Coaching assessment can drive evidence-based practice by catching up to coaching’s evolving state. Coaching develops capabilities and effectiveness and maximizes the leader’s positive impact on organizational results. Historically, leadership coaching has remediated leaders’ attitudes, knowledge, skills, and practices. Today’s coaching focuses on building and expanding the growth and influence of key players and high potentials. Yet much of what and how assessment is applied today is lagging behind this and other trends in coaching.

To move leadership coaching assessment into the 21st century it needs to reflect the evolving trends and best practices of coaching. This MasterClass explores opportunities to leverage assessment in coaching in a variety of areas:

• Expand what is assessed beyond the individual to other elements of the organizational system (relationships, teams, organizational process and culture, and the business or constituent environment.).
• Include data and assessment methods beyond just the discipline of psychology (theatre, politics, law, finance, art, anthropology, medicine, education, etc.).
• Collect data not just before coaching begins but at milestones during, at the end, and months after the coaching is completed.
• Share the responsibility of assessment and data collection and interpretation between the coach, coachee, manager, and internal experts.
• In 360 surveys and interviews, delve into qualitative details, examples, and suggestions.
• Use direct observation of the coachee and the system rather than just relying primarily on people’s perspectives of what is done and the impact it is having.

Clients are hungry to learn what they are doing and what they should do differently. Assessment in coaching can provide more actionable data to feed that learning by shifting some of the paradigms of what to assess, how to assess it, and how to use what is learned to drive sustainable change and growth.

Watch Lew Stern, PhD and Senior Advisor to the Institute of Coaching, discuss assessment: