Giving unsolicited advice to people rarely helps them. While it feels productive and pleasing to the advice-giver, it usually makes the person on the receiving end defensive and self-doubting.
If you really want to help someone, try genuinely listening to them, asking them attentive questions and giving them your full attention. These things shows them you genuinely care which increases their own self-compassion and empowers them to come up with a path forward that’s right for them.
Giving others your time, attention and compassion is profoundly more powerful than giving them your advice.
Amelia Kruse is a Certified Leadership Coach based in New York working with professionals and entrepreneurs globally.