Blog series by Joann Evans
Joann Evans holds a B.S. in microbiology and chemistry. She is also a certified Paralegal. She has 20 years’ experience in quality assurance, control and engineering in fields such as pharmaceutical, medical device, IVD, biotech and blood banking. This blog series is her journey through being coached and then earning her coaching certification.
Our 3rd coach training webinar was entitled, “Understanding Your Client.” I have to say that this was the best class so far. After class we were given an assignment based on what we learned about some basic personality styles. While I do not like labels, personally, I feel that in the case of coaching it may be helpful. Besides, in class we talked about in-the-moment awareness instead of thinking we knew for all time. The homework assignment was extremely useful because it helped to solidify the concepts. I found it relatively easy to recognize personalities within the people I came across after class.
It was explained to us that people will tend to act from a place of either logic or emotion. They will also communicate either passively or aggressively. When you look at these two possible modes with two possible paths to take there are four possible outcomes. Each of these four possible outcomes has been labeled by the Center for Coaching Certification as Pleaser, Celebrator, Investigator and Achiever. I’d have to say that at first I was skeptical about if people easily fall into one of these buckets – well, they sure seem to. I’ve worked with personality tests in the past such as Myers Briggs and a few others. I don’t typically like them because they can be difficult to remember. At one company a personality test was administered that was used for a hiring decision. The outcomes were made available to managers but I found that I just, frankly, never had the time to look at them. Oh, these evaluations had a ton of great information but they were too difficult to use. On the flip side, this tool is somewhat easy to remember. As a result of having completed the homework, I find that I now have an awareness of each type. I think that by having determined a prototype for each personality it will be easier to remember it. By sitting down for an hour and reflecting on what I wrote up in my homework assignment I believe I can memorize this information. When I encounter a pleaser in my work a particular approach for them will come to mind. When I come across a person that is a celebrator then the picture of a certain energy level will surface. I feel these visual examples will help me to recall the listed do and don’t information easily.
Again, the tool provided will be very helpful. During a coaching session when I encounter someone who matches a type at that time then I can call on that visual to help me understand how to work with them in that moment. I believe these four types will be very helpful while coaching. I can’t wait to learn more!!
