IDM Program One, Module C

"Psychological Assessment for Coaches"

This module differs from Modules A and B in that it is not in itself developmental but provides insight and data that form an integral part of developmental feedback and coaching when using CDF. Without any attempt to turn participants into “psychologists,” the module teaches students a set of psychological interpretation skills that refine their pop-psychology notions of how people behave in organizational environments and more generally in life.

This is accomplished by using the “Need/Press Questionnaire”, a questionnaire grounded in Henry Murray’s personality theory which has been used in organizational psychology for more than 30 years. The questionnaire investigates individuals’ inborn, “psychogenic” needs, as well as how these — largely unconscious — needs play out in regard to an individual’s ideals (ideal press) and actual experiences in organizations (actual press). In short, the questionnaire explores a person’s internal workplace.

Practically speaking, in Module C students explore 5-6 “Need/Press profiles” in order to learn how to interpret outcome data deriving from answers given to the questionnaire on line (www.needpress.com). They do so using a “profile sheet” onto which they enter sample data acquired from managers and coaches in large and small companies. Specifically, students learn about three clusters of behavioral variables:

• Self conduct
• Approach to tasks
• Interpersonal perspective (“emotional intelligence”).

Each of these clusters comprises 6 pertinent variables that together are thought to determine how an individual typically acts in an organizational environment, approaches tasks in that environment, and affiliates with peers, subordinates, and supervisors.

While behavioral data about a client is of interest to a coach in and by itself , the salience of such data increases when it is interpreted from a developmental, social-emotional as well as cognitive, perspective, and thus is integrated into a comprehensive client profile. On account of such an integration several important questions can be asked and answered:

• What are the psychological handicaps that may hinder a client for progressing to a higher developmental level social-emotionally?
• How can these handicaps be addressed cognitively, through dialectical thinking, thereby lifting the client to a higher level of self awareness regarding his/her psychogenic needs (e.g., need for power) and the way he constructs organizational environments internally?
• How, on account of the developmental – social-emotional and cognitive – profile of a client can coaching on the behavioral level contribute to supporting a client’s meaning making and sense making?

Class discussions in this module concern:

1. the gathering of data into a profile sheet, a kind of visual representation of NP outcomes
2. the verbalization of what is seen in the profile sheet, based on a table of interpretations used by cohort members
3. the integration of behavioral interpretations of data with information about a client’s social-emotional and cognitive development at the time.

When all three perspectives on clients are pursued by the student, Module C functions as a synthesis module. Students take the first step toward integrating all three CDF dimensions on their way to a coaching master class or assessment case study. In this way, work in Module C ties together all that has been learned by students beginning with the introductory Gateway course.

Outcomes

Students taking Module C:

• understand clients’ internal need conflicts that shape their self conduct, approach to tasks, and emotional intelligence in the work place
• grasp at a deeper level how the “stress” and “frustration” clients are experiencing is created by their acting out their own need profile
• become aware of coaching problems that clients cannot tell them about since they know their inborn, psychogenic needs only to a limited extent (if at all)
• can make decisions about the proportion of “behavioral” and “developmental” coaching that is needed or advisable in work with a particular client, and how to integrate one with the other.

Course materials

Module C uses the following materials:

1. Volume 1 of Measuring Hidden Dimensions, especially chapter 10 (2nd edition, 2011)
2. a set of slides explaining the NP framework
3. a table of interpretations of NP outcomes (for use with the Need/Press result sheet)
4. access to the NP website for obtaining personal data about yourself (www.needpress.com)

After having taken this course, you will be able to invite your own clients to use the questionnaire and to interpret clients’ data for your own work with them.

Registration

Tuition payments are accepted in form of check, money order or major credit card using our secure online system.

Register for IDM Program One, Module C