**Unlocking Leadership Potential with the VIA Strengths Survey** As an executive coach, I seek tools that offer deeper insights into leadership potential. One of the most valuable is the **VIA Strengths Survey** from the [VIA Institute on Character](https://www.viacharacter.org/). Unlike assessments that focus on personality traits, VIA (*Values in Action*) identifies **character strengths**--the intrinsic qualities that shape our thoughts, feelings, and actions. ### Why Character Strengths Matter Understanding one's core character strengths is crucial for leadership. Unlike learned behaviors, these strengths provide an authentic foundation for growth. Leaders who recognize their strengths--and how others perceive them--can navigate interpersonal dynamics more effectively. The **top five strengths** in the survey are the most active and visible. Knowing them helps leaders refine their approach. For example, **bravery** is admirable but, if misused--such as contradicting a peer publicly--it can seem aggressive rather than decisive. Similarly, strengths like **spirituality, kindness, or trust** foster team cohesion but may cloud judgment if overused, preventing leaders from recognizing toxic behaviors. The key is awareness--understanding when to amplify or temper strengths based on the situation. ### Elevating Strengths for Greater Impact Leaders can also develop strengths just below their top five. If **Social Intelligence** ranks sixth, they might explore how elevating it could enhance their ability to inspire their team. Asking, *What can I do to better understand and motivate my team?* can lead to breakthroughs in leadership effectiveness. ### Using the VIA Strengths Survey in Coaching The VIA Strengths Survey is a powerful **icebreaker** before the first coaching session, offering insights into leadership style and growth opportunities. Reassessing at the end of coaching often reveals a **shift in strengths hierarchy**, reflecting personal and professional development. ### Final Thoughts Character strengths evolve with intentional focus. By leveraging tools like the VIA Strengths Survey, leaders gain valuable self-insight, refine their approach, and enhance their effectiveness. Self-mastery begins with understanding one's strengths--and using them wisely. Have you taken the VIA Strengths Survey? What insights did you gain? Share your thoughts in the comments!
One tool I absolutely cannot live without now is ChatGPT. It has truly turned me into what I call a super coach. I use it to summarize client goals, insights, and big ideas. It helps me build custom playbooks, manage follow-ups, and support my marketing. It's become a core part of how I work with clients. When I need to, and always with my client's permission, I'll use it alongside AI note takers. This lets me quickly capture what matters most in a session. I can reflect back their words, their breakthroughs, and the goals they want to move forward on. It helps me give that back to them in a way that actually lands. They leave with clear notes, action steps, and something they can build from. A lot of this gets turned into what I call leadership operating manuals. These are tools they can come back to and use across different parts of their business or leadership journey. It's personal, it's useful, and it sticks. ChatGPT just makes everything easier, smarter, and more efficient. Honestly, every small business coach and executive coach should be using it in a big way. And the best part is we're only getting started. I can't wait to see what it helps us build next.
Award-Winning Executive Coach & C-Suite Leadership Advisor at James Rose Coaching
Answered a year ago
In today's volatile business landscape, leaders must navigate complexity with precision and agility. To achieve this, executive coaching must move beyond intuition and incorporate data-driven insights that optimize decision-making and leadership impact. As an organizational psychologist and executive coach, I leverage psychometric assessments and AI-powered leadership analytics to provide a multi-dimensional perspective on a client's leadership style, cognitive tendencies, and behavioral impact. This ensures coaching is both strategically aligned with business objectives and rigorously measurable. One particularly effective tool I incorporate is a 360-degree psychometric assessment that measures both reactive tendencies and creative leadership competencies. Unlike traditional 360-degree assessments that provide fragmented feedback, this tool uniquely integrates leadership effectiveness with internal mindset patterns, creating a direct link between perception and performance. For example, I worked with a Fortune 500 CFO whose risk-averse decision-making delayed critical business pivots, impacting operational agility and investor confidence. The assessment identified a pattern of over-analysis, rooted in a perfectionist mindset. By implementing targeted decision simulations, we accelerated strategic execution, leading to improved investor confidence and a measurable reduction in project delays. By integrating psychometric and AI-driven tools, executive coaching evolves from a reactive process to a strategic leadership accelerator. Leaders gain not only self-awareness but a measurable roadmap for behavioral transformation--ensuring that leadership development translates into sustained business performance and competitive advantage.
One of the most powerful tech I incorporate is an effort tracking spreadsheet. It's really simple. Clients rate their effort (0-10) on their top life priorities at the end of every day. They also rate their satisfaction, and write notes for themselves. It takes 3 minutes per day. Then I use AI to code google apps scripts that do statistics (averages, correlations, variance) and create graphs for them. Then we check in on it periodically. They almost always learn surprising insights, e.g. what life priorities correlate most with daily satisfaction. It's been incredibly powerful for clients to gain a greater feeling of connection and control over their lives.
I record all my sessions with Fathom and provide my clients a recording and transcript of the call. I also use AI to provide a recap/outline of the call and send them an follow up email with all the highlights and deliverables and a link to the exact spot in the call where we discussed it. My clients love it, and it keeps us on track week to week.
One of the most invaluable tools I use in executive coaching is email tracking and session recaps. This simple yet powerful system keeps clients focused, accountable, and aware of their own progress. After each session, I send a detailed recap capturing three key things: Their goals and challenges - Essentially, I mirror back their own words, reinforcing what they want to achieve and the roadblocks they're facing. Action items - This is their "homework"--not assignments I give, but actions they decide they need to take to move forward. This helps them take full ownership of their progress. A clear summary - A few sentences to wrap it all up, reinforcing what was discussed and outlining the next steps. These recaps don't just serve as a reminder--they create a documented journey of their growth. Over time, reviewing past emails shows them exactly where they started and how far they've come, almost like a mini book of their transformation. It also keeps them honest about their own commitments. If they aren't following through, we explore why and adjust their approach or motivators. By using email chains or periodic reviews (depending on client preference), we ensure that coaching isn't just about great conversations--it's about real, measurable progress. This tool has been invaluable in keeping clients engaged, motivated, and fully accountable for their success.
In my executive coaching practice, I incorporate tools that enhance communication, track progress, and foster personal growth. One tool I find particularly useful is the 360-degree feedback platform. This tool allows clients to gather feedback from peers, direct reports, and supervisors, offering a well-rounded view of their leadership effectiveness. By using this feedback, we can identify areas for improvement and focus on the most impactful aspects of leadership development. The benefit of using this tool is twofold: first, it provides valuable insights into the client's blind spots that they may not be aware of, and second, it allows us to track their progress over time. We can measure how the client's self-awareness and leadership style have evolved after coaching sessions. This data-driven approach also helps create a more tailored coaching experience, ensuring that each session is focused on the specific needs and goals of the client. It has significantly improved client engagement and contributed to long-term success in their leadership development.
Let's Talk About Tech in Coaching, And Why It's Not About Replacing the Human, But Empowering the Human When people think of executive coaching, they often imagine a quiet office, a notepad, and a cup of coffee across the table. And while that still happens (coffee is sacred), coaching in 2025 is a whole different landscape, thanks to the right tech tools. Let me tell you about one I swear by: Lumen5. Yes, it's technically a video creation platform. But hear me out, this isn't about flashy marketing. It's about empowered reflection. Here's how I use it: After a particularly powerful session, I ask my clients to summarise their key takeaways, what shifted, what they're letting go of, or what actions they're committing to. Instead of a written journal, they record a short audio snippet or send me their thoughts. I then create a quick 1-minute visual "highlight reel" of their own words, using Lumen5 to bring it to life with text, visuals, and background music that fits their vibe. It's personal. It's visual. And it's transformational. Why does this work so well? Our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. When clients see their own insights play out like a trailer of their growth, it hits differently. It sticks. Sometimes we forget how far we've come. Seeing your own voice, your own wisdom, in a beautifully visualised way is like holding a mirror up to your growth. It builds confidence from the inside out. We don't always have time to reread our coaching notes. But a 1-minute video they can revisit on their phone while waiting in line for coffee? That's doable. That's digestible. That's coaching, living and breathing in real life. And here's the kicker: One of my clients recently shared that watching her coaching recap videos became part of her morning routine. She said, "It's like I'm reminding myself who I'm becoming before the world gets loud." That gave me chills. So no, tech isn't here to replace coaching. But it can be a powerful amplifier of the deeply human moments we share in coaching relationships. Whether you're a coach, a leader, or someone just trying to stay a little more connected to your own growth, maybe ask yourself: What would it look like if your inner voice had a highlight reel?
At Tech Advisors, we've seen real impact from integrating AI tools into our executive coaching efforts--especially when it comes to helping clients build strategic thinking around tech adoption. I recently coached a business leader who was overwhelmed with decisions around digital transformation. We used an AI-driven decision support tool to simulate different operational outcomes based on potential choices. This helped her see the long-term effects more clearly and feel confident in her next steps. It wasn't about replacing her instincts--it was about sharpening them. The benefit was twofold: it gave her insight, and it gave me a springboard for deeper conversations. Instead of focusing on hypothetical risks, we worked with data-supported projections. That meant we could spend more time on higher-level strategy and leadership development. The tech did the sorting and scanning. We focused on how she could lead her team through change. My friend Elmo Taddeo, CEO of Parachute, often says that technology should serve the relationship, not replace it. I agree. Coaches should pick tools that free up time, not eat into it. If a platform helps you offer more value without losing the personal connection, it's worth exploring. Start small. Test one tool with one client. Then adjust.
In my executive coaching practice, one of the key tools I incorporate is a performance analytics platform that tracks progress on specific goals over time. I use it to help clients visualize their development, whether it's improving leadership skills or enhancing team communication. The platform allows for real-time feedback and helps break down larger objectives into actionable steps. One example of how this has worked is with a client who was struggling with time management. Using the tool, we tracked how they spent their time across various tasks and identified inefficiencies. This allowed us to adjust their schedule and set measurable goals, which resulted in a 30% improvement in productivity over three months. The benefit of using this tool is that it creates a data-driven approach to coaching, providing concrete insights that help clients stay on track and achieve their objectives.
At Write Right, coaching isn't just about conversation--it's about data-driven growth. One tool I swear by is Notion for executive coaching. I use it to track progress, set personalized action plans, and document key insights from sessions. For example, I worked with a senior executive struggling with delegation. We used Notion to create a task delegation tracker, mapping out tasks they needed to offload and reviewing the results weekly. This made the shift from micromanagement to trust-based leadership more structured and measurable. The benefit is that it turns coaching into a structured, ongoing process rather than a one-time conversation. It also keeps clients accountable while giving them a clear roadmap for improvement.
One tool I incorporate into my executive coaching practice is 360-degree feedback software. This tool gathers anonymous feedback from a client's peers, direct reports, and supervisors, providing a comprehensive view of their strengths and areas for growth. It's particularly beneficial because it offers insights from multiple perspectives, helping the client understand how they're perceived across different levels of the organization. By analyzing this feedback, we can identify specific areas to work on, such as communication or leadership skills, and track progress over time. This approach promotes self-awareness and makes coaching more tailored and impactful, ensuring that the executive's development aligns with both personal goals and organizational needs.
Integrating technology-focused tools into executive coaching has significantly enhanced the effectiveness of the coaching process. One particularly impactful tool is the use of 360-degree feedback software. This technology gathers comprehensive feedback about an executive from a wide range of sources including peers, subordinates, and supervisors. By doing so, it provides a well-rounded view of an executive’s performance, strengths, and areas that need improvement. The benefits of utilizing 360-degree feedback in executive coaching are manifold. Firstly, it helps in breaking down the feedback in an organized and accessible way, which can often lead to increased self-awareness among executives. This greater insight into their own behavior and how others perceive them can motivate executives to focus more precisely on key areas for development. Additionally, since the feedback is collected anonymously, it tends to be more honest and thus, more valuable, helping to foster a culture of openness and continuous improvement within the organization. In conclusion, integrating 360-degree feedback tools into an executive coaching framework not only propels personal growth for the executives but also drives overall organizational advancement.