Giving advice may seem a little tricky, but you will be relieved to find that it is a bit simpler than you thought. There is no exact way to give advice per say, as all advice is different and different situations require different measures. However, when you are trying to give friends and family the advice they need, you will find that you can often assume the role quite easily, reassuring them and offering answers they can contemplate and possibly use. Knowing how to give advice adequately means knowing how to communicate appropriately with others in a way that assists them in making the choices they need to make.
Reading the Situation
Every situation you encounter to give advice is going to be different. There are many reasons why someone may need advice, including:
• New purchase decisions
• Financial decisions
• Personal issues
• Job issues
No matter what the situation is, in order to give advice, you must be able to read the situation for what it is, responding appropriately and according to the nature of the situation. Many times you will find that the advice you give comes naturally, which will be more and more often as you continue to give quality advice.
Suspend Judgment
People come to you because they trust that you won’t judge them, and you should take the opportunity to provide quality advice based on suspended judgment. As your friend or loved one explains the issue to you, think of yourself in their shoes, not thinking of what you think about the situation. Suspending judgment will ensure that you are able to give the advice that is more valuable to them not trying to push them to what you think is right based on your own life. You are being asked for advice in order to think from a clear and objective mind, not thinking of the others involved and only giving the advice that will assist your friend or loved one.
Offer Quality Information
As you are asked for advice, you are given the opportunity to offer great high quality advice that will assist you friend or loved one in making great decisions. If you have a strong opinion about something, you can set that aside, but use it to provide the information you think is needed to direct whoever is asking for advice in the right direction. Getting extra information to provide them in order to further assist with the decision making process can be extremely helpful, offering the full spectrum of information needed to base an important decision upon.
Giving the Advice that Counts
Giving the right advice doesn’t always mean solving an issue or making the choice that is going to benefit your friend or loved one. Sometimes it means helping them through the situation when they are going to be the one who suffers. This doesn’t mean that you have given the wrong advice, but that you have directed them towards the decision that may be best no matter the consequences. Not every piece of advice is going to end in a happy feeling or even in a satisfactory result, but the advice that counts should be that which helps your friend or loved one to make the decision that is right and leads to long-term benefits through honesty and integrity.
Since there are so many different situations which may require you give a bit of advice, it can be difficult to gauge whether or not the advice you give is high quality or not. Knowing you are giving advice that follows moral and ethical standards, you can do nothing else to ensure that the advice you give is top quality. You aren’t going to govern lives with your advice, but you can set many people at ease and even help them to make great decisions with your advice, no matter how large or small the situation or the information you give.