Coaches and trainers tend to be optimistic people. They believe that learning for many of their clients, given the right conditions, can be as natural as eating and breathing. What’s more we tend to experience a ‘warm glow’ – a deep sense of vicarious satisfaction when witnessing a trainee or protégé acquiring new or improved competencies. This sense of satisfaction is what helps to keep us going through thick and thin. So why should we want to attempt to measure personality traits? After all, traits cannot easily be developed. They help us to estimate the more enduring and obstinate aspects of human nature compared with the rather more malleable knowledge and skills.

In a coaching session the focal points are usually the coachee’s future goals, as well as his/her current levels of accomplishment and perhaps any obstacles to progress. A trainer expects to prompt, encourage and sustain change. But personalities don’t change that much. Arguably, personality metrics are more relevant to selection and positioning decisions than they are to developmental processes. However, a diagnostic approach to helping a client learn could start with ‘where the client is at’, not only in terms of future plans, current skills and organisation needs but also in terms of personality. A judgement about the easier- and harder-to-develop aspects of a person may provide a useful agenda item for a coaching session. ...

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