Guru? No, never. Yuck.
The coaching world is still awash with these self-styled, self-satisfied experts. Hands up, some of them are really, really good at what they do. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, that’s sales and marketing, not psychology.
I left coaching to do my PhD because I was horrified at how bad some of the information online was. I wanted to give something different. Sure, my psychology degree was an advantage, but the research in my field of identity just wasn’t there. Now it is. And coming back, I see that not a lot has changed. There’s still a lot of advice out there that goes from inaccurate to downright dangerous. And worst of all, some of the most famous and influential people – the gurus – are the worst culprits for giving it out.
I guess at a certain level of achievement, some people believe they know everything about everything. I don’t need to name them. You know who they are.
Or maybe it’s just easy to take your money for recycled, cookie-cutter stuff that isn’t going to work for a lot of their clients.
Some of this stuff is distinctly cult-like. Not good.
The truth is, nobody can ‘fix’ you, that’s not how it works. There’s no magic bullet. And actually, you don’t need fixing, because nobody is broken. You might need some help to get through some stuff, change your self-view or get to where you need to be to make your business goals happen. But the expert on you, is you.
What you need is an understanding of where the issues are, why you’re doing the things you do, what makes you mess things up or decide you can’t do them.
Your coach is your toolkit and your support. Not some sort of Messiah.
If they’re telling you something different, you may need to lock up your wallet.