People & Influence · Competency Dictionary
What is Coaching & Development?
Coaching and Development is growing another person's capability rather than solving their problem for them. It shows as asking before telling, giving feedback specific enough to act on, and accepting the slower, less comfortable route in which somebody learns to do the work instead of watching it be done well.
Coaching & Development is one of 29 competencies in the AssessAll Capability Framework, in the People & Influence domain — How a leader works through other people — influence without authority, candour, development, and reading a room.
Founder of AssessAll and of Bodhih Training Solutions, a corporate training company in Bangalore. Works on assessment design, scoring and reporting across hiring, L&D and certification programmes.
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What coaching & development looks like at four levels
Every AssessAll competency score is reported on a 0–100 scale and interpreted against four published anchors. The wording below is the same interpretation a person receives in their own report — published here so a manager can read a score without needing one.
Your instinct when someone is stuck is to give the answer or take the task back. It's faster today and slower forever — it keeps people dependent. Shifting from solving to developing is the highest-return habit a leader can build.
You coach when you have time, but under pressure you revert to telling. The opportunity is to make 'what have you tried?' your default first response.
You grow people deliberately — asking before telling, giving stretch with support, and coaching through setbacks rather than rescuing.
You develop people relentlessly and well, including those outside your team. People do their best thinking around you, and your alumni go on to lead.
Signs it is missing
Competencies are easier to spot by their absence. These are observable behaviours, not personality judgements — each one is something a colleague could describe from memory.
- Every coaching conversation ends with the manager's answer and a shorter deadline.
- Feedback is annual, general and positive, and nobody's behaviour changes after it.
- Development is delegated entirely to a training budget.
Evidence to look for
Questions that make a person describe what they actually did, rather than what they believe about themselves. Use them in an interview, a development conversation or a promotion panel, and listen for a specific situation, a specific action and a cost.
- Name someone you developed. What could they not do before, and what did you actually do?
- Tell me about the last piece of developmental feedback you gave. What were the words?
- When someone brings you a problem, what is your first move?
These are interview and observation prompts written for this page. They are deliberately not items from a live AssessAll instrument — published items stop measuring anything.
How to develop it
The development moves AssessAll puts in a growth plan when this competency is a person's priority area. Each is small enough to start this week.
- When someone brings you a problem, ask 'what have you tried and where are you stuck?' before offering anything.
- Give one person a stretch assignment this quarter that's slightly beyond them, with you as backup not shadow.
- When a delegated task goes wrong, coach the owner through the fix instead of taking it back.
How AssessAll measures it
Coaching & Development is not measured by a single question. Responses across an assessment map to the competency, roll up into a 0–100 score, and are interpreted against the four anchors above. Because every AssessAll assessment speaks the same competency language, results from different instruments accumulate into one profile rather than a pile of unrelated scores.
Which instrument is appropriate depends on the decision you are making. Situational judgement items suit judgement-under-pressure competencies; structured behavioural evidence and multi-rater feedback suit the ones only other people can see. See how to assess leadership skills for the item types, or browse the assessment catalogue and the store.
How coaching & development aligns to public frameworks
The AssessAll Capability Framework is an original work. The table shows what this competency corresponds to in five public government and standards frameworks, so a result travels across borders. Alignment, not derivation — no proprietary instrument is reproduced.
| Framework | Corresponding element |
|---|---|
| O*NET | Skills: Instructing, Coaching and Developing Others |
| ESCO | Transversal: mentoring, developing others |
| Civil Service Success Profiles | Behaviours: Developing Self and Others |
| Integrated Leadership System | Cultivates Productive Working Relationships (develops people) |
| Key Leadership Competencies | Mobilize People |