Who are we working for?

A fundamental question that too few leaders ask themselves honestly. Understanding who you're truly serving — and why — can transform your approach to work and leadership.

Too many leaders blindly trust personality assessments, mistaking polished reports for truth and ignoring the real work: understanding the person behind the profile, not just ticking boxes.

Who are you?

Key takeaways

• Leaders, always check the validity and reliability of any personality assessment before using it—never assume the results are absolute truth, no matter how scientific the tool claims to be.
• You don’t need a complex questionnaire to understand your client; a quick self-assessment using DISC profiles often provides a practical starting point for meaningful coaching conversations.
• When you want a broader perspective, encourage your coachee to ask five trusted people for feedback—this simple 360 approach can reveal valuable insights beyond any formal assessment.

As we saw in our first column: step one is, who are we really? Next is, who do we have in front of us?

Step 2

A personality assessment can speed things up. However, with personality questionnaires there are things to watch out for. Every assessment should always be viewed through two lenses.

Validity do we measure what we think we measure?

Reliability to what extent do we get the same results if we measure at different moments?

And please, even the most predictable Personality Questionnaires still have limited validity. In other words, never present the results as the truth! The final point here is the size of the reference group. Mind you, there are even assessments on the market without any reference group! Without any science or proof!

There are countless personality assessments these days. Choose wisely and avoid getting into the superficial level of horoscope type of assessments. Choose for an assessment that has a scientific basis ànd that is easy for your client to remember.

You don’t always need to use a personality questionnaire to understand your client; you can also ask your coachee to do a quick self-assessment and ask where she recognizes herself most. For instance use the four personality types of DISC:

Blue profile: steadiness

Yellow profile: conscientiousness

Red profile: influence

Green profile: dominance

Nine out of 10 times, this will give you a good starting point. accurate enough to set the agenda. if helpful, you can also create a 360 version by letting your coachee ask five trusted people to give their perception too. under- and over-thinkers

As your client goes through the coaching, it’s important to consider whether someone is an under- or an over-thinker. Let me explain. An over-thinker enjoys the thinking process itself. She wants to have a lot of data before deciding. She will analyze sometimes more than is healthy to make progress.

The under-thinker, on the other hand, enjoys action. And has a tendency not to think things through. If this goes on for years, he will start to bite his own tail. And the person loses impact because his actions are superficial, and he gets easily distracted.

To be effective as a coach, you need to know what your own preference is. Know yourself and be better able to assist your coachee.

No assessment can replace genuine curiosity—leaders who rely solely on questionnaires risk missing the deeper truths that shape real executive performance.

Over to you.