5 Best Tools and Exercises For Career Coaches to Use With Clients

16:56 12 August 2021

While some career coaches have experience with a variety of sectors and can advise others with specific specialties, all career coaches have a few core skills in common.

 

One of these is career self-awareness, enabling career coaches to reach career goals.

 

Here are five career coaching tools that can help you gain career self-awareness:

 

Tool #1: My Personal Branding Interview by Steven R. Covey

 

Grab your career coach’s attention with this test. The structure of the questions includes qualitative statements about your attitude toward yourself and career awareness (e.g., “My brand personality is....”). You can then use these insights to inspire career choices or a business plan for an enterprise in which you want to be the star – but which would also benefit from your unique personal qualities (e.g., being extremely good at listening or communicating with customers).

 

More information on this test here: https://www.personalbrandingblog.com/personal-branding-interview-stephen-r-covey/

 

Tool #2: Career Interests test

 

The second career coaching tool we'd like to share with you is a career coaching tool called the career interests test. This career coaching tool helps people determine their career interests and working environment preferences by identifying career themes from an individual's personality profile. The Career Interests Test also lets you discover your natural proclivities and tendencies at work.

 

New career coaches can benefit from this career coaching tool especially if they are planning to work with career changers. Career changers often have no idea whatsoever what career field they'd like to go into after changing careers or which career would best utilize their unique strengths and abilities. This career coaching tool will help them quickly explore a number of different career options and determine where their natural interests lie.

 

This career coaching tool is not that easy for new career coaches to administer; it's one of the more complicated ones. Fortunately, you can find a lot of resources online on how to properly administer the test so you don't need any training yourself – all you have to do is read about it first, then start using it immediately with your clients!

 

Tool #3: Strengths & Weaknesses Questionnaire

 

The third career coaching tool we'd like to share with you is a questionnaire that will help you identify your strengths, weaknesses, values, work-life priorities and goals. The survey will then compare these factors against the time frame of five years so that it can offer valuable insight into career options best suited in meeting your objectives....

 

The best strengths questionnaire to use would be the VIA survey – it is the only career assessment which has been validated by over 200 scientific studies for career coaching purposes.

 

One of the main reasons why we all need this career questionnaire is to prevent career mistakes and let us know if there's any mismatch between our abilities and career paths. As career coach, you're supposed to be part of your client's support system....

 

In order to achieve higher success rates in career management, career coaches can either create their own strengths questionnaires from scratch or use pre-existing assessments such as the VIA (Values in Action) Survey and Eulberg/Lumley Career Development Questionnaire...

 

As a career coach, being able to administer an effective strengths questionnaire allows you to make sure both that you are used a validated method for assessing clients.

 

Tool #4: Career Interest Inventory

The fourth career coaching tool we'd like to share with you is a career interest inventory. This career assessment tool will help you determine if your career interests align with your career goals. It's helpful in determining career direction and can also assist in career planning, job selection, career change and more....

 

More information can be found here: https://www.careerkey.org/career-tests/career-interest-inventory

 

Tool #5: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

 

The final career coaching tool we'd like to share with you is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. In one way or another, this personality test has been part of career coaching for years because it provides invaluable insight into the diversity of personality types and how they relate to other people...

 

The MBTI is the best-known career coaching tool. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a career interest test that helps individuals discover their personality type based on the four dimensions of Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling and Judging/Perceiving...

 

As stated earlier, career questionnaires are helpful tools for career planning in career counseling. They can also help pinpoint career interests so that personal experiences and skills can be applied toward career choices...

 

More information can be found here: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test