Why I Use Assessments in Coaching

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There are dozens of assessments out there that people regularly use in hiring, team building, coaching, counseling, etc. If you include the random Buzzfeed quiz like “Which [Avenger/Firefly Character/Disney Princess] Are You Most Like?” we’d get to thousands pretty quickly.

Most people I talk to have taken some of those dozens/hundreds/thousands and many people identify with a result of one of their favorites. Many of the assessments are personality tests: Myers-Briggs and Enneagram are the two more common and popular ones. Personality tests have value, but I’m not a big proponent of them in general. They are helpful insofar as they give people insight into themselves and others, allowing us to accept diversity as beautiful and to be understanding about differences. By nature, personality tests simplify human tendencies, but there is incredible breadth to humanity and our diversity cannot truly be summarized in 4 or 18 different categories.

As a Team and Leadership Coach, I do use 4 different assessments in my coaching. None of them are personality measurements or designations. They all have to do with illuminating someone’s strengths or the way that they function best in a group or on a project.

Why do I use assessments? Mainly because they are a shortcut to providing real, meaningful help. What I can glean from an assessment could be learned by spending extensive time together, but assessment results give me a headstart. I find that it’s better to get right into the coaching by allowing the assessments to create a baseline for conversation around talents, energies, values and team dynamics.

My clients invest an hour or so in taking an assessment, and even on the occasions where the results don’t resonate deeply, it provides a wonderful jumping off point for meaningful conversation. Most often, the client immediately discovers some really helpful insights about how they think and act. Each of the assessments I use have proven to be reliable in telling me truths about a person, and the results are easily applicable in real life situations.

While I do think these assessments provide generally reliable and repeatable results, they are not sacrosanct. I believe strongly that people can and do change, sometimes even in fundamental ways. As a Christian, I have seen the Holy Spirit do incredible work in my own life to make me a new person with a reborn way of looking at the world. The ability to change is inspiring, but can also be downright scary. If you are someone who falls more on the “change is scary” side of the spectrum, I encourage you not to hold tightly to any ways to define yourself unless they are truly fundamental to your identity. Assessment results are only beneficial if they help you grow in understanding, they are not meant to define you or restrict you.

Continuing this series about the nuts and bolts of coaching, there will be a short summary of each of the following 4 assessments, when I use it, and what I believe it tells me and my coaching clients. Here are the four:

• Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Assessment

• 6 Types of Working Genius Assessment (the Table Group)

• 5 Dysfunctions of a Team Assessment (with team coaching only, also from the Table Group)

• Marcus Buckingham’s StandOut Assessment

Each of them offers the users something valuable in helping to be self- and others-aware. As we discuss these assessments over the next few articles, I hope you’ll see the value in utilizing these tools to help people to display, embrace, and win with their own superpowers and to work more effectively as part of a team.