How can you use psychometrics in coaching and leadership development?

Psychometrics can add considerable value to a coaching or development conversation by giving the participant a structured reference point for discussing their potential, strengths and natural working style.

The goal is not to tell a person “what they are like”. It is more useful to explore together how they use their potential in their current role, and which ways of working help or hinder their goals.

Why can assessment support coaching?

A development process often begins with questions: What do I want to change? What helps me today? What limits my effectiveness? How do I respond in particular situations?

Without additional information, the answers may draw mainly on the participant's self-assessment.

A psychometric report offers additional material for reflection. It may highlight areas the participant had not considered or help name patterns they have noticed in themselves for years.

Even a strength may need conscious management

Development does not always mean “fixing weaknesses”.

Sometimes it is more valuable to make better use of a person's natural strengths.

At the same time, even a strength can stop being helpful when used automatically or in the wrong context.

A useful assessment should therefore lead to this question: When does this way of working help me, and when should I try a different behaviour?

Psychometrics in leadership development

In work with leaders, psychometric information can support self-awareness, preparation for a new role, development planning, succession, work on management style and individual coaching.

It can also provide a starting point for discussing team collaboration and decision-making.

Read more about using psychometrics earlier in a career in our article on psychometrics in recruitment and candidate–role fit.

What should psychometrics avoid doing?

A report should not replace the coach or the development conversation.

Nor should it reduce a person to a profile or set of results.

Value emerges when findings are related to the participant's specific situations, goals and decisions.

Business example: a successful expert becomes a director

An experienced expert achieves strong results for years and is promoted to director. In the new role, they are responsible for several teams and their managers' development, as well as their own work.

After a few months, they notice they are overloaded. They still become involved in details, often solve problems themselves and struggle to leave important decisions to others. They do not see this as a problem: for years, this way of working helped them succeed.

Psychometric assessment can offer a new perspective on their natural working style. The report provides material for a coaching conversation: which predispositions remain strengths, and which need to be used more consciously in the new role?

Instead of hearing “you must change”, the participant gains a starting point for specific development experiments. For example, they can observe when they automatically take over responsibility, deliberately delegate selected decisions to managers and review the outcomes afterwards.

Psychometrics does not create a development plan for the participant. It can, however, help them reach the questions that really matter in coaching more quickly.

iP121 and the iP Coach report

At Advisio, Insightful Profiler™ iP121 assessment can provide a starting point for further development work.

The iP Coach report helps translate information about potential and working style into a deeper conversation and an ongoing process with the participant.

Psychometrics is therefore a beginning, rather than an endpoint: the start of work on consciously using potential in real professional situations.

Explore Insightful Profiler™ iP121 and iP Coach

Explore Insightful Profiler™ iP121 and iP Coach