Playing with Words

Mentor, coach, advise, consult, council, teach, facilitate, train, tutor: We’ve been utilizing these words in our Train the Trainer programs in which we work with coaches of small and medium businesses, entrepreneurial coaches, and mentors.

As an organization that supports coaching mentoring, teaching, training, and facilitation, we have learned that the understanding of the person leading these sessions and what comes with these words can elevate the impact you have on the entrepreneurs.

We like the approach of a coach, mentor, or facilitator, working with entrepreneurs and leaders of small and medium businesses we have learned that the better you understand them, the better you can serve them. When we think about teaching, facilitating, training or tutoring, we are all have one thing in common — sharing information with the participant. It’s not really about what you are doing — it’s about how you are doing it and what words you use to do it.

Think about “Teacher.” The teacher has information about a subject they have studied. They want to pass that information to someone that may have no information about it.

“Facilitator” assumes everyone has information, and they want to facilitate a discussion around that topic. They don’t have to be experts, although having a depth in the topic can add value to the participant.

A “Trainer,” meanwhile, takes someone through a specific process that will help them get to their finish line.

A “Tutor” walks them through something on a specific topic or project. It’s similar to a Trainer.

From our perspective, similar to the mentor and coach we like the support of the idea that you may want to think about facilitating when you are running a training program or facilitation training program or working with a small group of entrepreneurs or startups. The assumption that each of them already has some basic info is important. Add your teaching methods or training methods when you feel that they need it or they ask for it based on their reflections of what you got from the facilitation during that session.

BEFORE YOU GO

We see our blogs as opportunities for dialogue. Please share your thoughts as comments.

1. Do you teach, facilitate, train or tutor?

2. Revisit your definitions of mentor/coach/advise/consult

3. What other tools or methods have you used to keep engaging with your entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders?