What are the best practices for debriefing a career assessment tool with a coachee?

The first step is to approach the outcomes with an open mind. Why use this tool? The key part of preparation is understanding why you need to use the tool in the first place. Now how will it help the person being coached to use it for their success. Remember this Not just a one-time activity but a continuous process that supports you on your journey towards professional success!

Effective career assessment debriefing involves: preparing to understand the insights, creating a comfortable discussion environment, explaining the tool's purpose and limitations, presenting results with a focus on strengths and growth areas, encouraging self-reflection, linking results to career goals, setting actionable objectives, providing support and resources for further development, following up to adjust goals, and seeking feedback to enhance future sessions. This method ensures insightful, supportive debriefings that drive actionable career development steps.

Especially when using psychometric tools with a client, I always take a few minutes to review my own profile before looking at their assessment output. This allows me to 1) refresh my memory regarding the biases and barriers I might hold (as an individual) that could influence my perception, and 2) settle into a more neutral state of mind that allows me to analyse their results more objectively.

The first step is to approach the outcomes with an open mind. Why use this tool? The key part of preparation is understanding why you need to use the tool in the first place. Now how will it help the person being coached to use it for their success. Remember this just a one-time activity but a continuous process that supports you on your journey towards professional success!

Treat this session the same way that you would a regular coaching session with the client. The only different is that you will be introducing an assessment tool as a way to deepen growth and development in the client. I always start by centering the client and not the tool. That means checking with the client to see how they are feeling about the feedback or report. Understanding what their reaction was to the insight or feedback is important to bring in their perspective so that they feel heard. Then, I partner with them to explore the assessment results together, highlighting strengths and areas for growth.

In my experience, being a good listener is an excellent tool in rapport building. You also need to listen and understand the coachee with an open mind and a wide horizon of thoughts.

Especially when using proven, and validated, psychometric tools (like the Hogan [HPI, HDS, MVPI] Assessment) discussions about how even a strength can become a liability if 'over-used' can create awareness regarding the benefits of reflection and personal observation.

Any assessment tool provides a framework and unique scores of the individual. It’s important to understand how a particular dimension score plays out in the world of the individual. The numbers tied to the story as the person shares create insights and new awareness about the individual. The underlying assumption is that individual is the expert on themselves and explorations through the assessment are helping them connect some dots to explore new insights. Another important link is to connect the new awareness and insights to the impact they are having in their context. This leads to prioritising development areas and potential actions.

In my experience, you should ask as many open ended questions to the coachee as possible. This will make them think and explore the aspects that they haven’t thought off. This way will also teach them to look at things or situations from multiple perspectives.

I agree, also as you’ve earned their trust by building a rapport, hence they will find it easy to discuss their hardships and obstacles with you. You should be the coachees confidant. Also, you can help them understand the market situation better. This can result into better decision making for the coachee

The assessments are conversation starters. The primary purpose of most assessments is to evoke awareness about the ways of being and the perceived or hidden capacity of a coaching client. However, some blended assessments that take into consideration mindsets, behaviors, strengths, and outcomes are more dynamic and can be used as an ongoing feedback tool in coaching.