A time to grow
Coaching and Mentoring
Growing in wisdom, with and through others.
Some of life’s most important discoveries happen in conversation with another person. A thoughtful question can reveal something we have overlooked. Someone else’s experience can help us see new possibilities. And sometimes, a relationship or team needs to understand itself differently before a way forward becomes clear.
We offer individual coaching, systems coaching, and mentoring. Each brings a different kind of attention and support to the larger work of helping people grow in understanding, judgement, and their capacity to do worthwhile things together.
Individual Coaching
Discovering your own way forward.
Coaching begins with the person, not simply the problem they bring. Our coaches listen deeply, offer observations, and ask questions that invite people to examine their assumptions, recognize their strengths, and discover new possibilities.
Sometimes this means clarifying a difficult choice. Sometimes it involves recognizing familiar habits, exploring competing commitments, or finding the courage to approach an old challenge differently.
We offer a professional partnership grounded in trust, curiosity, and honest challenge. We may question familiar assumptions, reflect back patterns, and invite people beyond their customary ways of thinking. They remain free to accept, question, or decline those invitations. Their choices, and their lives, remain their own.
Systems Coaching
Seeing the relationships that shape our lives and work.
People do not live or work in isolation. Relationships develop familiar patterns: ways of communicating, making decisions, handling differences, and responding to change. Some strengthen trust and cooperation. Others leave people feeling unheard, frustrated, or stuck.
Systems coaching attends to these relationships themselves. We help teams, partnerships, and other groups notice how they interact, listen to different perspectives, and recognize patterns that may be difficult to see from within.
We make room for honest conversations, including differences that have gone unspoken. We pay attention to whose voices are heard, whose concerns may be overlooked, and how differences in responsibility or authority shape the conversation. As people develop a clearer understanding of their relationships and shared responsibilities, they can discover and practise different ways of working together.
Mentoring
Sharing wisdom gained through experience.
Wisdom grows when it is shared. Our mentors bring experience from business, public service, education, healthcare, the arts, and other fields. They offer perspectives shaped by what they have learned, including what worked, what did not, and what they might do differently.
Good mentoring involves more than giving advice. It requires listening, curiosity, generosity, and respect for the other person’s circumstances. A mentor can offer experience and perspective without assuming that another person’s path should resemble their own.
We also help organizations cultivate mentoring relationships and programmes, preparing mentors, supporting meaningful connections, and creating opportunities for knowledge and experience to be shared across roles and generations.
What this can strengthen
- Greater self-awareness, clarity, and confidence in making choices.
- The ability to examine assumptions and respond thoughtfully to challenges.
- Stronger relationships, more constructive conversations, and shared responsibility.
- The exchange of experience, knowledge, and wisdom across roles and generations.
- People’s capacity to support one another’s learning and development.
What the work may involve
Individual coaching usually involves a series of confidential conversations shaped by the person’s circumstances, values, questions, and aspirations. Reflection, assessments, and experiments between sessions may contribute to the work when appropriate.
Systems coaching may involve listening across a team or relationship, exploring recurring patterns, facilitating conversations, and helping people develop shared understandings and agreements they can carry into everyday life.
Mentoring may involve individual relationships, support for people taking on mentoring responsibilities, or the design and development of organizational mentoring programmes.
We begin by understanding what is needed and agreeing on a suitable approach. The work may be in person or virtual, with opportunities for reflection and practice between conversations. Sometimes one approach is sufficient; sometimes a thoughtful combination serves people better.
People behind this work
Individual Coaching
Practice Leads
Andrew Bartley
Leanna Barwick
Olivier Larvor
Patricia McGee
Marlaine Pretorius
Jan Smith
Catherine Stagg-Macey
Systems Coaching
Practice Leads
Mentoring
Practice Team
Questions (8)
What is the difference between coaching and mentoring?
Coaching is a professional partnership that primarily helps people develop their own awareness, understanding, choices, and ways forward. Rather than supplying answers, the coach uses listening, inquiry, and reflection to support the person’s thinking and development.
Mentoring draws more directly on another person’s experience, perspective, and guidance. A mentor may offer suggestions, share lessons learned, or help someone understand unfamiliar circumstances.
Both rely on trust, respect, curiosity, and good listening. Depending on the relationship and the circumstances, elements of both may be helpful. We make the role and expectations clear.
What is systems coaching, and how is it different from individual coaching?
Individual coaching focuses primarily on the person being coached.
Systems coaching focuses on the relationships and patterns among people. Rather than working with one person’s understanding of a team or relationship, it invites those involved to examine how they interact and what they may be creating together.
It can be useful when a team, partnership, or group needs to understand recurring tensions, strengthen cooperation, or discover new ways of working together.
How is systems coaching different from Team Development?
Systems coaching is one of the approaches we may use in Team Development. It places particular attention on the relationship system itself: the patterns, interactions, and different perspectives that shape what people experience together.
Team Development may also involve experiential activities, facilitated learning, practical skill development, and other approaches suited to the team’s circumstances.
The two are closely connected, and an engagement may draw on both.
Can leaders use coaching and mentoring skills in their everyday work?
Yes. Listening carefully, asking thoughtful questions, offering useful observations, and sharing experience appropriately can strengthen everyday leadership.
However, a supervisor’s coaching conversations are not identical to an independent professional coaching relationship. Differences in authority, responsibility, confidentiality, and expectations need to be understood.
We help leaders develop judgement about when to ask, when to share experience, and when clearer direction is needed.
When we serve in more than one capacity, such as coaching, mentoring, or facilitation, we make clear which role we are taking and what those involved can expect of us. If our role changes, we discuss and agree on the new expectations.
Can you help us establish a mentoring programme?
Yes. We can help clarify the programme’s purpose, identify the people and relationships it is intended to serve, consider how mentors and mentees are brought together, and prepare participants for their roles.
We can also help establish expectations, support relationships as they develop, and consider what would make the programme useful and sustainable.
Are your coaches credentialed?
Yes. All Different Wisdom practitioners offering professional coaching hold credentials from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Our systems coaching team also includes practitioners who hold the Organization and Relationship Systems Certified Coach (ORSCC) designation.
Mentoring is a distinct practice. Our mentors bring relevant experience, knowledge, and judgement, but are not required to hold professional coaching credentials.
How do confidentiality and organizational sponsorship work?
We establish clear agreements about the purpose of coaching, the responsibilities of everyone involved, confidentiality, and what information may be shared.
When an organization sponsors individual coaching, the person receiving coaching remains our coaching client. We may confirm session dates or attendance with the sponsor as agreed, but do not report the content of coaching conversations without the client’s authorization, except where disclosure is required or otherwise permitted under applicable legal and ethical obligations.
Systems coaching requires particular care because several people may be involved, sometimes with different responsibilities or levels of authority. We clarify these expectations before beginning and revisit them when circumstances change.
How long does the work take, and what does it cost?
That depends on the people involved, the purpose of the engagement, and the kind of support required.
After an initial conversation, we can propose an approach, duration, and fee for consideration.
Pay It Forward
We stand on the shoulders of giants.
Whenever possible, we offer discounted rates to under-resourced organizations.
We are grateful to servant leaders who have guided us through our own seasons of change.
In their spirit, we strive to make our services more accessible by offering discounted rates to under-resourced organizations whenever possible. We especially hope to support organizations serving 2SLGBTQI+ people, people with developmental disabilities or mental health needs, migrant workers, refugees, and youth, as well as Indigenous-led organizations and those serving Indigenous communities.
If you are an individual facing financial barriers that have kept you from accessing coaching, mentoring, or learning opportunities, we would be happy to discuss options.
Please reach out to explore how we might serve alongside you or your team.
Curious about your next steps?
Start a conversation.
Whether you’re seeking coaching, mentoring, or support in developing others, we’d be glad to explore what might serve you best.
