Advice can be invaluable if offered at the right time, for the right reasons. If you are asked to give your input, most of the time, the outcome will be positive. But there are murkier levels of motivation to consider.

Consider these perspectives:

• To Feel Powerful: Giving advice can be a way to assert dominance and a sense of control over another person or situation. It can make you feel knowledgeable, influential, and superior.

• To Boost Your Ego and Self-Esteem: Offering advice can be a way to validate your experiences, intelligence, and problem-solving abilities. It can make you feel wise, useful, and that your experiences have had a significant purpose.

• To Avoid Dealing with Your Own Problems: Giving advice can be a distraction from examining your challenges or shortcomings. By focusing on another person's problems, you can avoid facing your own.

• Criticism: Unsolicited advice can be laced with judgment, subtly communicating to the recipient that their current approach is wrong or needs fixing.

• Manipulation and Attempts to Control Behavior: In some cases, advice can be a veiled attempt to influence or manipulate another person's choices or actions to align with your desires or personal preferences.

In thinking about writing this today, one more motivation to be “helpful” crossed my mind. If you find yourself surrounded by people who don’t solicit your input or consider your needs, you can feel lonely. Giving advice might be an attempt to be seen and heard in your relationships.

I kicked off another cohort of the Career Coach Entrepreneur Academy last night, and we started where we always do, working on not giving advice. I share this with you today to encourage you to reflect on the value and motivation of your advice. It might be a waste of time or, more substantially, a need inside of you that requires attention.