Assessments

Part of our mission is to help clients “gain personal insight” in a manner that helps them identify their existing skills, traits, behavior patterns, preferences, comfort zones, etc. With over thirty years in business, we have done considerable research into various assessment instruments. The ones that we use today have the following qualities:

• They are well-grounded and have been tested with a large group of people.
• They allow people to understand why they tend to behave in certain ways.
• There is a strong emphasis on both the advantages and disadvantages of certain assessment results.
• Our clients are able to understand and use assessment results as a stepping stone to achieving better results.

Though we administer many assessments (e.g., assessments on Emotional Intelligence, Strengths, Values, etc.), we specialize in four primary assessments – Personality, Conflict, Career, and 360 Feedback.  We usually incorporate two or three of these assessments into workplace and personal client services.

We have found that taking just a few select assessments (usually at the onset of coaching) accelerates client knowledge and awareness. In fact, too much information (i.e., taking too many assessments at once!) is exactly that – TMI!! Similarly, we ask clients to pick no more than two or three behavioral goals to work on at any one time!

Here are some examples of how our assessment process integrates with coaching:

• Workplace Client – Sam had worked at his place of employment for almost 20 years. Interestingly, he didn’t have issues with his long-term peers, but he did not get along with his younger peers. They saw him as arrogant and self-serving – a know-it-all who did not respect them. From their perspectives, it was “Sam’s way or the highway.” Sam had no idea that his peers perceived him as arrogant until we administered a 360 Feedback assessment. Though he was over 50 years old, he had never taken a “behavioral” assessment. Sam used his 360 Feedback results, as well as his Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment (MBTI) and the Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP) results to draft a great Individual Development Plan (IDP). Today Sam is highly valued and respected as a role model and “expert” in his field by both new and long-term peers.

• Personal Client – Joe’s mom contacted us after he had dropped out of college several times and had been living at home for three years. Joe had a part-time job, but was not happy living at home and or at work. His parents asked for our services in helping him meet his goal of moving into an apartment and establishing a career path. Joe was not the “academic” type, but he was intelligent and had a very winsome personality. Utilizing his Workplace Big Five personality results, as well as his Kuder Journey career results, Joe gained insight about his personality, knowledge, skills, interests, and those workplace competencies at which he could excel. With this new awareness, Joe chose a “best fit” career that matched his personality and skillsets.

To learn more about the 4 primary assessments we use, please click on these links:

• Personality
• Conflict
• Career
• 360 Feedback