How can you help someone identify their strengths and weaknesses in a job coaching session?

1 Ask open-ended questions

The first step to help someone identify their strengths and weaknesses is to ask open-ended questions that encourage them to reflect on their experiences, skills, achievements, challenges, and goals. Open-ended questions are those that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no, but require more elaboration and explanation. For example, you can ask your client: What are some of the projects or tasks that you enjoy doing the most? What are some of the skills that you have developed or improved in your current or previous roles? What are some of the areas that you would like to work on or learn more about? How do you measure your success and progress? What are some of the feedback that you have received from others? How do you handle criticism or failure? These questions can help your client to explore their strengths and weaknesses from different perspectives and sources, and to identify patterns, themes, and gaps in their self-assessment.

2 Use assessments and tools

Another way to help someone identify their strengths and weaknesses is to use assessments and tools that can provide objective and reliable data and insights. There are many types of assessments and tools that you can use, depending on the purpose and scope of your job coaching session. For example, you can use personality tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or the DISC profile, to help your client understand their preferences, motivations, and behaviors in different situations. You can also use skill-based tests, such as the StrengthsFinder or the SkillScan, to help your client identify their core competencies and areas of improvement. You can also use goal-setting tools, such as the SMART framework or the GROW model, to help your client define and prioritize their career objectives and action plans. These assessments and tools can help your client to validate and complement their self-perception, and to discover new aspects of their strengths and weaknesses that they may not be aware of.

3 Provide constructive feedback

A third way to help someone identify their strengths and weaknesses is to provide constructive feedback that can help them to recognize and appreciate their achievements, and to address and overcome their challenges. Constructive feedback is feedback that is specific, balanced, timely, and actionable, and that focuses on the behavior and performance, not on the person or the personality. For example, you can provide constructive feedback by using the STAR method, which stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. You can use this method to describe a situation or a task that your client was involved in, the action that they took, and the result that they achieved, and then highlight the strengths and weaknesses that they demonstrated or displayed in that scenario. You can also use this method to ask your client to provide examples of their own strengths and weaknesses, and to elicit their own feedback on their performance. By providing constructive feedback, you can help your client to acknowledge and celebrate their strengths, and to identify and address their weaknesses in a positive and supportive way.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?