Tools for Enhancing Awareness andInitiating and Evaluating Change

LL549Week 2

1. MEETING ETHICAL GUIDELINES AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

2. ESTABLISHING THE COACHING AGREEMENT

Setting the Foundation

3. ESTABLISHING TRUST AND INTIMACY WITH THE CLIENT

4. COACHING PRESENCE

Co-Creating the Relationship

5. ACTIVE LISTENING

6. POWERFUL QUESTIONING

7. DIRECT COMMUNICATION

Communicating Effectively

8. CREATING AWARENESS

9. DESIGNING ACTIONS

10. PLANNING AND GOAL SETTING

11. MANAGING PROGRESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Facilitating Learning and Results

Sharing my background relevant to assessments

Introductions

What is your opinion of assessments in coaching?

What are your goals for the class?

Your Frame For This Class

The process of gathering and interpreting data from diverse sources in order to develop awareness and understanding

Provides information which is often measured against a set of standards or guidelines

Offers a new lens for seeing an individual or situation

What is an Assessment?

In this course, we are talking in the “tools” sense of “assessment”.

The goal is to offer a clear, and perhaps novel, picture of the individual that contributes to his/her awareness and ability to take effective action.

What is an Assessment?

“…one of the most important factors to the success of a coaching program happens before coaching begins: formal assessments. These can uncover areas of strength and weakness, drive an employee’s motivation to change, and provide a roadmap for individual development.”

– HR Focus, July 2006

Value of Assessments as Part of Coaching

“Despite the importance of pre-coaching assessments, less than 20% of employee coaching is based on sound psychological testing, observed Wayne Nemeroff, CEO of PsyMax Solutions (Cleveland).

Instead, most coaching relies on a coach’s “intuition and experience.”

– HR Focus, July 2006

Value of Assessments as Part of Coaching

“the growing demand for corporate coaches and the lack of coaching certification requirements mean that some marginally qualified people are out there offering coaching.”

– HR Focus, July 2006

Value of Assessments as Part of Coaching

Poll about experiencePoll about which assessments

Have You Used Assessments Before?

What was it?Why did you take it?What did you learn?

Have You Ever Taken An Assessment?

What did you DO with the information?Did you have a coach working with you to

enable you to take action?If so, was it effective?If not, would a coach have contributed to the

value of the assessment?

Have You Ever Taken An Assessment?

When Should You Use Assessments In

Coaching?

Before you begin working with a clientAs part of a complimentary coaching session to

provide immediate valueA tool to develop rapport and trustA marketing tool

In person, on the phone, on your web site, as part of a presentation

As part of your process of evaluating if you are the right coach for this client

When To Use Assessments In Coaching

When you start the coaching relationshipAs part of your initial client package:

Helps jump start the coachingReduces any client anxiety about what to talk aboutMinimizes your concern about where to beginProvides a baseline against which to measure

change

When To Use Assessments In Coaching

When a particular challenge comes up that the client/you want to more fully understand

To jump start the process of changeTo provide a comprehensive overviewTo enable the client to feel less overwhelmed

by the enormity or lack of clarity they have about this issue

To save time within the coaching session for doing the work

When To Use Assessments In Coaching

To help a client get unstuckAn assessment can shine a light on areas a

client may not be aware ofAn assessment can give you information that

helps you guide the client to a new focusAn assessment can shift the way in which you

are coaching and get you out of your coaching ruts

When To Use Assessments In Coaching

To evaluate changeUsing the same tool at multiple points in time

provides the client with “evidence” of their progress

Return on Investment (ROI) is demanded by some corporate and non-corporate coaching clients

This can be the basis for deciding whether to continue coaching

This can be the basis for testimonials that contribute to your building a coaching business

When To Use Assessments In Coaching

I don’t have any to use.I don’t have the credentials to use them.I don’t like assessments.My clients don’t like assessments.They are too expensive.What else?

Barriers To Using Assessments

I don’t have any to use.There are abundant assessments available to

you at no or low cost through books and the Internet.Balance Wheel, Clean Sweep, StrengthsFinder…

You can generate assessments yourself if no one else has figured out how to measure what you’d like to assess.

Barriers To Using Assessments

I don’t like assessments.What is it about them you do not like? – Are

you open to not yet making a decision on whether you like them or not?

What would it take for you to shift your perspective on this?

Barriers To Using Assessments

I don’t have the credentials to use them.Some assessments don’t require credentialsIf you find an assessment that you like that

requires a credential to use you can:Become credentialed, which can be costly yet also

provides you with an ongoing resource, new colleagues, and often a way to get referred.

Develop a relationship with another coach or consultant credentialed in this measure and refer your client to them.If you do this, decide how to include this in your

coaching and whether to join your client for the interpretation session.

Barriers To Using Assessments

My clients don’t like assessments.What is it about them they don’t like?Does this come up in other areas where they

make up their mind without trying something? What’s the impact?

Are they open to reconsidering whether an assessment might be of value to them now?

Are you comfortable that you can bring them value?

Barriers To Using Assessments

They are too expensive.Are there free or inexpensive tools that would

be valuable to your client?How have you tried to identify tools?

Have you done a simple Google search?Have you done a library search of articles?Have you posted a question to other UTD coaches,

or on Linked In or similar sites?Is your client’s not wanting to invest in

themselves a bigger issue than merely money?

Barriers To Using Assessments

Physical Envi-ronment

Fun & Recreation

Personal Growth/ Spirituality

Love & Romance

Career MoneyHealth Family & Friends

Balance Wheel: An Example

Enables collabo-ration

Holds people accountable

Develops others Embraces changeShares clear vision Provides clear

feedbackDelegates effectively Maintains balance

Wheel Of Leadership

Complete the Clean Sweep Assessment (available at http://www.betterme.org/cleansweep.html and many other sites if you google Clean Sweep Assessment)

Complete one of the values tests online athttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/valuestest.htmlValues Test: Ranking four choices for each of six items.www.authentichappiness.comValues in Action (VIA) Signature Strengths, 240 itemshttp://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/time/workinv.htmlWork Values Inventory, 45 items.

Come ready to share your experience—and to coach or be coached on your results.

Assignment for Week Two

Characteristics of assessments, including their qualitative and quantitative features.

Values homework and demo.Evaluating assessments.

Judith began coaching with a goal to have more time and energy to do the things she wanted. She wished she felt more focused.

When she first completed Clean Sweep, her total score was 44:12 on physical environment11 on money12 on health and emotional balance, and9 on relationships

She addressed the “easy” items and felt a surge of energy and confidence. Two months later, her score was 65 and she had begun to focus on what she really wanted, instead of what she did not want.

Clean Sweep: A Client Example

What do you notice about your Clean Sweep? Was there something that really pleased you

about your results?What do you notice that you are putting up

with?What is the cost of that for you?

Clean Sweep: Coaching Your Client to New

Awareness

What would you like your Clean Sweep to look like in two months from now?

When you look at your responses, what two or three things do you think would be easy to change?

What impact would that have?On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to do

this? How will you let me know?What else might you want to do to take

advantage of this new awareness?

 Awareness to Action

What awareness or value did it provide to you?

Is it essential that you as a coach have first hand experience with any assessment tool you recommend to a client?

In what circumstances would you use this with a client?

Would you recommend it to others?

Clean Sweep, As a Class

Ease of use-is it easily accessed, understood, scored, and interpreted?

Attractiveness-is it attractive and professional in appearance?

Development: Theory/conceptual base- what is the underlying theory and is this something you understand, trust, and can explain to a client?

Characteristics of Assessments:

Qualitative Features

ReliabilityValidityErrors of MeasurementNorms

Characteristics of Assessments:

Quantitative Features

Reliability: the consistency of test scores from one time to the next

“r” is a statistic that compares scores from one time to the next.

The possible range of values is -1 to +1. A value 1 is a perfect correlation, meaning the exact same scores were obtained both times.

A correlation of .8 is considered quite good for most measures.

How reliable is Clean Sweep in your view? If you retook it next week, how different would your

scores be?Are there any data to support this?

Characteristics of Assessments:

Quantitative Features

Validity: evidence that supports that a tool measures what it says it does. Some forms include:Face validity-does it look like it measures what

it says it does?Predictive validity–does a given score predict

performance? (e.g., a low self esteem score might predict that a person would not enter a “best of the best” contest)

Characteristics of Assessments:

Quantitative Features

Construct validity-does the tool accurately reflect or measure an underlying social construct (e.g., emotional intelligence) self esteem might assess different aspects

Content validity-does the measure assess all aspects of the given concept? (e.g., a measure of self esteem might assess different aspects—such as self esteem regarding appearance and self esteem regarding academic or work performance)

Characteristics of Assessments:

Quantitative Features

What kind of validity did the Clean Sweep tool have?Face validity-did it appear to measure what it

said it did (i.e., energy drains, tolerations)?Predictive validity–does a given score predict

performance? (e.g., does a high score predict greater productivity?)

Construct validity-does the tool accurately reflect or measure an underlying social construct?

Content validity-does the measure assess all aspects of the given concept (or are there other things we tolerate that aren’t included)?

Characteristics of Assessments: Validity

Errors of Measurement: various kinds of error associated with a test score that may impact scores.

How can you reduce or eliminate the influence of any extraneous factors that are unrelated to what the assessment is attempting to measure? (e.g., test taking concerns, desire to appear in a favorable light, familiarity with the measure)  

E.g., with Clean Sweep, were there factors such as concern about how you would look to your peers that made you more or less likely to check an item?

Characteristics of Assessments:

Quantitative Features

Norms: existing data on test takers that allow for the comparison of one individual's score to those of a large group to aid in interpretation

For example, with Clean Sweep, many practitioners will offer an imprecise norm such as “most people score between 30 and 60 the first time they take this” or “it’s unusual to score higher than 70 the first time you take this”

Characteristics of Assessments:

Quantitative Features

Is it a poor tool if it's not rigorously developed?  

Does it depend on your goals for the assessment?

Does it depend on your expertise and comfort with the tool?

Does it depend on the client?

Evaluating Assessments

What other criteria do you want to use for evaluation of an assessment tool?

What evaluation criteria match best who you are as a coach, the kinds of clients you enjoy most, and the kind of coaching you do?

Evaluating Assessments

Values concern what people want/what is important to them rather than how they behave.

Values assessments may be used for:Self-awareness:

What is important to and how it aligns with how you are spending your time and energy

How your values explain the challenges you are experiencing (e.g., competing values)

Career guidance: values as a tool for determining best fit with a career(e.g., someone who values innovation may not be best

suited to a career as a CPA)

Looking at a Client's ValuesPart 1

Values concern what people want/what is important to them rather than how they behave.Personnel selection: alignment between an

applicant’s values and the demands of a particular job, career, or organizational culture

Communication & Team Building: looking at common values, differing values, and ways to understand and leverage values in an organization; shared values as common ground

Looking at a Client's ValuesPart 2

Values Test: Ranking four choices for each of six items. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/valuestest.html

Five Factors Values Test. http://www.blogthings.com/thefivefactorvaluestest

Work Values Inventory http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/time/workinv.html

Your Values Assessment Experience

What is a challenging situation you are facing right now?

What are your goals in this situation?Which of your values serves you best in

accomplishing your goals in dealing effectively with this situation?

Given that xxx is a value you hold dear, what action will you take in this situation?

Is there a different priority value you want to choose to focus on instead that will impact your ability to take action?

What will you commit to doing?

Values: From Awareness to Action

Personal Interests Attitudes and Values profile.Answers questions such as what motivates you? What is

important to you? Why do you work?Ranks a person’s attitudes based on six core motivators:

Theoretical--Truth, knowledge, learning, objectivity.Utilitarian--What is useful, will work, will make money.Aesthetic--Creative expression, experience, harmony,

beauty.Social--People, interpersonal relationships, caring and

nurturing. Individualistic--Advancement, achievement, assertion.Traditional--Finding the highest values in life, living

according to clear set of rules.

Looking at a Client's Values--PIAV

Recognition: wanting to be known, recognized, appreciated, famous

Power: wanting to be in control, to succeed, and create a legacy Hedonism: wanting fun, variety, excitement, and pleasure Altruistic: wanting to help, serve, and encourage others Affiliation: wanting frequent and varied social contact Tradition: believing in personal customs, duty, hard work, and

respect for authority Security: need for predictability, structure, and order Commerce: interest in money, profits, investment, and business

opportunities Science: enjoying research, interested in technology, and

preferring data-based decisions Aesthetics: need for self-expression, wanting to infuse quality into

the look, feel, and design of work products

Looking at a Client's Values--MVPI

The Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) contains ten scales that identify a person’s core values.

Your client, a massage therapist, is having difficulty turning down clients with chronic pain who cannot afford massage. As a result, many of his clients are pro bono or discounted. He has not been able to make a reasonable living at massage and is considering applying for an insurance adjuster position and giving up his massage business. His MVPI results are:

High Scores: Security: need for predictability, structure, and order Altruistic: wanting to help, serve, and encourage others

Low Score Commerce: interest in money, profits, investment, and business

opportunities How might you coach your client, given this information?

What questions might you ask? What homework might you suggest? How might your client honor his values and his passion for his work?

Values Assessment: Client Example