Assessments and structured feedback
How I work with assessments
The question comes first. An instrument is chosen after the initial conversation, to serve the focus we have agreed. I do not start from the instrument and look for a use.
Informed consent. Before anything is completed, the person knows what is being measured, who will see the results and for what purpose. In 360 feedback, raters’ answers are aggregated and individual responses are not identifiable, except where a single rater’s role makes this unavoidable, and that is explained beforehand.
Results belong to the person. The leader sees and discusses the results first. In sponsored work, what is shared with HR or the line manager is agreed at the start, with the executive present, and I share nothing beyond that.
No report without a debrief. A report on its own invites misreading. Every instrument is followed by a debrief conversation, usually 90 minutes, in which we read the results against the person’s role, context and own experience, and decide what is worth working on.
Tendencies, not verdicts. Scores describe tendencies and how others tend to experience them. Each has favourable and unfavourable implications depending on the role and the moment. They inform judgement; they do not replace it. I do not recommend using an assessment as the sole basis for a selection or succession decision.
Standards. I am certified by each publisher to administer and debrief the instruments listed here, I subscribe to the ICF Code of Ethics and I work under regular coaching supervision.
Which instrument for which question
Most engagements use one instrument, sometimes two. The choice depends on the question.
How does a leader’s personality shape their leadership, and what tends to emerge under pressure?
Hogan Leadership Forecast Series · WorkPlace Big Five Profile · PerSight Development
How does a leader relate to others, and how do they try to influence them?
FIRO-B and FIRO Business · Influence Style Indicator
How is a senior leader experienced by the people around them?
CCL Benchmarks for Executives (360)
How does a team work together, and with the stakeholders it serves?
Team Connect 360
Where are a leader’s natural talents, and how are they being used?
CliftonStrengths
The instruments I am certified to use, the questions each one answers, and how they fit into coaching and advisory work.
A good conversation goes a long way. There are moments, though, when a leader or a team benefits from a perspective neither of us holds: how personality shows up under pressure, how colleagues experience a leader’s influence, what stakeholders expect of a team and are not saying. Assessments and structured feedback bring that perspective into the room.
I use them when they add something the conversation alone would not, and I always bring the results back into the conversation through a debrief. This page describes the instruments I work with and the way I work with them. It is written for executives considering coaching and for HR and talent leaders choosing instruments for a programme.
Hogan Leadership Forecast Series · Hogan Assessments
What it measures. Three inventories, read together. The Hogan Personality Inventory describes day-to-day leadership style and how a leader relates to others at their best. The Hogan Development Survey describes the behaviours that tend to emerge under pressure or complacency and can derail a career. The Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory describes what drives a leader and the kind of culture they tend to create around them. The series produces the Potential, Challenge, Values and Coaching reports.
When I use it. At the start of a six- or twelve-month coaching programme, with newly appointed executives, with leaders preparing for a CEO role, and as one input among others in succession planning.
Format. Three online questionnaires, around 15 to 20 minutes each. A 90-minute debrief and a short written synthesis follow.
Languages. The questionnaires are available in many languages, including Portuguese and Spanish. The debrief is in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
Benchmarks for Executives · Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)
What it measures. A 360-degree feedback instrument designed for C-suite and other top-level leaders. It gathers the views of the leader, their boss, peers, direct reports and other chosen raters on the competencies that matter at the top of an organisation and on the behaviours that can derail a senior career. Results are compared with a normative base made up only of senior-level leaders.
When I use it. With a senior leader who wants to understand how they are experienced, often a few months into a programme, when there is enough trust to hear difficult feedback and enough time to act on it. Also in board-level or CEO transitions.
Format. Online questionnaires for the leader and their raters, a 90-minute feedback session and a development plan built from it. Allow three to four weeks from briefing the raters to the feedback session.
Languages. Available in several languages. The feedback session is in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
Team Connect 360 · Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC)
What it measures. A team 360 built on Peter Hawkins’ Five Disciplines of high-performing teams. It reports on six areas: stakeholder expectations, team tasks, team relationships, stakeholder relationships, learning, and the team’s overall productivity. Respondents include the team members, the team’s primary stakeholder (usually the team leader’s manager), the people who report to team members, and other stakeholders such as clients, board members, partners or suppliers.
When I use it. At the start of a systemic team coaching engagement, to ground the work in how the team is actually experienced rather than in how it sees itself. Repeated at the end to review progress.
Format. An online questionnaire of around 15 minutes for each respondent, a report organised by respondent group, and a feedback session with the team. The team should have worked together for about six months for the data to be meaningful. The instrument is available only to practitioners accredited in Systemic Team Coaching.
Languages. The questionnaire is currently available in English only. The team session is in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
FIRO-B and FIRO Business · The Myers-Briggs Company
What it measures. Three interpersonal needs that drive behaviour in groups and relationships: inclusion, control and affection (in FIRO Business: involvement, influence and connection). For each, it distinguishes what a person expresses towards others from what they want from others. The gap between the two often explains recurring friction that neither side can name.
When I use it. With leaders who keep meeting the same difficulty in relationships, with pairs who need to work closely (a CEO and a chair, two co-founders) and with leadership teams working on how they relate.
Format. A short online questionnaire of around 15 minutes, followed by a debrief. FIRO Business uses workplace language and a leadership report.
Languages. Available in several languages. The debrief is in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
Influence Style Indicator · Multi-Health Systems (MHS)
What it measures. How a leader tends to influence others. It identifies a preferred, a secondary and an underused style among five: rationalising, asserting, negotiating, inspiring and bridging. The first two advocate a position; the last two unite people around one. The point is range: knowing which style a situation calls for and being able to use it.
When I use it. With leaders whose mandate depends on influence without formal authority, in matrix organisations, with boards, or as sponsors of change. Also in workshops on influence and in group coaching.
Format. An online questionnaire of around 15 minutes and a debrief. Works well in groups, where the styles become a shared vocabulary.
Languages. Available in several languages. The debrief is in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
WorkPlace Big Five Profile · Paradigm Personality Labs
What it measures. The Five-Factor Model of personality, written in workplace language: need for stability, extraversion, originality, accommodation and consolidation, with 23 subtraits beneath them. The leader report reads the profile against the demands of a leadership role.
When I use it. When a clear, research-based personality profile is wanted and the depth of the Hogan series is not needed, and in teams, where comparing profiles makes differences in working style discussable.
Format. A 15-minute online questionnaire, a report and a debrief.
Languages. Available in several languages. The debrief is in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
CliftonStrengths · Gallup
What it measures. A person’s most natural patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, described as 34 talent themes in four domains: strategic thinking, relationship building, influencing and executing. The emphasis is on where energy flows easily, and on how talents can be used deliberately rather than by default.
When I use it. In group and cohort programmes, where a shared and positive vocabulary helps people talk about differences, and with leaders in transition who are deciding where to invest their energy.
Format. An online questionnaire of around 30 minutes, a report and a debrief, individual or in a group session.
Languages. Available in English, Portuguese and Spanish, among others.
PerSight Development · PerSight Assessments
What it measures. Five personality traits and 20 subtraits based on the Big Five model, in a format developed at North Carolina State University’s psychometrics laboratory. Adjectives appear one at a time and the person answers “like me” or “not like me” in about a second each. The format leaves little time to compose an answer, which the publisher argues reduces impression management.
When I use it. When time is scarce, when a programme includes many leaders, or as a quick complement to a 360.
Format. An online assessment of five to seven minutes, a report and a debrief.
Languages. Available in English. The debrief is in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
MBTI · The Myers-Briggs Company
I am also certified in the MBTI and use it on request, mostly in team settings where a shared language for differences in how people take in information and make decisions is helpful.
Two ways to begin
Most assessments are part of a coaching or team programme. Two formats also work on their own, and are often the first piece of work I do with an organisation.
Executive assessment debrief
One instrument, usually the Hogan Leadership Forecast Series or Benchmarks for Executives, a 90-minute debrief with the leader and a short written synthesis of development priorities. If the organisation sponsors the work, a three-way conversation with the sponsor can follow, on terms agreed at the start. It suits the onboarding of a newly appointed executive, the preparation of a succession candidate, or a leader who wants an independent reading before deciding whether to start a programme.
Team diagnostic
Team Connect 360 with a leadership team: a briefing with the team leader and sponsor, two to three weeks of data collection from the team and its stakeholders, a half-day feedback session with the team and a set of agreed priorities. It stands on its own as a reading of where the team is, and it is the usual opening of a systemic team coaching engagement.
Questions HR and talent leaders often ask
Can we commission an assessment without a coaching programme?
Yes. The two formats above work on their own. The debrief is always included; I do not deliver reports without one.
Who sees the results?
The leader, first and in full. What is then shared with HR or the line manager is agreed before the questionnaire is sent, with the leader present. I share nothing beyond that agreement, and the leader may choose to share more.
How long does a 360 take from start to finish?
Usually three to four weeks: a few days to brief the raters, about two weeks for responses, then the feedback session. A team 360 follows a similar rhythm.
Can assessments be used for selection or succession decisions?
They can inform them, alongside interviews, track record and the organisation’s own criteria. I do not recommend using an assessment as the sole basis for such a decision, and I say so to sponsors who ask.
Which languages are available?
It depends on the instrument; each entry above says which. The debrief and any team session are in English, Portuguese or Spanish, whichever the people involved prefer.
Can you run assessments for several leaders at once?
Yes. For cohorts I run individual debriefs and, where useful, a group session on aggregated patterns, without identifying anyone.
Do you use assessments with every client?
No. Many engagements rely on conversation alone. I propose an instrument when it will add a perspective we would not otherwise have.
Start with a conversation
If you are considering an assessment for yourself, for a leader in your organisation or for a team, the first step is a conversation about the question you want answered.