Executive Coaching - A Guide For The HR Professional.pdf

48 EXECUTIVE COACHING
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• Testing. Some coaches use individual psychometric
tests. Some tests require professional qualifications,
either through a certification process by the publisher
or by educational background. In the hands of a competent
practitioner, they can be very helpful. These
include personality tests, interest inventories, learning
styles, and interpersonal style tests.
• Existing qualitative and quantitative data from performance
appraisals, attitude surveys, customer satisfaction surveys,
and training programs. The information from these
sources can be very helpful to the coach, particularly at
the start of a coaching program, because it provides
insight into how the client is being perceived by
various parts of the organization.
• Observations of the client. Experienced coaches have
skills in observing and recording behavior, and the
information gathered from direct observations of the
client during meetings, phone calls, and presentations
can be very useful. The coach may also ask to see written
materials from the client such as emails. All of this
can provide powerful real-world data, especially when
combined with data from assessments.
How much historical data to include? This depends on the nature
of the client’s issues. It can be really helpful for the coach to understand
client behaviors that may have a long history. And it can be
helpful for the client to reflect back and gain greater self-awareness
and insight. However, the focus of the coaching needs to be on how
the behavior will become more adaptive in the present and future.
Using Multi-Rater Feedback in Coaching
Larger organizations often develop their own multi-rater forms,
which reflect the behaviors or cultural issues of importance to the