In today’s fast-paced world, personal and professional development must go beyond surface-level fixes. That’s where executive coaching comes in. At PCL, we’re firm believers in assessment-based coaching, and Hogan is our tool of choice. Why? Because it delivers measurable, insightful, and transformative outcomes. Here’s how it works and why it could be the game-changer your organisation needs.
Why choose Hogan assessments for coaching?
- Measurable: Hogan assessments provide a clear, objective benchmark that allows us to assess an individual’s starting point in their executive coaching development journey. This enables us to align both organisational and individual goals, ensuring progress is measurable and meaningful.
- Insightful: Hogan assessments offer valuable insights into behavioural strengths and potential development areas. This information empowers us to deliver candid, constructive feedback, fostering greater self-awareness and opportunities for growth.
- Transformative: Hogan assessments are grounded in rigorous research, offering valid and reliable insights. When interpreted by our expert coaches, these assessments can lead to profound transformations in self-understanding and relationships with others.
Not just for coachees, our coaches use it too!
At PCL, we walk the talk. Our team of coaches use Hogan assessments to gain deeper insights into their own behavioural patterns. This helps them identify biases and ultimately deliver a more impactful executive coaching experience.
Ideal coaching scenarios for Hogan assessments
We can integrate Hogan assessments into the two primary areas of our executive coaching process:
- Targeted executive coaching: This approach is used when a client identifies a high-potential individual who struggles with interpersonal interactions. The Hogan assessments provide insights into their behavioural patterns, helping us pinpoint development areas and create a focused coaching plan.
- Non-directive executive coaching: In this setting, the coachee brings their own goals and challenges, and we guide them to find solutions. While the use of Hogan Assessments is optional, we recommend using them, if appropriate, to better understand how personality and behaviour relates to their challenges.
So, how does it work?
At PCL, we often use all three Hogan assessments – HPI, HDS, and MVPI – to provide a comprehensive understanding of behaviour and development within our executive coaching:
- HPI (Hogan Personality Inventory): Identifies patterns of behaviour and provides insight into an individual’s typical functioning in the workplace. (Watch our ‘back to basics HPI‘ webinar).
- HDS (Hogan Development Survey): Focuses on potential derailers, identifying specific behaviours that may impede an individual’s effectiveness or success. (Watch our ‘back to basics HDS‘ webinar).
- MVPI (Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory): Explores an individual’s core motives and values, offering insights into what they find fulfilling in their work and what they may seek to achieve in their career. In coaching contexts, the MVPI is particularly useful for sparking discussions about career satisfaction, personal fulfilment, and alignment with current roles (watch our ‘back to basics MVPI‘ webinar).
These insights are referenced in both targeted and non-directive coaching sessions, either in relation to specific developmental areas or during spontaneous reflections that arise in conversation.
Hogan 360
We also complement these assessments with the Hogan 360 feedback tool, which offers a 360-degree perspective on how an individual is perceived by colleagues. The Hogan 360 allows us to explore an individual’s impact or address self-awareness issues. This real-world input provides an actionable roadmap for coaching, focusing on strengths and key development areas
Let us illustrate this with an example
Take, for example, an Investment Director we coached at a leading asset management firm. Their challenges? Prioritising workload, improving relationship management, and enhancing their professional impact.
The Insights:
- HPI: Low adjustment, low ambition, high learning approach.
- HDS: High excitable, elevated diligence, low colourful.
Key Issues:
- Workload management: High diligence led to perfectionism, hampering prioritisation.
- Relationship management: Low social confidence impacted collaboration.
- Impact & emotional control: Emotional volatility reduced conflict effectiveness.
Armed with these insights, the concerns raised by the director’s manager, and following a comprehensive Hogan feedback, we had six sessions with the coachee:
Session 1: Introduction and issue exploration
Established rapport and discussed concerns raised by management, encouraging the individual to share their perspectives and initiate self-reflection. Provided feedback on HPI and HDS profiles, highlighting how personality traits related to specific professional challenges.
Session 2: Profile analysis and issue alignment
A detailed exploration of the HPI and HDS scores revealed low Adjustment and high Excitable, indicating self-doubt and emotional responses, which likely impact on both Relationship management and Impact and emotional control. In addition, high Learning Approach, suggesting a need for comprehensive information, coupled with high Diligence, pointing to perfectionism, over-control and difficulty delegating, clearly impacted on the issue of Workload management.
Session 3: Workload management – strategy development
To address prioritisation and workload management, tasks were categorised into “nice-to-do” versus “essential,” and a delegation guide with a checklist was developed. Time management was enhanced through visual mapping, and team strengths were identified to improve task delegation.
Session 4: Relationship management – strategy development
Improving communication and collaboration involved building connections through micro-interactions and identifying personal barriers to initiating them. The individual was encouraged to use shared interests, such as knowledge sharing, to spark dialogue and foster stronger relationships.
Session 5: Impact and emotional control – strategy development
Techniques for managing emotions in professional settings included journaling emotional responses to identify triggers and applying mindfulness techniques like breathing or counting to 10. The individual was also encouraged to seek alternative perspectives post-incident and plan preemptive strategies for high-stress scenarios.
Session 6: Action planning and follow-up
Actionable goals were refined with a focus on prioritisation, shifting from micromanaging to big-picture thinking, while also enhancing relationship management, confidence, and collaboration. Emotional control was targeted through greater self-awareness and resilience, with a follow-up Zoom session planned to reinforce commitments.
Why Hogan works
By linking individual traits to workplace challenges, Hogan assessments provide the foundation for results-driven executive coaching. Whether it’s improving interpersonal skills, boosting career satisfaction, or navigating leadership challenges, Hogan equips us – and our clients – with the tools to achieve lasting success.
Looking to unlock the full potential within your organisation? Partner with our expert executive coaches to gain deep insights into your employees’ personalities, enhance performance, and drive growth. With over 25 years of Hogan expertise, learn more about our executive coaching services today.