Step 1: Setting the Stage (5 mins)

Begin by establishing a welcoming, open atmosphere. This is the opportunity to establish some rapport, and defuse any potential tensions around having their personality “exposed” or “revealed”. It is natural for some people to feel vulnerable or judged during the process, so addressing this early on can create a positive atmosphere. E.g., "Today we’re exploring your TALY personality profile to better understand how you work, relate, and thrive. Keep in mind, there’s no right or wrong when it comes to personality. It’s who you are, and there’ll always be situations and contexts where you’ll naturally shine. These insights can help you flourish professionally and personally, and I’m here to facilitate that process."

It is also important to establish the overall goals of the personality profile. Some may be doing it for general coaching reasons, or may have a specific coaching outcome in mind. Asking them: “What would you like to get out of today’s session?” will help orient a lot of your content and anchor it in something unique and meaningful for the client.

Step 2: Overview of the TALY Profile (5 mins)

Briefly introduce the three key areas:

• Personality: how you naturally approach work and relationships. The five main traits should be explained here.
• Emotional Intelligence: how you perceive, express, understand, harness, and manage emotions. Explain the four main abilities.
• Approach to Risk: your comfort level with uncertainty and decision-making. Explain the five overall areas.

Reflection Questions:

• "What’s your initial reaction to these areas?"
• "Which area feels particularly relevant to you right now?"

Be sure to go to the area that interests the user the most (and follow this guide starting from there, working your way logically from that point).

Step 3: Exploring Key Personality Insights (15 mins)

Focus on two to three standout insights from their profile. When highlighting those areas, follow them up with a reflection question to start getting your client thinking about how they typically show up at work, and what it means for them:

• Highlight Strengths: e.g., "Your profile shows you're High on Openness. This indicates that you’re likely to be broadminded, innovative, explorative, often bringing creativity into problem-solving." Reflection Questions: "Can you share an example when your creativity significantly benefited your work? Can you think of a time when your creativity may have derailed a task?"

• Discuss Growth Opportunities: e.g., "You have a medium-low score on Order, indicating you might not pay much attention to staying organised or structured in your tasks." Reflection Questions: "Can you think of times you find staying organised challenging? Can you think of times when being more organised could have helped you?"

Note: When discussing development areas for personality, focus on enhancing a person’s personality, rather than trying to change it. That’s impossible. Instead, focus on finding parts of their personality to leverage to motivate them into that behaviour. For example, a person may be high on openness (creativity, innovation, new ideas, etc.) but low on order (organisation, structure). Does their lack of attention to organisation diminish their ability to be creative and see their project through to its full potential? Finding these little “levers” within their personality (usually a high trait or sub-trait score) can help them find new ways to get motivated about a certain behaviour without feeling like they need to change their personality.

Step 4: Emotional Intelligence Deep-Dive (15 mins)

Discuss emotional intelligence insights: 

• "Your ability to manage emotions shows you're calm and composed under pressure."
• "You sometimes have subtle emotional cues—what impact does this have on your interactions at work?"

Reflection Questions: 

• "What strategies help you stay calm in stressful situations?"
• "How do you ensure others understand your subtle emotional cues?"
• “Do complex emotional or social dynamics ever go over your head?”

Note: Emotional intelligence, unlike personality, can be improved. It is okay to talk about “worse” or “better” scores here – although ensure you do it without judgment. It is important to understand that these scores represent habits. People who work or grew up in certain environments may not have had ample opportunity to practice these skills. Be sure to understand a bit of their background and how that relates to their current situation, so that you can make sensible suggestions moving forward.

Step 5: Your Approach to Risk (10 mins)

Share insights about their approach to risk-taking: 

• "Your profile suggests you thrive on new opportunities and are naturally optimistic about outcomes."
• "Your profile suggests that you prefer to stick to the status quo and are sceptical of new initiatives."

Reflection Questions: 

• "How does your comfort with risk influence your decisions?"
• "Can you recall a time when taking a risk paid off significantly for you?"
• “When has your optimism during times of risk degraded your ability to respond to unexpected outcomes?”
• ”Have you ever worked with someone who enjoys risk more than you? How was that like?”

Note: Risk attitudes, much like personality, is ingrained, less changeable, and there isn’t necessarily a good or bad profile, as there are a range of situations and contexts in which any combination of scores will excel compared to others. Therefore, the goal of debriefing this section is to create self-awareness around our patterns and understand when our patterns and our environments may be mismatched and produce imbalanced outcomes.

Step 6: Summarise and Action Planning (10 mins)

Conclude by summarising key insights and exploring practical next steps: • "To summarise, your creative and open-minded approach, combined with strong emotional control and risk-taking confidence, positions you uniquely." Ensure that whatever the biggest takeaways are, are connected to the goals of the debriefing session, established in the first step.

Reflection Questions: 

• "What’s one thing you learned about yourself today?"
• "Which insight will you intentionally leverage or develop in the next month?"
• "What support would you find helpful from me or your team to build on these insights?"

Action Planning: Successful coaching from personality, in our experience, should be anchored to at least one commitment. To find out where this commitment should be made, we start with a high-level list that draws attention to concrete behaviours and our relationship to them:

1. Things to do more of (things which will enhance our success, leveraged from our motivations within the personality profile)
2. Things to keep doing as usual (things which we’re already having success with, either due to our natural personality strengths or self-awareness)
3. Things to do less of (things which we can bring more self-awareness to and regulate, reducing their potential impact on negative outcomes)

Each of these should be connected to the high-level goal of the debriefing.

Debriefing guide checklist:

• Established rapport
• Established the purpose and reason for the debrief
• Allowed the client to start with the area most meaningful for them
• Explained the Big 5 personality, and debriefed, starting with the highest scores
• Explained emotional intelligence, debriefed, starting with the highest scores
• Explained risk attitudes, debriefed, starting with the highest scores
• Finished with 3 action steps:
  • Things to do more of
  • Things to keep doing as usual
  • Things to do less of