Interpersonal skills coaching starts with increasing self-awareness, using a variety of tools and assessments.

Do you already know your strengths and weaknesses as a leader? High self-awareness and identification of how others perceive you allows you to make choices that will help you achieve success in a whole new way – professionally and personally. Naturally it follows that improving interpersonal skills or “people skills” are at the heart of much of our coaching.

Understanding “why” you are doing what you are doing is an essential factor in your growth. Not only is “your why” your motivating force, your energy and focus, it also has great impact on your effectiveness and performance.

There are a variety of great assessment and survey tools available. They will provide you – among other things – with insight into your personality, interests, attitudes, behaviors and aptitudes. The results will highlight areas to work on during coaching, such as interpersonal skills like active listening, or leadership skills like effective delegating.

A personalized coaching strategy is developed using results from assessments as a foundation, and always aligning with your specific objectives and desired goals.

As each person and coaching client is an individual with unique characteristics and qualities, I do not limit myself to one set of tools or one coaching method. My experience of many years as a business coach has exposed me to a breadth and depth of processes, tools and methodologies.

These valuable resources paired with my business background and perspective allow me to choose the most effective approach one for the person and situation.

“Change your thoughts and you change your world”

– Norman Vincent Peale

Some examples of assessment tools that can provide you with an understanding of how you can capitalize on your strengths and understand your limitations are:

The DISC Behavioral Style Assessment

This tool identifies which one of four core behavioral styles you tend to demonstrate and how you use a blend of all the styles in your interactions with others. The acronym “DISC” is taken from the first letter of each of these four main behavioral traits:
D – Dominance
I – Influence
S – Steadiness
C – Conscientiousness
When you understand your own behavioral and communication styles and are able to identify the styles of others, you can use this knowledge to forge stronger work and personal relationships.

TTI TriMetrixHD®:

In combination with DISC Behaviors and Motivators, the TriMetrixHD® is an innovative talent management tool that is used in training, for promotion, selection, coaching, managing, and succession planning. Based on a unique 55-factor analysis it examines the behavior that a person brings to the job, the motivators that drive them, and looks at the potential to provide the competencies and acumen required by the job. It assesses “how” a person will behave, “why” they behave the way they do and “what” potential they bring. The in-depth assessment capacity of this tool allows for an accurate picture to be formed.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

This is probably the most widely used personality inventory in the world. It helps leaders understand what aspects of their leadership style are “hardwired” and how to work with those strengths and limitations most effectively.

Workplace Motivators:

Beneath our observable behaviors are the drivers and motivators that explain our actions. By understanding our interests, attitudes and values, we know what propels us into action and what causes conflict in our lives. This assessment helps you understand how to increase your job satisfaction and fulfillment, what may motivate other people with whom you interact, and how to appreciate the viewpoint of others who see life differently from you.

EQ-I 2.0®

“Emotional Intelligence is at the very heart of a leader’s ability to create the kind of positive climate that inspires loyalty and motivates performance.”(Malloy & Goleman, 2013).

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a set of emotional and social skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships and cope with challenges. It is about using emotional information in an effective and meaningful way by understanding, interpreting and responding well to the emotions of others. The EQ-I 2.0® measures your emotional intelligence and provides numerous practical strategies for increasing it.

360 Degree Assessments:

It is critical to a leader’s success to understand how he/she is perceived by superiors, peers, direct reports and other stakeholders. Getting feedback from these assessments increases your self-awareness and helps us to establish goals for your coaching.

Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI)

This assessment allows you to learn the motives that influence what we see, feel, say and do. It can be used individually or within a team to understand motivational drivers and how those drivers affect our relationships, especially when there is conflict.

TTI Job Benchmarking tool

The TTI’s patented Job Benchmarking process is a unique and effective assessment tool because it does not benchmark the person in the job, but the job itself. With the help of an interactive process, the four key phases can be duplicated across all positions within the company:
In the first phase, the position will be analysed (why the position exists, how successful it has been, its history and development and how it fits the company strategy). In phase two, key accountabilities of the position are defined. Phase three creates a benchmark for the job and in phase four, talent is compared to the job benchmark.

Job Benchmarking ensures the best job fit. It will help you attract the best candidates, save you time and funds and reduces the learning curve with new employees who are strategically matched to fit your company.

TeamPulse

Team Pulse is an online team survey designed to provide teams with an objective view of their performance. Based on both research and experience, TeamPulse enables a team to assess itself against nine different elements of high performance: Vision, Values, Leadership, Climate & Culture, Change, Emotional Resilience, Communication, Performance and Team Dynamics. The results are correlated to provide a team overview, which can then be analyzed in further detail and action taken to close any gaps.

Stages of Growth X-Ray:

Starting up and running a business is a very high-risk proposition – even if you’ve done your homework, have a great business plan, a wonderful marketing strategy and great partners. Business research has proven that growing successful companies go through predictable stages of growth. Complexity increases as more people are added and processes meet changing customer demands. The Growth X-Ray is a strategic, internal alignment tool that allows CEOs and management teams to look at the deeper-lying reasons behind the company’s challenges, address key issues for the company’s relevant stage of growth and increase performance.