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Why is coaching a dangerous illusion?

Personal development as practiced by coaches consists of applying conditioning methods, originally developed to improve athletes' performance, with the aim of enhancing one's social success.

In the sports world, coaching aims to optimize motivation during training through conditioning and limit the effect of stress on competition day. This form of conditioning is productive in the sports world because sport is a game, with simple rules and a structured, predictable course of events. In contrast, in the real world, conditioning has a huge drawback: it is unable to effectively take new facts into account. More simply put, conditioning is a form of robotization of the individual.

If these methods work well in terms of social success—and are therefore widely used in the workplace—it is because they lead individuals to freely engage in the game of alliances. The practical aspect involves abandoning sincerity in favor of simply adopting an attitude that conforms to the social expectations of the target environment. In this sense, the use of coaching in the workplace can be seen as a sort of Faustian pact.

The use of personal development through coaching therefore corresponds to abandoning the goal of achieving a fulfilling life in favor of simply succeeding in life.

Furthermore, personal development propagates the myth of an omnipotent individual who need only liberate themselves from the constraints they impose on themselves and choose what they want to do with their life. It is often taught by individuals privileged by providence, who do not even realize that their personal experience is not generalizable.
In this sense, coaching, and personal development, represent an abandonment of the political struggle, within a neo-patriarchal vision of the world in which legitimate dissent has no place, and the rhetoric of obedience has merely been replaced by that of adaptation.

Finally, it ignores the primary effect of the infernal triangle of cognitive dissonance presented in the question 'What is cognitive dissonance?'.

Delve deeper

Start with the question 'If people want to succeed, they should just work. We live in a democracy!', which clarifies the limits of our capacity for action.
Refer to the question 'How to achieve a fulfilling life?'.
Watch the documentary The Happiness Business by Claire Alet and Jean-Christophe Ribot, broadcast by Arte, and possibly available on YouTube.
Supplement with the question 'Put an end to the abusive use of psychotropic drugs and psychotherapies'.
Finally, conclude with the question 'Why is politics important?'.