Workplace Big 5
The WorkPlace Big Five Profile scores five supertraits, Need for Stability, Extraversion, Originality, Accommodation, and Consolidation, giving coaching an external data point instead of relying only on self-perception.
Five spokes radiate outward, one for each supertrait, so a profile shows up as a shape rather than a list.
Reach for this when…
- Coaching keeps circling the coachee's own account of themselves with nothing to check it against.
- A leadership style clash needs a neutral vocabulary, not blame.
- Team friction looks personal but might just be different wiring.
How to run it
- Administer a validated WorkPlace Big Five Profile instrument.
- Get scores on the five supertraits: Need for Stability, Extraversion, Originality, Accommodation, Consolidation.
- Debrief the profile as data, not a verdict.
- Explore what it implies for leadership style, team role, and development.
- Resist pathologising any score: every configuration carries strengths and risks.
A worked example
Situation. Sarah MacDonald, who ran Harbourview Family Clinic in Halifax, Canada, was constantly at odds with her new deputy, who she'd started to describe in her own head as 'difficult' and 'cold'.
Applied. A WorkPlace Big Five profile showed the deputy scored low on Accommodation and high on Consolidation, a combination that reads as blunt but usually comes with rigorous follow-through. Sarah reframed the friction as a working-style mismatch, not a character flaw, and adjusted how she gave the deputy feedback.
Result. The deputy's directness, once named as a trait rather than an attitude problem, became the thing Sarah started relying on to catch errors nobody else flagged.
The catch
A snapshot score gets treated as a fixed identity more often than it should be; traits shift with context and over time, and the label can outlive its usefulness. Low scores on any supertrait get read as flaws when they're often just trade-offs, low Accommodation comes with more willingness to challenge, for instance. It also needs a trained interpreter; a raw score sheet handed over cold does more harm than good.
A score is a starting point for the conversation, not the conclusion of it.
Origin: Pierce J. Howard & Jane Mitchell Howard