Coaching Report

The Coaching Report is a tool for use by managers, coaches and mentors to help people reach their full potential. It is a practical guide for assisting the person to focus on his or her goals for growth, and for developing strategies to reach those goals by fully leveraging strengths and working around gaps or limitations. The report is generated from the person’s basic personality factor scores, a variety of empirically derived predictions of performance, and several scales indicating the person’s similarity to people in different types of jobs. While it is focused primarily on job success, it can also provide insights and suggestions for the individual’s growth as a person.

Please refer to the sample Coaching Report for the following discussion.

The Coaching Report should not be used for any employment or administrative actions. It is not intended for selection, promotion or other such decisions. It is a tool to facilitate a person’s growth and development with the assistance of coaches, managers and mentors. It can help a person set and work towards meaningful developmental goals. Pages 2 and 3 describe the background, development and structure of the report.

The Strategies for Coaching section (page 4) provides context and general observations to help frame a more successful approach to coaching the individual. It covers the following topics:

• Defensiveness. This is an indication of how well feedback is likely to be received. High defensiveness scores indicate that the person may be inclined to deflect criticism and to put a positive spin on things. Low scores in this area indicate that the person will probably be open to counsel and suggestion.
• Confidence. This paragraph offers observations about the person’s degree of self-confidence or lack thereof. Extremely high or extremely low scores on the anxiety measures can highlight potential problems in a coaching intervention. On one hand, if a person is overly confident, he or she may reject or ignore advice and counsel. In the case of low scores, the person may be anxious or apprehensive to the point at which he or she may be hesitant to try to change and/or may be overly self-critical.
• Need for Order. This can offer some insights about the person’s tendency to be organized and structured versus loose or seat-of-the-pants. This knowledge can help a coach anticipate potential problems due to rigidity or due to a lack of discipline and organization.
• Complexity and Openness to Ideas. Some people enjoy classroom, academic and book-learning approaches while others enjoy a more tactical, hands-on approach to learning. This section presents observations that should help structure and inform some of the suggestions for outside activities and/or readings.
• Intensity. This factor reflects the balance between an affable, agreeable and easygoing nature versus the more driven, intense or aggressive approach to achieving results. It can offer clues for general strategies of engagement.

The Probable Assets and Strengths section (page 5) offers clues as to the person’s most likely strengths and the areas that may interfere with growth and goal achievement. Of course, the coach should help the person identify and define his or her strengths and limitations through an interactive process of feedback and insight using all information that may be available. However, the factors identified here should also be carefully considered when cataloging the resources and potential downsides the person brings to the table. In general, people should rely on their strengths and make full use of them (but not to the point at which they become liabilities) to achieve their goals for growth. The Areas for Development section (page 6) may reflect things the person has already identified as targets for growth and change. It may also provide insights about factors or characteristics that could hold the person back if not addressed properly. Some of them may be potential downsides coming from an overuse of his or her strengths. These observations should be taken as food for thought rather than a definitive description of major problems or fatal flaws in the person’s makeup.

The Personality Profile (page 8) provides the personality scores upon which this report is based. This is offered for clarification and insight for the coach to help gauge the strengths of certain characteristics that may be of interest. The Scale Definitions for the factors covered in the profile can be found on page 13.

The Coaching Guidelines (page 9) provide general observations and a roadmap for a successful coaching engagement, to include suggestions for structuring various meetings and relevant readings and other resources.

The Coaching Report is available as an optional add-on to the Interview Guide. It is an addition to the standard results and does not require any additional testing.

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