Advice Traps: How to avoid them & produce more energy for change

Advice-giving is counter-productive when it does not produce energy for change.

When we give people advice it can come from a good place e.g. wanting to avoid the pain of getting to the heart of the issue with the other person. It can also make us feel wise and helpful - even when we are neither. Wanting to give advice can happen for good and bad reasons. The positive reason is that we want to support the other person. The less worthy reason is that we want to control them through the mechanism of giving advice. Whatever your motivation, the hard truth is that in a large number of scenarios your client or colleague already knows what they ‘should’ do already – the real issue is often about what is stopping them doing what they know they should do.

This session will help you to spot 'Advice Traps' before you fall head-first into them.

We will demonstrate the sometimes stark but often subtle differences between advice-giving and taking a non-directive. coaching approach. You'll hear some fun yet insightful conversations. You'll leave knowing more about the dangers of providing 'advice in disguise', and we think you might even be a bit more discerning about when and where you hand-out your own advice.

Who should attend?
Anyone with any level of curiosity about the value of a coaching approach, the mindset and the skills that lie behind it.

Whatever your experience of advising or being advised; whatever you'd like to get from, or do within, a coaching or mentoring role - do come along and explore with us.

This event was brought to you by The Open University Business School in partnership with Management Futures.