Coaching Skills Inventory Sample Items

Coaching Skills Inventory contains descriptions of 18 coaching meeting situations scenarios and a choice of 1 of 4 actions. The following is a sampling of assessment items and the corresponding action alternatives:


An employee with whom you have an appointment for a coaching meeting knocks on your office door, enters and says, “You wanted to see me?”

A. Tell the employee to be seated and then question him to see if he knows why you are meeting.
 
B. Ask the employee to be seated and then explain that he has a problem that needs correcting.
 
C. Ask the employee to be seated and then restate the purpose of the meeting.
 
D. Tell the employee to be seated and then begin the meeting by talking about something positive the employee has done before you bring up the performance problem.

You and an employee are discussing possible solutions for solving his performance problem, having identified several solutions, you now would like to get the employee to say he will take action on one of them.

A. Point out to the employee that you are pleased with the solutions the two of you have identified and then identify the solution you think is best.
 
B. Question the employee as to which solution he feels would best solve the problem and when he could implement it.
 
C. Mention to the employee that you think the two of you have discussed some good solutions and then ask the employee which one he thinks makes the most sense and when he could begin.
 
D. Point out the solution you feel would be the best one to solve the employee’s performance problem and then explain the reasoning behind your choice.

 
Excerpted from Coaching Skills Inventory, © 1990, 1992, 2004 Kenneth R. Phillips.
Published and distributed by Organization Design and Development, Inc. under exclusive license from the copyright owner.