There’s a contrast between a conversation that helps us see differently and one that helps us do differently. Mentoring and coaching both matter deeply in leadership, but they pull on different threads of the learning tapestry. Traditionally mentoring listens for the larger story, the forming of vocation over time, while coaching sharpens focus toward a defined horizon, an outcome, or a stretch goal. One is relational, developmental, and long-range; the other is structured, performance-centred, and time-bound. However more recent research shows that the two are more linked and building on this we are launching Applied Alchemy.
Eg see “Two sides of the same coin”? Coaching and mentoring and the agentic role of context. Stokes, Fatien Diochon, and Otter Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA)
Mentoring: The Long Arc of Formation
Historically mentoring tends to unfold slowly, rooted in shared experience. A mentor doesn’t so much “fix” a problem as accompany someone through it, offering wisdom from lived practice. This kind of learning isn’t evaluative, and it resists short-term measurement. It’s formation more than feedback. For church leaders and changemakers, mentoring often nurtures a deeper sense of vocation and alignment: learning to live the questions rather than reach for premature answers.
Coaching: The Mirror of Practice
Coaching, by contrast, often begins with a question like “What needs to change?” and ends with a measurable outcome. The method is deliberate: structured reflection, focused feedback, and immediate application into behaviour. It’s for those moments when leadership feels like standing at the edge of action when clarity and accountability can make the difference between good intentions and tangible progress. Organisations that integrate coaching report gains not just in performance, but in the confidence of those they support.
Applied Alchemy: Content, Application and Accountability
Whist it is often said a good coach can does not need to know the sector someone’s working in to help, the research is clear: learning only changes culture when it’s transferred, when new thinking embeds in practice, so like in most situations context is key. Studies in leadership development show that those who hold themselves accountable for applying new learning are significantly more likely to sustain behavioural change. A 2025 goal-oriented leadership study found that leaders who engaged in reflective, app-based follow-up after training improved in self-reported leadership skills and learning transfer, especially when they tracked and shared how they applied lessons in real work contexts. Güntner, A. V., Heimann, A. L., Kleinmann, M., & Ingold, P. V. (2024). The combined effect of a goal-oriented leadership app and leaders’ mindset in optimising training transfer. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 34(2), 175–187. So if an app helped how much more might a real person?
Similarly, work on organisational transfer shows that accountability partners and deliberate action planning radically increase the translation of learning into results. Without such follow-up, training dissipates into aspiration rather than action, and real change becomes unachievable. Leadership transformation becomes real when it is woven with everyday practice, when leaders are seen not just as learners, but as stewards of learning in motion. See https://culturepartners.com/insights/leadership-development-building-tomorrows-leaders-for-organizational-success/
So Applied Alchemy seeks to close the gap between Context, Content, Application and Accountably as a specialist service for leaders in the faith. So much has changed in the last decade or so, both organisationally, culturally, and missiologically and it is the leaders who are applied it their learning in their toolkit that making the most headway. We will draw on this content and develop deliberate avenues for application and accountability. In a theological sense being accountable for the learning of the last few decades and beyond is to keep covenant with our own becoming, to recognise and act as if what G-d has revealed and others have discovered matters. It’s a form of stewardship: nurturing the insights entrusted to us until they take root in practice, community, and system.
For leaders today, real change isn’t born in the seminar room; it’s in the moment when learning is owned, enacted, and held in view by others and the communities we are walking alongside. Mentoring helps us remember who we are becoming. Coaching helps us practice who we intend to be.
Applied Alchemy weaves together content, context, mentoring and coaching converting insight into embodiment. Check out https://alchemyedge.substack.com/about for more information on the free and subscription levels.
You can join Applied Alchemy in the way that work for you. The free posts will still land here and in substack but I think people will really like the DIP – A monthly Applied Alchemy Leadership, Systems and Change programme that examines the free content with relevant theory with practical application leadership ideas. It also includes Applied Alchemy Questions prompts, Postures and Practices to adopt, and an Accountability Checklist for you to embed in your situation and at your own pace.
First ones will go live in November and you can subscribe for free here or via https://alchemyedge.substack.com/subscribe?params=%5Bobject%20Object%5D