Establish a Baseline and Track Your Progress with Validated Assessments

Introduction

As an executive coach with an analytical STEM background, I’ve experienced and been surprised by the quality of the insights revealed through the assessments I have taken. Some of these were shockingly accurate and explained certain aspects of my personality I had not previously understood. In other words, they allowed me to become more self-aware. As they did with me, these powerful tools of self-discovery will provide you with a similar wealth of insights and actionable information that will help us chart a clear course toward achieving your goals and guide the coaching conversations that follow.

Cultivating self-awareness is important for everyone but indispensable for those in a managerial or leadership role. Research consistently shows that leaders with high self-awareness are more effective, make better decisions, and build stronger relationships. A Sept. 2019 study by Green Peak Partners and Cornell University titled “What Predicts Executive Success?” found that ” a high self-awareness score was the strongest predictor of overall success” in leadership roles. As such, assessments play a vital role in the coaching process by providing objective data and insights that support the process of self-reflection and our ability to track progress.

In this guide, we will review the assessments used in my coaching practice, their benefits, how they’re used, and why they’re an indispensable part of leadership and team development. Furthermore, we will establish their important role in establishing measurable results and demonstrating the return on your coaching investment, ensuring that our work together drives tangible improvements in your leadership effectiveness and overall professional success.

The Importance of Validated Assessments

Assessments are not just for executives, they are valuable tools for anyone at any career stage who seeks growth and self-awareness. Whether you’re a new manager looking to establish your leadership style, a mid-career professional aiming for the next level, or a seasoned C-suite executive wanting to refine your skills, assessments can provide valuable insights to fuel your development. Their use and importance cannot be understated; as such, robust, validated assessments must be used to achieve the best possible insights.

Validated assessments are sophisticated tools designed to track and measure various aspects of an individual’s personality, behavior, skills, and cognitive abilities. These assessments are typically developed and refined based on extensive research and rigorous testing, often involving large sample sizes ranging from thousands to millions of participants, depending on the specific assessment. This validation process adds credibility to the insights gained, allowing for more confident decision-making based on the results.

The goal is not to achieve a “perfect” score or to put you in a box with a specific label. Instead, these assessments offer a framework for understanding tendencies and patterns so that even if they are not 100% accurate in every detail, they can still offer valuable insights to guide our coaching work. The power of these tools lies not in their perfection but in their ability to prompt reflection, discussion, and targeted development efforts.

Team Dynamics and Assessments

When working with teams, individual and 360-degree assessments can be powerful tools for understanding and improving team dynamics. By aggregating the results, we can:

• Identify potential areas of conflict or misunderstanding.
• Recognize complementary strengths and how to leverage them.
• Understand communication preferences to improve team interaction.
• Spot gaps in team capabilities that might need to be addressed.

For example, if we find your team is heavily skewed towards big-picture thinking with few or no detail- or action-oriented members, we can discuss strategies to ensure important details aren’t overlooked in planning and that the right people are in place to see the plans through to completion.

Types of Assessments

There are several types of assessments, each designed to provide specific insights:

1. Personality Assessment: Measures enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They help you understand how you naturally act and react in various situations.
2. Cognitive Ability Assessment: Evaluates how you process information, solve problems, and make decisions.
3. Emotional Intelligence Assessment: Measures your ability to recognize, understand, and manage your emotions and those of others.
4. Leadership Style Assessment: Identifies your preferred leadership approaches and how they might impact team dynamics and organizational culture.
5. 360-Degree Assessment: Gathers feedback from colleagues, direct reports, and supervisors to provide a comprehensive view of your performance and impact.

How Assessments Are Used in My Coaching Practice

Assessments serve multiple purposes in the coaching process:

1. Establishing a Baseline: Assessments provide a clear picture of your current skills, behaviors, and leadership style.
2. Identifying Strengths and Growth Areas: Assessments highlight your natural talents and areas where you might benefit from focused development.
3. Enhancing Self-Awareness: Assessments can reveal aspects of yourself that you might not have been fully aware of and unlock new growth opportunities.
4. Guiding Coaching Conversations: The insights from assessments provide rich material for our coaching discussions, helping us focus on the most impactful areas for your development.
5. Guiding Team Development: When working with teams, individual and 360-degree assessments can be aggregated to provide insights into team dynamics, potential conflicts, and opportunities for improved collaboration.
6. Measuring Progress and Results: By retaking assessments later in our engagement, we can quantify your progress and establish an objective measure of Return on Coaching Investment (RoCI). For a more detailed exploration of how we measure and maximize the return on your coaching investment, please visit the page on Measurable Results & Return on Coaching Investment.

The Assessment Process

Answering an Assessment with the Right Mindset

My coaching process typically begins with you completing one or more online agreed-upon assessments that will provide the best actionable insights based on our type of engagement. Depending on their depth and breadth, these assessments might take between 20 minutes to a couple of hours. These assessments should not be treated as logic or analytical tests with right or wrong answers; instead, they should be taken in the spirit of revealing insights and indications of your actual working style, behavior patterns, personality traits, and leadership qualities that will contribute significantly to achieving your goals and success. While it is in our nature to try to understand the intent behind a question or answer questions to make ourselves look better, trying to game the system or answering in an inauthentic manner will only delay progress and lead to unproductive discussions. Remember, the results of your assessments, like all other information discussed, are kept strictly confidential and will never be shared without your express written permission.

To get the most value from assessments, I recommend the following:

1. Be Open and Honest: Answer questions authentically, not how you think you “should” answer.
2. Take Your Time: Don’t rush through the questions. Give yourself space to reflect.
3. Trust the Process: Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. The goal is self-understanding, not achieving a particular score.
4. Allow Yourself to Be Surprised: Be open to insights that might challenge your self-perception.

The Feedback Session

Once you have received your results, we will review them together looking for patterns, strengths, potential areas for development, and any surprising or conflicting information. As part of this collaborative discussion, we will establish the results resonate with you, areas where you agree or disagree, and how these insights should be prioritized as part of your specific goals. Then, we’ll create a personalized development plan. This plan will outline specific goals, strategies, and actions to leverage your strengths and address areas for improvement.

Measuring Progress

Typically, about three months into our engagement, we’ll use assessments again to track and measure progress. This allows us to quantify improvements, adjust our strategies if needed, and demonstrate the tangible impact of our coaching work.

My Preferred Assessments

If you’ve completed validated assessments in the last 12 months, I’m happy to incorporate those into our work. Otherwise, I’ll recommend using one of my preferred assessments to ensure we have the most relevant and up-to-date information for our engagement. The cost of these assessments is typically included as part of our coaching agreement.

My preferred suite of assessments:

1. ProfileXT: This is typically our starting point. ProfileXT is a comprehensive assessment that provides insights into your thinking style, behavioral traits, and occupational interests. It helps us understand your natural strengths and potential areas for development. Key Insights: Cognitive abilities, behavioral tendencies, and job fit.
2. TTI DISC: Administered about three months into our work together, this assessment focuses on your behavioral style in the workplace. It helps us understand how you communicate, make decisions, and interact with others. Key Insights: Communication style, decision-making approach, and interpersonal dynamics.
3. Genos Leadership 360-Degree Assessment: This data-centric tool gathers feedback from your colleagues, direct reports, and supervisors. It offers a holistic view of your leadership skills, particularly in emotional intelligence. Key Insights: Leadership impact, emotional intelligence in action, and areas of perception gaps.
4. Six Types of Working Genius: This assessment identifies your natural gifts and abilities in the workplace, helping to optimize your role and contributions within your team. This assessment is especially useful in evaluating symptoms of poor team execution or conflict within a team. Key Insights: Natural talents, potential sources of frustration, and ideal role positioning.

By correlating results from multiple assessments, we can develop a nuanced understanding of your leadership style, potential blind spots, and areas where your self-perception might differ from others’ perceptions.

Assessments and Measurable Results

As a coach with a STEM background, I understand the importance of measurable results. Every coaching engagement should be assessed for its return on investment (RoI), much like any other business initiative. This is where the concept of Return on Coaching Investment (RoCI) comes into play.

RoCI is a holistic measure that quantifies both the tangible and intangible benefits derived from our coaching engagement. It includes improvements in areas such as productivity, leadership skills, team performance, and shifts in organizational culture.

Assessments are the key tool in calculating RoCI. They provide concrete data points that allow us to measure progress in various areas:

1. Quantitative Measures: Improvements in productivity, financial performance, and achievement of specific business goals.
2. Qualitative Measures: Enhancements in leadership skills, employee engagement, and organizational culture. While these are qualitative, there are quantitative measures that can be used as proxies such as employee turnover.
3. Behavioral Changes: Improvements in emotional intelligence, communication skills, conflict resolution abilities, and problem-solving capabilities.
4. Feedback and Perceptions: Changes in how you’re perceived by stakeholders and your own self-assessment of growth and development.

By establishing a baseline with initial assessments and then measuring progress through follow-up assessments, we can provide clear evidence of the value and impact of our coaching work.

The Dynamic Nature of Coaching Goals and Need for Assessments

It’s important to note that while assessments provide valuable data points, the goals of our coaching engagement may evolve over time. As we delve deeper into your leadership challenges and aspirations, we may uncover underlying issues that weren’t apparent at the start.

For instance, what initially seems like a time management issue might actually be rooted in challenges with delegation or prioritization. Our coaching process is flexible enough to adapt to these evolving insights, ensuring that we’re always addressing your most pressing needs and opportunities for growth.

While assessments are often used at various points in our coaching engagement, their value extends to any time when an objective perspective is needed. Periodically retaking assessments can:

• Track progress in areas of focused development.
• Identify new areas for growth as your career evolves.
• Help you adapt to new roles or organizational changes.
• Provide motivation by showcasing your growth over time.

Conclusion

Assessments are invaluable tools in the executive coaching process. They provide objective data and insights that inform our coaching conversations, help track progress, and guide your development. By leveraging the powerful insights gained from assessments, we can work together more effectively to unlock your full potential and achieve your leadership goals and ultimate success. Moreover, by using assessments to establish baselines and measure progress, we can ensure that our coaching engagement delivers tangible, measurable results – aligning with my focus on accountability and results.

The true power of assessments lies not in the results themselves but in how we use those insights to drive meaningful growth and development. As your coach, I’m committed to helping you translate these insights into actionable strategies that deliver a strong return on your coaching investment.

Are you ready to incorporate the insights from a validated assessment to achieve your goals? Let’s discuss your requirements and unique needs as part of an engagement so we may then select the right assessment.