The purpose of executive coaching at its heart is to help someone gain strategic self-awareness. This complex form of understanding oneself empowers leaders to adapt their behavioral tendencies based on their context. Supriti Bhandary, MA, executive coach at Supriti Bhandary LLC and member of the Hogan Coaching Network (HCN), uses a coaching framework with her clients by describing the Hogan assessments as both a mirror and a map. According to Supriti, "Self-awareness must lead to self-acceptance. That's the coaching story."
The mirror and map coaching framework balances insight and self-acceptance with behavioral adjustment and adaptation. Because the Hogan assessments describe personality with nuanced detail, a framework helps coaches and leaders translate insight into action.
A Coaching Framework
In Supriti's experience debriefing leaders in the technology industry, she realized that it was critical to explain Hogan results using language that was easy to comprehend and remember. No matter what industry, role, culture, or experience someone has, they can always understand mirrors and maps. "For me, the mirror and map framework is a way of setting the table, inviting them into the conversation," Supriti said.
A mirror reflects how a leader's personality shows up to others. A map charts the leader's developmental path forward. These two concepts connect to all three core Hogan assessments: the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI).
The mirror concept answers important questions about a leader's reputation: What are their everyday personality strengths? How do they tend to behave when they aren't self-monitoring? What is their reputation at work?
The map concept helps leaders chart their path forward based on their values and goals. It answers: What do they value and seek in life? How do their values guide their decisions and actions? What could keep them from success?
Identity and Reputation: Two Views of the Self
Strategic self-awareness isn't focused inward but outward. It starts with understanding the difference between identity and reputation, which are two views of the self—one from the inside and one from the outside. Identity is what we say about ourselves. Reputation is what others say about us.
Sometimes identity and reputation don't align. Self-awareness becomes strategic when it enables behavioral adjustment. Whether the adjustment is action or inaction (i.e., to start, continue, or stop a behavior), behavior modification requires an understanding of strengths, limitations, and reputation.
Starting with the mirror helps leaders accept what they see before planning development. Here's how the framework works in practice.
The Mirror
In the real world, a mirror shows us how we appear to others. In the world of personality, Hogan does the same thing. Scientifically validated personality assessment results show how someone's personality characteristics are likely to show up. Looking in a mirror helps someone notice their typical inclinations and the contexts in which those may be productive . . . or not. In a startup where there's a need to fail fast and break things, being innovative and comfortable with risk is valuable. But for someone tasked with ensuring compliance at a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company, the tendency to act on half-baked ideas would be counterproductive.
The Mirror and Self-Acceptance
Self-awareness isn't enough in leadership development, however. Self-acceptance is a necessary step before implementing change. "When people have not accepted certain aspects of themselves, that becomes the coaching journey," said Supriti.
Consider how this played out with a leader Supriti coached. Gwen believed she was a talented strategic thinker, yet her Hogan results and 360 feedback both indicated she was too operational. "Gwen is someone who's rooted more in the short term than the long term," Supriti observed. Gwen needed not only to see but also to accept her reputation as a tactical leader. She also needed to leverage her team's strategic strengths to complement her operational skills. "Awareness alone is just information if you're not adjusting your style," Supriti said, explaining how the mirror can prompt someone to action.
The Map
Once leaders accept their reputation through the mirror, the map shows them how to move forward strategically. A map shows a series of steps someone can take to arrive at their destination. All the Hogan data points together form a map. Data from the MVPI serve as a powerful, compass-like indicator of a leader's overall direction. And data from the HPI and HDS about personality strengths and behavior under stress can show routes the leader will likely take.
The Map and Strategic Action
The map part of the coaching framework enables movement from awareness to action. Once a leader has more clarity on how they seem to others, they can choose what actions will best help them progress toward their goals.
Another coaching anecdote from Supriti reveals the map's power. Supriti explained how she applied this coaching framework while debriefing a leader named Carmen. Carmen's high MVPI Recognition score suggested she is likely to pursue public acknowledgement and visibility. Her high HPI Sociability and high HDS Colorful scores implied Carmen is likely to have low impulse control and enjoy playing the role of provocateur. The 360 feedback also confirmed Carmen's tendency to exhibit attention-seeking behavior, which was interfering with her leadership presence. At first, Carmen was surprised to learn about her reputation. Supriti invited Carmen to test the feedback with a map (i.e., development plan) focused on anticipating and adjusting her potentially counterproductive behavior. It worked!
Why Use This Coaching Framework?
Introducing a coaching framework even before discussing the Hogan assessments allows Supriti to defuse any feelings of overwhelm or resistance that leaders might have. It also helps shift leaders' hypercritical thinking about assessment scores toward a more open, curious mindset. They're less likely to meet their personality data with doubt, worry, or denial when they already know how it is intended to develop their strategic self-awareness.
The mirror and map coaching framework informs the entire debrief, as well as subsequent coaching engagements. To build rapport with her clients, Supriti prefers to address the assessments in this pattern: inside (MVPI), bright side (HPI), and dark side (HDS). "I find it helpful to anchor the conversation in the MVPI. People get excited when they start talking about their dreams and their vision," she said. Supriti will then present the HPI and HDS in terms of what would help or hinder them from achieving what they want in life. Discussion of the mirror and map weaves continuously throughout the whole conversation at each coaching session.
Balancing Thought and Action
The mirror and map coaching framework allows coaches to guide leaders toward a healthy balance of action and reflection. If a leader is prone to too much rumination and self-criticism, the coach should equip them with tools to shift their mindset toward targeted action (the map). Instead of asking why their idea wasn't accepted, they might ask who or what instead: who they needed to speak with or what resources they could use to strengthen their next idea.
Likewise, if a leader tends to act without considering the implications of their behavior, a coach should model the importance of reflection (the mirror). Ask about their process for self-reflection. Challenge them to pressure-test some perceptions about themselves by making strategic changes, paying attention to whether others notice and how they respond, and adapting accordingly.
Advice for Coaches
Supriti advised coaches to embrace curiosity about scales during a debrief. "There are so many different ways low Inquisitive could show or high Inquisitive could show. Being curious about that helps us develop our own understanding of the behavioral indicators of a particular scale," she said. She encouraged explaining how a scale typically shows up and then asking how it shows up for the participant. This approach helps them become aware of the positive and negative implications of each scale. "You can help them make meaning," Supriti said, "and you can give them language to understand themselves."
Executive coaching is a strategic investment. How do you ensure it delivers real results?
In our free video "The Art and Science of Leadership Coaching," Supriti Bhandary and fellow experts share how they turn leader potential into measurable outcomes.
Expert Contributor
Supriti Bhandary, MA, founder and executive coach at Supriti Bhandary LLC