Assessments for Your Toolkit

Personal and team assessments serve a meaningful purpose. In order to grow and develop we first need to understand who we are and where we are on the inside. Just like wanting to set a goal, or get to a new destination, first we must enter our starting position so that we know which way to go. In my practice, assessment tools have helped individuals identify their strengths and weaknesses, leadership mindset, emotional intelligence quotient, team effectiveness, and much more. Like any tool, the value in using tools is how we can apply them to meet our goals. Many of these tools are available at the personal as well as team level or organizational level. 

Gallup CliftonStrenths™

The Gallup CliftonStrenths™ informs a person about their natural way of thinking, feeling, and behaving and a way to identify individual and team talent. The CliftonStrenths™ is an approachable tool that helps us to understand who we are at our best and how to craft our life and work in ways where these attributes are actively present, so that we are  engaged, contributing, and thriving. It not only helps my clients articulate why they think or feel a certain way, but it also helps me as a coach or leader align their strengths with purpose. Knowing one’s team members’ strengths allows a leader to ensure people are focused on the activities that they are naturally inclined to do and determine how to manage any weaknesses present in the team. This also relates to motivation. We are all naturally motivated to do what we do best – there is an element of enjoyment in doing tasks aligned with our strengths that means we need no reminding, cajoling, urging, or reprimanding.

 Using the Gallup CliftonStrenths™ requires personal and collective agency and it will move you and your teams from good to great by creating space to align talent with purpose and create development and goals that are strengths-based instead of with a focus on fixing weaknesses. As a reflection of our uniqueness, the chances of someone having the same top five Gallup CliftonStrenths™ are 1 in 33 million.

Emotional Capital Report

The Emotional Capital Report (ECR) describes ten emotional intelligence dimensions in a specific moment in time required for effective individual leadership development. Emotional intelligence (EI) is like the oxygen of our being. Mindfulness and emotional intelligence go hand-in-hand. This particular assessment alludes to the significance of the way we show up for others and how to develop either our inner, other, or outer knowing. Like any skill, emotional intelligence can be developed and requires intentional training. By exploring our inner world and taking a closer look at our levels of self-confidence, self-control, and self-reliance, we can learn what skills are specifically required to develop agency. 

 Let this serve as an invitation to advance your social emotional skills to set you up for success at work, in your relationships, and your overall well-being. 

Leadership BluePrint™

The Leadership BluePrint™ provides a deep dive into the belief system of your leadership practice and how that informs your mindset, how you lead yourself, engage others, and the impact you want to have. My clients have particularly appreciated this tool due to its intricate depiction of team dynamics and what specific behaviors are required of individuals and collective agency to become more efficient and move towards a healthy thriving team. 

Team Culture BluePrint™

The Team BluePrint™ is a development tool that provides feedback on your team’s current mindset, providing leaders with a baseline to target continuous growth toward enhanced future performance. As a team, you have the opportunity to create functioning and flourishing results. Often, teams become dysfunctional and break down over the same issues. This report provides you with the opportunity to see how your team’s mindset has been shaped by individual members’ experiences, as well as past organizations and leaders that they have worked with.

As we go through the chapters, consider which tools speak to you to further engage in your development on an individual, team, or organizational level. The science, research, theory, global and industry reach behind the tools I’ve mentioned, have made these tools useful around the world, across all sectors – they are accessible, well-recognized, and trustworthy. With that said, these tools are by no means exhaustive, and there are a multitude of modalities available to you and your teams that can be integrated. Depending on your specific goals or challenges, some tools are more timely and applicable then others.