Scott Cooksey, CSP®

Great advice! I regularly pause to reflect on what my client or prospect is sharing with me to consider “who would be a good partner to help solve this issue”. Clients appreciate it and it actually adds value to the relationship!

As a facilitator and coach, the tool is helpful. The conversation it spawns is the gold. There are lots of tools. If one is not helpful for your client, try another. Sometimes the learning outcome is far more important than the tool you used to get it.

In my experience, there are plenty of good models. As a coach, the key is learning to ask the right questions so the coachee learns the skill of in the moment discernment. Me consistent. Be inquisitive. Let the client “drive” the conversation. Ask more. Tell less.

Where many “personality assessments” are helpful, a good 360 tool will surface HOW various people around your coaching client are interpreting their behavior. Great coaching starts with identifying the gaps and letting the conversations bring them to life. Nobody sees your intent. Everybody assesses how they perceive how you show up. Managing those gaps and learning to adjust appropriately is crucial for finding yourself consistently #InPositionToWin- even better when the entire team is part of that winning spirit!

Over the years I’ve taken and used several different assessments with clients. While various organizations have their preferences, I see a tremendous advantage to using the Insights Discovery as a tool to help fuel self-awareness, find connection with others and as a foundation for adding context in the “how-to-implement” part of skill building. Many leaders are smart enough to follow a formal process for setting goals- effective and consistently successful leaders learn how to leverage those tools along with nuances pulled thru with a tool like Insights Discovery for maximum results. Winning tools help top leaders get their teams #InPositionToWin!

For the past 14 years, I’ve led hundreds of leadership, sales, and skill development workshops. Prior to that, I spent 13 years in banking and financial services. In fact, I have a degree in Finance. Does that matter? YES. When designing any development program for a commercial enterprise, often times the stakeholders who stand to gain the most from a successful program are business people FIRST. Most of them don’t care about the principles of adult learning, which clever model or assessment tool is used. Sure, those matter, but if you lead with what the org will possess AFTER the learning journey is complete, you may actually get the funding you need. Start with ROI. The rest is only detail. Get #InPositionToWin!