Open communication with coaching clients is crucial for learning what we, as coaches, need to know. The information we learn from these clients is data we analyze when making a specific coaching plan for clients. And if we depend on anything as coaches, it’s data and analytics.
So, if clients are already providing information we’ll use in future sessions, why use assessment tools in coaching? Even if you’ve gone through intense coach training, these tools provide a ton of utility to your coaching practice. We do this because we can’t expect clients to tell us all of the right information by chance. We must guide them. Coaching assessment tools give our clients a platform to answer pointed questions to help us better coach them. Throughout the process, clients stand to learn something about themselves and their strengths and emotional intelligence.
The great news is many free coaching assessment tools are widely available for online and print use in your sessions. Nothing’s stopping you from implementing these techniques in your upcoming meetings. You just need to understand how these activities work and which ones are right for your coaching style. Here’s all you need to know:
What are coaching assessment tools?
Coaching assessment tools are activities that guide clients toward providing and discovering information about themselves. These tools help coachees look inward and reflect. Used across different verticals in career coaching, executive coaching, and life coaching there’s a ton of value you can get by implementing these into your coaching process.
7 free assessment tools to use in your coaching business
1. The Wheel of Life
This assessment tool for life coaching helps coaching clients take a macro view of their life instead of narrowing in on the details. It allows clients to see the big picture, which is especially helpful if they’ve come to you focused on resolving a specific problem. The life wheel examines important areas of one’s life like relationships, careers, and values. After identifying these crucial elements, the client rates how much energy they’re putting into any one part of their existence. This will help you and your client see where the balance might be off in their life.
2. VIA Inventory of Strengths
Help clients identify what they’re good at with the Inventory of Strengths questionnaire. If you and your clients understand where they excel as part of your coaching program, it’ll be easier to make an action plan that relies on these competencies and character strengths. This activity creates a strong sense of self-awareness and confidence.
3. The Enneagram Personality Test
This popular test fits individuals into one of nine personality types. Have your clients take this test and review (using a worksheet) the descriptions of their personality types to see if their traits align. Even if a client thinks the description is a bit off, this test sparks conversations about why and helps you learn more about your client. To improve your coaching relationship, you could share positive traits from your own Enneagram reading to make your clients more comfortable.
4. 5 Love Languages
Based on the book of the same name, this test shows how we all express love in different ways and helps individuals identify their love languages. This quiz is especially useful in relationship coaching as it helps clients understand how they (and their partner or other loved ones) show they care. In any type of coaching, the love languages quiz is a resource for clients to better understand their emotional intelligence and what they need to feel valued.
5. Reflective Journaling
Encourage your client to slow down and take notes on what’s going on in their lives. Sometimes we don’t absorb what’s happening to us at the moment, and journaling helps us make important observations. As you implement your coaching plan with clients, you should ask them to write a little bit about each day and how they feel about the issues you’re addressing in your coaching sessions.
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6. SMART Goal Setting Technique
SMART is a popular acronym in both coaching and business that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. When businesses or individuals consider these points when setting goals, it helps them identify achievable, finite objectives. These goals are easier to work toward because you can track progress and pinpoint milestones. There are multiple templates you can use to better set up a goal in this format. Using this technique can make help you with decision-making and a more effective entrepreneur.
7. The Satisfaction with Life Scale
Asking clients how happy they are is pretty general, and may not give you much useful information. The Satisfaction with Life Scale is one of the most popular life coaching assessment tools that focuses on five questions and has test-takers answer on a scale from one to seven, with one being “strongly disagree” and seven being “strongly agree.” The total is calculated in terms of one’s life satisfaction. This quiz presents the type of inquiry that sparks conversations that lead to more significant findings and self-reflection.
Have better sessions
Coaching exercises and other assessment tools help coaches learn more accurate information about their clients and make sessions more fun. Coachees get an opportunity to discover themselves through enjoyable activities.
Plus, many of these activities prompt clients to ask questions they may not have considered when they started their journey with a coach. Clients may think they have an idea of what they want to improve, but they could be overlooking other aspects of their lives where things are off. These comprehensive activities will help identify areas of improvement and strive to achieve your coaching clients’ goals.
At Practice, we know the challenges of coaching, and we’ll share all our tips and tricks to add to your coaching toolkit. These coaching tools are fun resources to encourage clients to share things they may not even know about themselves. Try out Practice’s other tools and leave the administration tasks to us so you can do what you’re best at and focus on helping great coaching and helping your clients succeed.
