Stay In Your Lane

Some coaches and consultants cannot turn off the advice machine.

Unsolicited feedback and advice from people in helping professions is a major turn-off and a power/domination pattern.

You certainly don't see psychotherapists operating this way. They have a code of ethics and limits and boundaries that they observe.

Why do so many coaches and consultants think they are providing value by processing others without permission?

Recently, I observed one such operator working a room.

She could not seem to relate to anyone as a peer, needing to demonstrate her enlightenment by coaching everyone she came into contact with. It was impossible to engage her in a personal conversation. There appeared to be nobody home.

Miss "know–it– all" was all dime-store psychology and T-group technique. Yuck!

Coaches and consultants need to remember that unsolicited feedback and advice is crossing the line into someone else's business. It's a good way to get your head handed to you.

Stay in your own lane, coach. You'll avoid collisions.

© Patrick O’Neill 2012. All rights reserved.