A great coach for business is the modern equivalent of a good mentor, the person who helps you understand how we really learn at work. If you have the option between coaching vs mentoring, go with the mentor. However, if a mentor is not an option, a coach is the next best thing.
If you’ve ever wished you had a mentor—a trusted advisor who could help you figure out how we really learn at work, especially in the toughest situations—you’re not alone. Most people don’t. Modern workplaces move too fast for leaders to mentor the way they used to.
That’s exactly where business coaching comes in. Coaching bridges the gap between learning by doing and learning from someone who’s been there before.
Key Takeaways for How We Really Learn at Work
| If you only have a minute | Remember this |
| Traditional mentoring is rare in today’s fast-moving workplaces. | Coaching fills that gap. |
| The 70-20-10 rule shows that most growth happens on the job—with support from a coach or mentor. | Coaching gives you that 20 percent of guided learning you can’t get from books or experience. |
| The right business coach helps you reflect, practice, and improve faster. | You get real-time learning that sticks. |
Why Coaching Has Become Essential in Modern Workplaces
Fifty years ago, employees learned by shadowing experienced leaders. Today, organizations are flatter, and work is often hybrid. The rate of change for technology and geopolitics is far more rapid. In the current business climate, mentoring is the exception, not the rule.
Yet the need hasn’t disappeared—people still need feedback, modeling, and a trusted guide that keeps them safe as they reflect, learn, stretch, and grow. Business coaching has evolved to meet that need. It offers self-reflection and accountability with the safety of mentoring. With a coach, professional structure and confidentiality are built in.
When you work with a coach, you still learn from another person’s expertise—but the focus stays on your goals, not theirs.
How We Really Learn at Work
Research on learning and performance backs this up. The 70-20-10 Rule, developed by Lombardo and Eichinger, explains how successful people actually build skills:
- 70% from on-the-job experience and experimentation
- 20% from feedback, coaching, or mentoring
- 10% from formal courses or reading
That middle 20% is where business coaching shines. Not surprisingly, feedback is where managers are often failing. According to Gallup, nearly two thirds of managers think they are giving the right feedback, but only a third of employees agree. So, nearly half of all feedback isn’t working, and about a third of feedback or reviews have a negative effect.
Coaches know that specific, future-focused feedback is what employees need to improve. With a coach, you learn how to turn everyday work into deliberate practice, and translate experience into insight. Ultimately coaching helps you transform insight into new behavior.
Why Some Skills Require a Person, Not a Program
You can learn software shortcuts from a video. But you can’t learn trust, confidence, or respect from an algorithm. And you can’t learn how to give productive and meaningful feedback from a book.
Skills like listening, emotional control, and effective decision making depend on awareness and feedback—two things that require another person. A good coach helps you notice patterns you can’t see on your own and test new approaches in real time. The right coach can give you feedback that moves you forward, and shows you how to use a coaching approach to feedback to move your team forward too. Coaching has a ripple effect, helping you improve and giving you tools to help everyone around you improve too.
Books can teach you what to do; a coach helps you discover how to do it in your own style.
The ROI of Business Coaching
Studies across industries show that leadership coaching often delivers returns up to seven times the investment. That’s because coaching accelerates the learning you’re already doing at work. Additional benefits of coaching include improving the positive effect you have on others, which makes you more valuable as a leader.
You still do the work. Coaching just helps you get more out of every challenge, every conversation, every decision.
How to Find a Business Coach Who Uses Research-Based Methods
Now you know how we really learn at work. So, when you’re looking to find a business coach, ask about their framework. The best coaches base their work on evidence—studies of leadership effectiveness, emotional intelligence, and adult learning.
You’ll know you’ve found a good one when they focus less on advice and more on helping you reflect, test, and grow.
Related Posts to How We Really Learn at Work
Keep learning about leadership coaching and how to find the right coach to help you grow in your role and reach your goals.
- Why Hire a Coach, and How to Find the Right Coach for You
- Coaching vs Teaching vs Therapy — What Is Better for Me?
- What Business Coaching Is and Why It Works: The Proven Science That Helps Good Leaders Get Even Better
FAQs for How We Really Learn at Work
Q: What’s the difference between a coach and a mentor?
A: Mentors share advice from experience; coaches help you develop your own insights and skills to achieve specific goals. Mentors are generally colleagues or former colleagues; coaches are professionals trained in leadership development.
Q: How do we really learn at work?
A: Research shows that 70% of learning happens on the job, 20% through feedback and coaching, and 10% through formal study.
Q: What is the ROI of business coaching?
A: Studies show leadership coaching can deliver returns up to seven times the investment by accelerating learning and improving results.
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