Dealing with Skeptical Clients

At times, a Practitioner may encounter a client who is skeptical about the model, the 360 questions or the assessment results.

This could happen with clients who are highly technical, analytical or simply very stressed. They may not find it easy to be vulnerable or share things they may consider ‘intimate’. In reality, there are no such things as intimate questions in the assessment although some people might find confronting to read questions like ‘being well rested’ or ‘take the time to reflect’, etc.

All the questions have been carefully selected because they explain the biology of an individual and how this may be affecting them personally, professionally or from a leadership perspective.

It is important that the practitioner creates this bridge of understanding between brain/body functioning and leadership, as the i4 Neuroleader Model is quite different from the traditional ‘work-related 360’ that people are accustomed to complete.

The i4 Neuroleader Model is a quite unique in the sense that it offers Participants a much broader perspective of how they come across to others and it helps them reflect on things they may have never considered in the past.

Another way to break this type of mental barriers or beliefs that people have is to recommend Participants to invite as many raters as possible (specially family and friends) so they can have a more whole-rounded view of themselves. Clients are much less challenging when they see that their family and/or friends gave them results that they did not expect rather than if the assessment was only being completed by people from work.

Finally, if a client is being challenging during the debrief session, it is better to listen, acknowledge the person’s feelings and use the i4 Neuroleader Compendium to amplify the understanding of each item and the link between that item with leadership and neuroscience.

This makes the discussion more objective and it allows the more analytical minds go beyond the discomfort they may feel if the results were surprising to them. It takes a while to go through the information and accept the perception of others.