Mentoring is a broader, more general process of guidance whereby a more experienced individual helps a person take the necessary steps to develop in and advance his or her career. Although this may include some coaching, it more often focuses on analysis and advice, and on helping the person being mentored by sharing contacts, providing introductions to people to whom the junior person may not otherwise have access, or putting in a good word for the employee with people in a position to offer assistance or employment.

Although managers sometimes try to act as mentors, and employees sometimes try formally to get senior people in their organizations to act as mentors – and some companies set up formal mentoring programs – this is not always particularly successful, because a true mentoring relationship is a much more personal one than the average manager-employee relationship or than that which results when a senior person is paired with a less senior one. As such...