentors and coaches are vital for self improvement, but find yourself a group of like minded, open, trustworthy and supportive group and leverage the power of a Mastermind!
If you want to learn more about the AGame ‘Built to Last’ Small Business Mastermind group then
(It is not open all the time and if closed then we have a waitlist and will keep you informed when the next opportunity to apply to join comes along)
Also I do currently (as of June 2021) have a few coaching spots open so if you’d like to talk about how we can work together then … book a call and let’s start 🙂
