Coaching Others

If you are a coach, the strengths profile could be a useful tool for you – especially when working with clients who are unsure about their future.  It is about what you do, not who you are. The focus is entirely on activity, not on personal qualities, so the results are immediately practicable:  ‘I can do more of this, less of that’.  This makes it an excellent aid to coaching.

The profile is written in normal business language, and uses no fancy labels, so you will not need to do any translation for your clients, and can focus on moving from understanding to exploring future options.

It deals primarily in energy levels – another gift to a coach! Your client will give you in the moment feedback – non-verbal as much as verbal – about their strengths and non-strengths.

Technical Information

Authored by a member of the British Psychological Society who is accredited in psychological testing, you can be sure that there are no technical concerns about the Profile.  It is not a psychological test, it is officially defined as an Inventory, which means there are no objectively correct answers that can be assessed against validity or reliability criteria.

It is completely transparent – whatever the user puts in is what comes back in the report.  The only measure of validity is the user’s honesty.  They must believe it’s just for them, not for assessment, and then the results will be totally valid.  For this reason, it works well when the results are shared only with their coach.

Although the Profile reflects the users’ content back to them, it does deliver fresh information, holding up a mirror to give them a fresh perspective. The questionnaire prompts you to think systematically about a wide variety (about 50) aspects of work.  Then it asks you not how well you do them, but how you feel about doing them.  Not many people think that clearly in that way across such a range of activities – even the most mature, self-aware users have had surprises!