On Coaching:

What are some of the benefits of the coaching process?

A coach partners with the client in setting goals and objectives for their professional and personal life. The regularly scheduled meetings create a structure of accountability and helps the client move toward their goals. Through coaching a client learns new competencies in interpersonal relationship and management skills and gains new emotional competencies that lead towards improved performance and satisfaction within both work and personal life.

What is the role of the coach?

The coach acts as a guide for the client in their professional and personal development. The coach asks the questions that lead the client towards insights and new perspectives that facilitate change and growth. The coach is qualified in the administration and interpretation of the assessments that can provide objective information and feedback to the client about personal strengths and weaknesses.

What is not the role of the coach?

The coach is not a counselor or therapist that works with a client on past emotional issues. When necessary a coach might refer the client to a trained counselor to address these needs. The coach does not refer or recommend the client to employers or recruiters.

On Assessments:

What are the benefits of using assessments?

Assessments give feedback to the individual that are based on years of research and have gone through rigorous verification by the psychologists who have developed them. The assessments can sometimes suggest interesting new information that may give the client the support to explore new opportunities.

Won’t assessments “tell me” what to do or “tell me” what I am like?

The assessments results vary on how accurately they describe the individual. The assessments only point each individual in a direction that may or may not be suitable for the individual. It is important that the individual verify the assessment results for themselves and the coach before accepting the results as true. Assessments are never the final word and as such should be treated only as supplemental information to be used for coaching purposes.

Will the assessments uncover some embarrassing traits or qualities about myself?

The assessments rarely come up with surprises. The process of taking the assessments themselves may serve the important purpose of getting the individual to reflect more deeply about themselves. The results may give individuals some deeper insights about their careers or about their leadership potential.  Since the results are a composite of how the individuals answered the questions, the reports give a balanced picture of client’s strength and areas for development.

Why can’t I just take some of these assessments by myself?

There are several benefits to having a trained professional interpret the assessment results with you. Only a professional trained in the use of these assessments can help the individual through a proper verification of the assessment results They can explain and detect inconsistencies and irregularities in the answering of the assessment. Some assessments have pages of information that a coach can help navigate through. A trained and experienced coach can add important insights to the  interpretation of the results. and apply the results to the appropriate situations. A coach uses the results to help the client attain their goals for development.

Will assessments just put me in a box and limit my options of what I want to do?

Most individuals find that the assessments have served to confirm that the individual is on the right track already. Others find that an assessment uncovers new options and choices for their career. In addition, assessments help a client understand how their strengths can be used and what weaknesses need to be improved upon.