Why are coaches not trusted in Russia?

Why are coaches and business coaches considered charlatans and their services a scam, and is it really so? Let’s figure it out.
And the first question is “Why?”, the answer to which will also clarify the second question. Firstly, this is still a relatively young age of these professions in our country. And what has appeared recently always causes alertness and disbelief in people. Although what is “recently” there, these professions are already at least 30 years old, or even more. But, nevertheless, the attitude of many people still remains the same as it was three decades ago. What then is the reason?

Perhaps, and this is, secondly, the point is not only in the “young” age of professions, but also in two other important factors. The first of them is the level of professionalism, or rather its absence. No matter how sad it is to admit, some representatives of the above professions do not have any special education, and therefore, they completely lack the required knowledge. Such people are not necessarily charlatans. They can work properly and try to help people, but in this case they will harm rather than help. Although, as a rule, such people are more often included in the category of “scammers”, whose goal is to collect more money, conduct a miserable semblance of training without any benefit, and then take their leave in front of a fooled audience and go home. This is the number two factor – deception. Hence, as a consequence, quite understandable disbelief of people and a skeptical attitude towards coaches and coaches.

But what about those specialists whose qualifications are documented, and the reviews of satisfied clients make it clear about the honesty and integrity of the trainer or coach? Why do people also fear them and are in no hurry to purchase their services? The fact is that such services cannot be guaranteed. Of course, different representatives of these professions have their own “guarantee” methods (such as, for example, contracting, when both the client and the coach undertake to fulfill their part of the transaction), but by and large, their execution cannot be completely “hard-wired” either.

Here, of course, it is worth noting some differences between training and coaching. In business training, such as, for example, transformational business training, the result is almost one hundred percent guaranteed if the trainer and the client work together. A person comes to the coach, a businessman, an already established personality with a clear request for solving a specific problem, and then the client and the coach solve it together. As a rule, according to a clear algorithm and with certain tools. Everything is technical, without water and to the point. In such cases, if the conditions of the contract are fulfilled by both parties, a positive result is achieved in most cases.

In coaching, however, things are quite different. Especially in the field of personal development. A man comes and says – I want to be happy. Can a coach guarantee that by paying a certain amount of money a person will become happy? Unlikely. Therefore, as a rule, a professional coach will not work with such a request, but will ask the person to formulate it differently. In any case, in coaching, as well as at an appointment with a psychologist, it is much more difficult to guarantee the result than in business trainings, this is a fact.

One way or another, both business coaches and coaches can be experts in their craft and help people, or they can be parasites that suck your money, often putting harmful information into the heads of unsuspecting people.
Unfortunately, there is no magic way to tell a good trainer or coach from a bad one. This can be found out only by studying the information, analyzing the reviews, trusting your intuition and common sense.