????威廉?崔還記得當年，自己一成為管理顧問就準備把德拉威爾的房子賣掉，把所有東西打包寄存。接下來一段時間，他得滿世界飛，房子留著有什么用？

????但他的職業(yè)教練勸他不要把所有的東西打包。“她說，‘你需要有一個叫做家的地方，能讓你記住自己是誰，’”如今33歲、已是高知特（Cognizant）企業(yè)咨詢業(yè)務(wù)高級經(jīng)理的崔回憶說?！叭绻粋€人總是在旅行，過著大多數(shù)人羨慕的、豐富多彩的生活——住著富麗堂皇的酒店，滿世界飛，從事著精彩的事業(yè)——最后會迷失了自己，我們中的很多人都是這樣?！?/p>

????崔表示，有一個家總是讓他感覺很踏實。在那里他可以打開行李箱，做上一碗面當晚飯，哪怕只是就這樣住上一晚，第二天又要出發(fā)。這位職業(yè)教練在一些更加重大的問題上也給了他很多幫助。最值得一提的是，當他在權(quán)衡咨詢公司麥肯錫(McKinsey & Co.)和博斯(Booz & Co.)的兩份工作機會時，職業(yè)教練的輔導(dǎo)讓他意識到，從長遠看，博斯的導(dǎo)師制會比麥肯錫的自生自滅模式對他更有幫助。

????像崔這樣從教練那里尋求一般職業(yè)建議（有別于求職輔導(dǎo)）的人并非個別現(xiàn)象。國際教練聯(lián)合會（International Coaching Federation）的一項調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，今年全球職業(yè)教練達到了4.75萬人，五年前僅3萬人。近60%的受訪教練表示，過去一年他們的客戶數(shù)量都出現(xiàn)了上升。

????但隨著這個行業(yè)快速發(fā)展，人們也開始擔心，有些教練可能根本就沒有必備的資歷或經(jīng)驗來真正幫到他們的客戶，畢竟這個行業(yè)還沒有像心理咨詢、社會工作、甚至會計行業(yè)那樣規(guī)范。雖然職業(yè)教練還不像人生教練那樣玄乎，但仍然有可能被濫用，造成傷害，或者干脆就是浪費時間和金錢。

????“很多干這行的人既無經(jīng)驗，也無資歷，“組織心理學家、高管教練以及《怪罪游戲》(The Blame Game)一書的作者本?丹特納說。”他們會培養(yǎng)依賴性，動用…心理技巧贏得客戶，但不能提供任何實質(zhì)性的幫助?！?/p>

????鑒于職業(yè)培訓(xùn)已經(jīng)被吹上了天，我們現(xiàn)在得仔細看看選擇職業(yè)教練的四大陷阱：

輔導(dǎo)目標不明確

????為什么要請一位職業(yè)教練、或通常所稱的“高管教練”？這一點至關(guān)重要?；蛟S你覺得自己陷入了職業(yè)困境，需要幫助才能到達下一個層面，或許你正在考慮要不要改變職業(yè)道路?；蛟S你正在應(yīng)對某一項具體的挑戰(zhàn)，可能是一項新的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職務(wù)，也可能是一項你還沒有完全掌握的技能。

????“開始接受輔導(dǎo)，很重要的一點是要清楚為什么要輔導(dǎo)，”安永（Ernst & Young）常駐科羅拉多州丹佛的美洲職業(yè)輔導(dǎo)負責人詹尼斯?史密斯說。

????When William Cui first became a management consultant, he was ready to sell his home in Delaware and put all his belongings in storage. No use owning property when he'd be traveling all over the world for the foreseeable future, right?

????But his career coach stopped him from packing everything away. "She said, 'You need to have somewhere to call home to tie you back to who you are,' " recalls Cui, who is now 33 and a senior manager in Cognizant's business consulting practice. "When you're traveling and living an interesting life that most people would be jealous of -- you're living in fancy hotels, traveling around the world, and doing exciting things -- a lot of us end up losing ourselves."

????Cui says he has remained grounded by having a home where he could unpack his suitcase and make a bowl of noodles for dinner, even just for an overnight between trips. And his career coach has helped him with much bigger issues as well, most notably when he was weighing job offers from consulting firms McKinsey & Co. and Booz & Co. With her coaching, he realized the mentoring at Booz rather than the sink-or-swim McKinsey model would help him more in the long-run.

????Cui is hardly alone in relying on a coach for general career advice, as distinct from help with job hunting. A survey by the International Coaching Federation found that there were 47,500 professional coaches worldwide this year, up from 30,000 just five years ago. And nearly 60% of coaches surveyed said they'd experienced an increase in clients during the previous year.

????But as the industry has grown, so have concerns that some coaches don't have the credentials or experience needed to truly help their clients, given that the profession isn't regulated in the way that psychology, social work, or even accounting are. Career coaching may not be quite as prone to hucksters as life coaching is, but there's still the potential for exploitation, harm, or simply a waste of time and money.

????"There are a lot of people out there who are doing it without experience or credentials," says Ben Dattner, an organizational psychologist, executive coach, and author of The Blame Game. "They're cultivating dependency and using … mind tricks to win and get clients without actually helping."

????Given the hype surrounding coaching, it seems an opportune time to look closely at four big pitfalls of career coaches:

You don't have a "coachable issue"

????It's critical to know why you are working with a career coach, often called an executive coach. Perhaps you feel stuck in your career and need help getting to the next level -- or maybe you are deciding whether to change course. You might be dealing with a specific challenge, whether it's a new leadership role or a skill that you haven't quite mastered.

????"Coming into a coaching relationship, it's so important to be clear about why you're there," says Janice Smith, Ernst & Young's Americas coaching leader, based in Denver, Co.