To Advise or Not?


At work, I’ve heard 2 diametrically opposite philosophies on whether to advise others without being asked:
1)      Yes, I would: If I know something from experience, it’s the right thing to guide and advise others. We’re all one team, right? Why let someone stumble and run into trouble when I can help them avoid it?
2)     No, I wouldn’t: When people get advice for free (unasked), they don’t value it and just ignore it. Instead, I’ll wait for them to ask, because then they’ll evaluate what I have to say sincerely.

There’s no right answer to this question obviously. And to complicate the decision even more for these reasons that Seth Godin describes:
1)      Every situation is different: As Godin puts it, “you'll waste everyone's time if you base your advice on your assumptions, instead of what's actually happening”.
2)     Beliefs and end goals can be different: “It's entirely possible that the person you're eager to help doesn't believe what you believe and doesn't want what you want”. This is often very hard to imagine.

If this is true at work, where situations and end goals are fairly standardized, just imagine how much more true it is in all other walks of life where culture, gender, age, life experiences and a zillion other factors come into play?

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