What’s the difference between coaching, mentorship and sponsorship? At NAREIM’s Hispanic Real Estate Roundtable held in New York City this week, the conversation focused on this strategic question, with both speakers and attendees drawing lines of distinction in terminology between these roles.
Each role serves a distinct purpose, appropriate at certain times and places, attendees shared.
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“Coaching is about helping someone think, not telling them what to do. It’s asking: ‘What do you want from your career?’ not ‘Here’s what you should do next.’”
After asking for a show of hands for those who enjoy dancing, one speaker explained coaching as "what song speaks to you and what steps do you want to try?" rather than telling them the exact steps needed to learn the dance.
Trust is central to the coaching relationship. It involves providing constructive criticism as well as encouragement, coming from a place of genuine care.
Attendees were encouraged to set the stage for difficult conversations with coachees by saying: “I care about you and your career and this is why I’m giving you this feedback.”
A coach who only focuses on the strengths of their coachee is actually stunting their growth.
Attendees heard about the 2+2 model, a useful and easily remembered tool for delivering feedback: “These are the two things you are doing well and these are the two things you can be doing even better.”
Participants were advised to only embark on a coaching relationship if they sincerely believed a coachee had the potential to improve.
In contrast, a mentorship relationship is more top-down. The mentee-mentor relationship can be just as career- and life-changing as a coach-coachee relationship, but there’s an aspect of it that involves telling someone what they should want and strive for and what steps they need to take to achieve that career trajectory.
“Mentors bring their own agenda,” one speaker shared.
Additionally attendees highlighted the importance of having a sponsor and the specific distinctions of that role.
“A sponsor is the person in a place of authority, talking about you when you’re not in the room,” one speaker said. “They’re spending their credibility on you, taking a risk on your behalf. Being aware of that dynamic made me work even harder. I didn’t want to let them down.”
That kind of advocacy needs to be earned.
“You need a track record first,” attendees heard. “You build that through technical skills, which should be the focus early in a career. Then the relationships follow.”
Commercial Real Estate’s Tech Adoption Journey
Commercial real estate remains resistant to sweeping technological disruption, but “it’s not immune,” attendees heard during a discussion centered on proptech.
Since CRE transactions don’t happen as frequently as residential rental leases, the feedback loop is longer and the speed with which technology can make the process more efficient takes longer.
“That’s why you can get quotes for a residential mortgage in minutes, but refinancing a commercial loan is still done the same way it was done 10 years ago,” one speaker said.
Adoption is also slow because of the barriers to entry.
“It’s hard to sell tech services into this industry,” a participant said.
But AI in particular is accelerating change by lowering barriers.
“AI speaks human. That makes adoption faster than how learning tools like Argus or Salesforce used to be.”
At the senior leadership level, there is an awareness of AI’s importance, coupled with a fear of being left behind.
“People are now being asked in their performance-review self-evaluations if they’re using AI and how they are using it. It’s becoming a KPI.”
Macro Snapshot
At the meeting, attendees grappled with the state of the economy, whose fundamentals are getting increasingly difficult to evaluate accurately.
“The economy is evolving, but how we capture the data about the economy has not evolved,” attendees heard.
“The hiring rate has slowed down and the quit rate has also slowed, with workers less confident in their job security than a few years ago. And the premium for job jumping has disappeared.”
Even so, the interpretation of the broader picture depends on who you ask.
“If you don’t own a home, your experience of the economy is very different from that of someone who does.”
One thing wasn’t in doubt: technological innovation is driving economic growth, even as population growth lags, with capital markets growing numb to negative political and geopolitical news headlines.
“There is a lot of capital and it is looking for a place to go, including commercial real estate.”
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