CGM blog: Gurus – get out of here

26 Jan CGM blog: Gurus – get out of here

At CGM our team is made up of experts in their field – be it media, communications or creative skills. We’re a skilled, experienced and cohesive team, writes Chris Green.

You can read our track records, scan our profiles, Google us if you wish – it’s all out there. It’s all fact.

What you’ll never hear is any of us describe ourselves as ‘gurus’.

My general rule of thumb is if someone says they are a guru they usually aren’t.

If anyone is so self-centred or conceited they feel the need to bolster their own ego by likening themselves to a spiritual teacher, then they probably lack true expertise or have confidence issues they need to address before seeking to tamper with other people’s lives and businesses.

After all, who will these braggards put first – your business or their ego?

And what sort of advice will they offer? What is right and needed for your business or what they prefer to preach? Oh, and how good are they likely to be at the most important skills of all – listening?

I recently spotted someone who had recently billed themselves as a ‘reluctant guru’? What? Are there really queues of people out there, Life of Brian-like, waiting, nay baying, for the words of wisdom from their leader?

Some of this nonsense can also get into the heads of people who should know better.

I once had a thoroughly depressing conversation with a business colleague in his mid-50s whose new social media (yup, you’ve guessed it) guru was urging him to expand his social network ‘tribe’ – and was imploring me to adopt the same language to achieve communications success.

I declined and politely explained that ‘tribe’ is rarely a word we’d use at CGM – and certainly not for our clients or to group together anyone’s business contacts. We’d prefer to use our skills and expertise to engage and expand with our clients’ potential customers and contacts with meaningful messages.

My colleague’s enthusiasm was short lived (and so was his faith in this particular guru). The lifeblood of his business wasn’t a generalist online ‘tribe’ who might understand this new found lingo, it was a handful of valuable, well-heeled, hard-to-find clients who, a bit like himself, were people who, frankly, don’t need to be and aren’t instinctively followers of anyone’s gang… let alone a ‘tribe’.

It later transpired this particular ‘guru’ had just two years experience in communications work.

Expert advice, coaching and consultancy has a true place in business and can add real value – whether it is shaping the overall strategy of a business, offering sounding board advice and support or providing skills and delivering services that can make a difference.

Gurus, do me a favour. Redefine yourselves – or get out of here…

Chris Green is an award-winning author and broadcaster – and managing partner of Chris Green Media – which inspires organisations to communicate better by connecting deeper.