Although both types of executive coaching are evident in the management development field, it appears that the former predominates today. This may be as a result of the powerful demand for management development processes that deliver measurable improvements in performance and business results.

At Cornerstone we believe that a unique combination of the two forms sets our work apart and ensures greater levels of success with our executive clients. We believe that the combination of the two deepens and enriches the process and, in our experience, propels the coaching client into a deeper more introspective process seldom seen in stand-alone Performance or Development Coaching models.

Further benefits of the combined styles is evidenced in our clients being more easily able to complete the coaching engagement with our coaches with measurable performance improvements; and, pursue a "new" role as coaches themselves by engaging more with their own direct reports in more of a coaching and mentoring capacity then they had experienced previously.

This dynamic serves our clients and their organizations in a two-fold capacity; first, it ensures that the changes we have helped the client create are lasting and, we co-create a model within our client organizations that creates less reliance on outside consultancy. This increased internal capacity - or "bench strength" - further increases the likelihood of successful succession among managers and other emerging organizational leaders.

By contrast, mentoring, he says, is,

"... always one step removed and is concerned with the longer-term acquisition of skills in a developing career by a form of advising and counseling."

The widely accepted distinction between coaching and mentoring, thereby, can be seen in two ways:

They have different purposes, coaching being short-term performance improvement, and mentoring being long-term career development; they require different methods - coaches 'instruct' and mentors 'counsel'

In fact, the way in which Parsloe defines the purpose and methodology of mentoring makes it look similar in some respects to what he have defined here as "developmental coaching". In other words, mentoring is really not distinct from coaching at all if one takes a broader view of coaching - encompassing both of Socrates' notions of education - learning to perform and learning how to learn.

The Cornerstone model of coaching, therefore, embraces the characteristics of both developmental and performance styles of coaching. Our approach to executive coaching is:

A process between a coach and a learner, which seeks to enhance the client's capacity to maximize his/her potential to learn as a manager and leader and/or, to improve performance in specific areas of management and leadership. And, to bring that learning to the next level - developing increased bench strength to ensure successful management and leadership succession.

The methods used by our coaching team in this process can range from facilitation of the learner's self-awareness of how to grow and develop to more structured, directive techniques such as clarifying expectations, identifying shortfalls, pinpointing a desired higher level of performance, agreeing on strategies of achieving this level and confirming commitment to the learning process.