Even if you’ve already decided that assessments are a valuable tool in your practice, one question remains — which one is the right one to help you clients be successful?
To pick the right assessment you first have to know which kind of problem you’re looking to solve, and get familiar with the Three Parts of the Mind.
DOWNLOAD: Essential Assessment ChecklistAs a consultant, understanding and using all three mind components can give you a strategic advantage to boost productivity in your clients’ workplaces. The three parts are:
Let’s go over how assessing each of these mind components can be useful when coaching:
By incorporating a combination of all three types of assessments, consultants can offer comprehensive solutions to their clients. Addressing knowledge gaps, interpersonal dynamics, and task execution tendencies ensures a holistic approach to team improvement.
However, in specific situations, consultants might opt for one type of assessment over the others, tailoring their approach based on the unique needs of each case.
Cognitive assessments, like the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test, are great tools for consultants aiming to understand their clients’ knowledge or their general ability to reason. And while they might not be the go-to for group settings, they’re great for individual coaching.
On an individual level, a cognitive assessment provides you with an understanding of where your client — or their team — may need some additional training or experience to fill any gaps. The reality is that some of the brightest people don’t always get a lot done and while they may be a team of super-smart people, it doesn’t mean that team will function well.
So, as a consultant, going beyond cognitive assessments is key to helping clients build a team that’s not just smart but actually works well together. By adding cognitive assessments to your toolbox, you’re giving clients the inside scoop on where their team needs a boost – making them not just brainy but also a powerhouse in getting things done.
Most of the popular assessments on the market measure the affective part of the mind. These assessments are useful for understanding what motivates a team member, knowing what their values are, and how they prefer to interact with others (e.g., are they an introvert or extrovert?).
So, if you’re hired to deal with team hiccups — especially if these problems are rooted in clashes of values or differing views on what’s important, or even how team members prefer to engage — affective assessments, such as Gallup’s CliftonStrengths® assessment, or Predictive Index® or even DiSC® and Enneagram are very useful tools for helping pinpoint those differences in values and interpersonal skills.
But it’s important to note that while affective assessments are great for shedding light on values and interpersonal dynamics, they sometimes fall short in the reliability department. People’s likes, dislikes, preferences, and even motivations change over time.
Personality also doesn’t predict results in terms of problem-solving or decision-making. Affective assessments are great for traditional team building — where you’re looking to build camaraderie and interpersonal ease on a team, but they’re not great for actually building a team because they don’t tell you who should be doing which tasks. That’s what leads great consultants to measure the third part of the mind — conation.
The conative assessment will tell you specifically how a person takes action, regardless of their personality or cognitive abilities. And this is, perhaps the most practical.
The Kolbe A™ Index is used to gain an understanding of how each individual in the team makes decisions, solves problems, and works together with others. This conative assessment is much more reliable than other assessments and you can count on the results for a lifetime.
For example, you’re working with a client who has a team member who ticks all the boxes – they’re highly intelligent and seamlessly integrate into the company culture with stellar interpersonal skills. However, despite these strengths, they consistently fall short of meeting the job expectations set by your client. That could be a conative mismatch.
Unlike affective assessments, uncovering the conative part of the mind arms consultants with an understanding of how a client and their team will execute in specific domains (such as dealing with details, organization, uncertainty, and tangible solutions), so it can be used for improving team productivity, team communication, job alignment, and even hiring new team members.
Understanding how clients operate across the cognitive, affective, and conative realms can significantly amplify consulting effectiveness.
It’s not just about understanding how each client operates; it’s about equipping yourself with the insights needed to drive tangible improvements in team dynamics, productivity, and overall client satisfaction.
If you’re curious about learning more about the Kolbe assessment and the benefits of its personalized approach, check out our certification program.
Gladly.
We’ve created this simple checklist describing the three parts of the mind, the most common assessments measuring each part, and the most common questions or people-related problems solved by each type of assessment.
DOWNLOAD: Essential Assessment Checklist
