Assessment, Coaching & Mentoring

Individual and Team Assessment and Coaching Enhances Business Driven Action Learning Program Success.

Our experience over the past 20 years, and working with such companies as ABB, Boeing, DP/DHL, General Electric, ITOCHU, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oreal, Rio Tinto, SABMiller, Samsung and many others confirms that adding an individual and team assessment and coaching component effectively bridges the gaps between the Business Driven Action Learning experience, paraticipants' unique business situations, and each participant's personal development objectives.

  • Boosts participant engagement
  • Accelerates individual and team learning
  • Enhances participant appreciation of the program
  • Facilitates sustainable post-program learning

Assessment

GEL's executive coaching team are experts in selecting and leveraging an organization's existing assessment tools and providing feedback on a wide-variety of well-accepted and globally recognized 360 degree competency, cognitive and personality, emotional intellegence, values and learning styles tools. As part of the design phase, our team plays an important role in determining the tools and methods to be used for gathering baseline information about each participant. The data derived from these tools is the basis for providing individual feedback, defining the overall characteristics of the participant pool, and in some programs for establishing the composition of teams.

As part of the design phase, GEL plays an important role in determining the tools and methods that will be used for gathering baseline information about each participant.  The data derived from these tools is the basis for providing individual feedback, defining the overall characteristics of the participant pool, and in some programs for establishing the composition of teams. In general, the information gathered for each participant falls into several categories including:
  • Biographical and Background 
  • Competencies and Behaviors
  • Performance Strengths and Personal Challenges
  • Personality and Problem-solving Skills
  • Learning Styles

Taken together, the information derived from these tools provides the foundation for participant reflection and insights about key strengths, personal challenges and the skills that will need developing as their respective careers progress.  The data also provides insights as to how the participant might be perceived within the context of the BDAL program and can be used establish a context for reflection and insight as the program proceeds.

Once selection tools and assessment methods have been finalized, GEL assumes responsibility for all aspects of the assessment process including acquiring tools, coordinating and distributing assessment materials to participants, conducting interviews with Supervisors, monitoring participant progress as assessments are completed, gathering and aggregating assessment data, and preparing assessment reports to be shared with individual participants.

Performance Strengths and Personal Challenges

As a method of engaging each participant’s immediate supervisor as an active internal coach and to make certain that there is a good alignment between the supervisor’s point of view, the participant’s self-defined personal challenges and development goals and the focus of feedback and coaching, GEL conducts interviews with each participant’s supervisor and the organization’s Learning and Development staff as part of the pre-program assessment process.  Key topics covered during these conversations include:
  • Participant’s key leadership strengths (e.g. what does the participant do really well)
  • Participant’s key leadership challenges (e.g. what does the participant need to improve)
  • Participant’s key development objectives (e.g. what skill(s) is the participant actively working on to develop)
Participants are made aware of these dialogs, are given feedback about the conversations, and encouraged to engage their immediate supervisors as an internal coach around key development goals.

Information about each participant’s general background and current role is gathered to establish rapport and understand the broad context of the each participant’s present situation. Key topics generally include current and prior roles, educational background and special skills, hobbies and interests and personal and professional aspirations. Key to this discussion are an exploration of important business and development goals and challenges that will serve as a context for personal reflection and learning throughout the program.

The Measure of Competencies, Values and Behaviors

Information about participant leadership competencies, values and behaviors are generally gathered using a process of 360 degree assessment. Using this method, the participant her or himself along with his or her manager(s) and a sample of peers, direct reports and customers/others provide feedback on a standardized set of leadership competencies, behaviors and values.  GEL partners with Caliper and several other well know providers of customized and off-the-shelf 360 assessment tools. In situations where an organization has already established a defined set of leadership competencies and 360 processes, existing tools can be incorporated into the coaching feedback.
 
360 Assesment

Performance Strengths and Personal Challenges

While GEL coaches are experts in the selection, administration and interpretation of most major personality and cognitive measurement tools, we have partnered with and have a special relationship with Caliper Corporation, an international developer, publisher and provider of personality, cognitive skills and 360 measurement.  The CaliperPlus suite of tools provides an integrated measure of personality, problem-solving skills and 360 leadership competencies into a single integrated report format.  Core competency categories assessed by this battery include behaviors related to:
  • Influence and Persuasion
  • Interpersonal Relationships
  • Visioning and Problem Solving
  • Organization, Discipline and Time Management 

Personality Assesment

Learning how we learn is a core construct of BDAL  Based on the work of Honey and Mumford and David Kolb, the Learning Styles Questionnaire measures preferred learning styles as defined by four categories: Activist, Reflector, Theorist and Pragmatist. Unlike personality traits, it is thought that with proper insight and reflection, learning styles can be easily adapted to a particular situation or context. 
 
While results and feedback regarding participants’ 360s, personality and problem-solving assessments are treated as highly confidential and shared only between the coach and the participant, the results of the Learning Styles Questionnaire are non-threatening, easily interpreted and can be readily and openly shared between and among participants.  We have found this tool to be very useful in helping individuals and teams reflect upon how they approach the learning process and to consider how to adapt their various styles to better accomplish individual and collective goals.
 
Learning Styles

Measuring Leadership Behavior

The measurement of competencies and behaviors using 360 tools and the gathering of information regarding participant background, performance strengths and personal challenges from immediate supervisors provide a basis for defining “how” the participant presently behaves as viewed from the perspective of his or her key stakeholder groups. The measurement of personality and problem solving skills provides a basis for evaluating the participant’s own internal assessment of the personality traits and approaches to problem solving that can affect those external perceptions. Taken together, the “how” the participant behaves, measured by gathering information from stakeholder groups and the “why” behaviors are likely to occur, measured by appropriately selected personality and problem solving assessment tools, provide a strong foundation for defining strengths, identifying personal challenges and establishing development strategies that can be applied both within and external to the BDAL program.

Coaching

The Focus of Coaching

BDAL Executive Coaches focus on the growth and development of individual participants and provide observations, feedback and provided subject matter expertise on team effectiveness, process and development. 

  • Gathering information about each participants pre-existing leadership behaviors/competencies, personality characteristics, problem solving skills, and learning styles;
  • Providing context-rich feedback about each participant’s behaviors and competencies based upon information gathered as they enter into the BDAL program; 
  • Encouraging and facilitating participant question thinking, reflection, the identification of personal challenges and selection of learning/development objectives; 
  • Providing a forum and safe harbor for the participant to examine and discuss the relationship between feedback, personal challenges/development objectives and their experience within the BDAL program; 
  • Serving as a subject matter expert (when asked) on the tools and strategies of executive leadership and team development, as well as other organizational change management tools and systems; 
  • Facilitating participant-led insights and strategies for transferring learning from the BDAL context back to ongoing roles and assignments and challenges; 
  • Engaging the participant in post-program coaching to facilitate reflection on the BDAL experience, key learnings and ongoing work on personal challenges and development goals; 
  • Providing feedback to company talent management professionals, internal coaches and line managers to facilitate future participant development.

Our World-wide team of Executive Coaches are well-qualified and seasoned professionals.

Located around the world, GEL's team of executive coaches are well-qualified and seasoned professionals having strong academic credentials in the behavior sciences and business credentials including significant and varied experience in the fields of human resources, talent assessment and management, change management and organizational development. All of our coaches have held line managment roles, many and the most senior levels of their organizations.

GEL coaches focus on the leadership process itself: offering observations and feedback, faciliating self-reflection, engaging participants in questions thinking that challenges mindset biases and encouraging participants to engage in the BDAL process in a manner that raises awarness, encourages experimentation and facilitates life-long learning.

Working as a fully integrated member of the BDAL team, GEL's coaches assist inidivdual particpants process and clarify information about their unique behaviors, personality, problem solving and preferred styles of learning, help establish a clear definition of personal challenges (PCs), and profide assistance in helping participants identify specific development goals to be incorporated into their personal development action plans.

Depending upon program design and budget considerations, the individual coaching role might be limited only to assessment and a single contact with the participant during which assessment feedback is provided and development goals established. Or, within more extensive designs, the coach might meet with the participant on multiple occasions both during and just after the formal program.

Mentoring

GEL has assisted companies to design and implement Mentorship programs across generations and also programs that are gender specific. For more details please contact us.

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