Assessments are Key: Kids, Adults and Future Growth

Monique De Villiers • April 16, 2025

Assessments are required for each step on the journey of life!


For Kids and Teens

  • CliftonStrengths for Students: Identifies students' top strengths and talents to guide them towards suitable career paths.
  • Career Key Discovery: Matches students' personalities with compatible career and education paths based on Holland’s Theory of Career Choice.
  • Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI): Helps students understand their core personality types and how they relate to potential careers.
  • Acute Stress Checklist (ASC-Kids): Measures acute stress disorder reactions in children and adolescents.
  • Ways of Coping Checklist: Assesses coping strategies for managing stress.


For Adults

  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): Helps adults understand their personality types and how they can apply their strengths in various careers.
  • Strong Interest Inventory: Measures interests in different areas and suggests careers that align with those interests.
  • Skills Matcher: Identifies skills and matches them with suitable careers.
  • Perceived Stress Scale (PSS): Measures the perception of stress to help individuals understand their stress levels.
  • Coping Strategies Inventory: Evaluates coping strategies for managing stress.
  • Burnout Questionnaire: Assesses symptoms and severity of burnout to help individuals recognise and address burnout.


General Assessments

  • Career Aptitude Tests: Evaluate skills, interests, and personality traits to suggest suitable careers (e.g., O*NET Interest Profiler, Career Key).
  • Values Assessment: Helps individuals understand their values and align them with career choices.


Leadership Assessments

  • DISC Assessment: Evaluates behaviour and communication styles to help leaders understand how they interact with others and approach challenges.
  • EQ-i 2.0: Measures emotional intelligence, which is crucial for effective leadership.
  • 360-Degree Feedback: Collects feedback from peers, subordinates, and supervisors to provide a comprehensive view of leadership strengths and areas for improvement.


Well-Being Assessments

  • Well-Being Assessment (Adult – 24 items): Covers life satisfaction, physical and mental health, meaning and purpose, and more.
  • Flourishing Measure: Evaluates well-being across multiple domains, including emotional health, social connectedness, and financial stability.
  • PERMA Profiler: Measures positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment based on Martin Seligman's PERMA model.


Entrepreneurial Assessments

  • BDC Entrepreneurial Potential Self-Assessment: Evaluates motivations, aptitudes, and attitudes towards entrepreneurship.
  • Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile (EMP): Assesses the key traits and skills associated with successful entrepreneurship, such as opportunity recognition, risk-taking, and innovation.
  • Entrepreneurial Potential Assessment: Evaluates readiness for entrepreneurship by examining strengths, weaknesses, and areas for development.


These assessments can provide valuable insights and help guide career decisions, leadership development, well-being, stress management, burnout prevention, and entrepreneurial ventures


By Monique De Villiers April 15, 2025
Ontological Approach to your new "Way of Being"! Self-guiding in ontological coaching involves cultivating awareness and intentionality in your "way of being"—the interplay of your language, emotions, and body. Here’s how you can approach it: 1. Language: The Stories You Tell Observe Your Language : Pay attention to the words you use in self-talk and conversations. Are they empowering or limiting? For example, saying "I can't" might reflect a belief that can be challenged. Reframe Narratives : Shift from problem-focused language to possibility-focused language. Instead of "I failed," try "I learned something valuable." Ask Powerful Questions : Regularly ask yourself reflective questions like, "What assumptions am I making?" or "What new possibilities can I create?" 2. Emotions: The Energy You Carry Identify Emotional Patterns : Notice recurring emotions and their triggers. Are they serving you or holding you back? Shift Emotional States : Practice techniques like mindfulness, gratitude, or deep breathing to move from unhelpful emotions (e.g., frustration) to constructive ones (e.g., curiosity). Embrace Emotional Intelligence : Learn to name and understand your emotions without judgment. This helps in responding thoughtfully rather than reacting impulsively. 3. Body: The Foundation of Presence Tune Into Your Body : Notice your posture, breathing, and physical sensations. Are they aligned with confidence and openness, or do they reflect stress and tension? Practice Embodied Awareness : Engage in activities like yoga, tai chi, or even simple stretching to connect with your body and release tension. Adopt Empowering Postures : Stand tall, breathe deeply, and maintain an open posture to influence your emotional and mental state positively. 4. Integration: Aligning the Three Domains Reflect Regularly : Set aside time to journal or meditate on how your language, emotions, and body interact. For example, how does your posture change when you feel confident, and how does that affect your language? Experiment and Adjust : Try small changes in one domain and observe the ripple effects. For instance, adopting a more positive narrative might shift your emotional state and body language. Seek Feedback : Share your reflections with trusted friends or mentors who can offer insights and perspectives you might not see. 5. Commit to Growth Set Intentions : Define what you want to achieve in your personal or professional life and align your way of being with those goals. Celebrate Progress : Acknowledge even small shifts in your awareness and behaviour as steps toward transformation.
By Monique De Villiers April 4, 2025
Ten steps to build your resilience! Cultivate Self-Awareness Resilience begins with understanding yourself. Take time to reflect on your emotions, thoughts, and behaviours during challenging situations. Journaling, mindfulness exercises, or self-reflection can help you recognize triggers, patterns, and strengths, allowing you to respond to difficulties with clarity and purpose. Maintain a Positive Mindset Optimism plays a crucial role in overcoming adversity. Focus on possibilities and growth rather than fixating on setbacks. Practice reframing negative thoughts and challenging limiting beliefs to build a constructive outlook. Surround yourself with positivity through supportive relationships, affirmations, or uplifting media. Develop Emotional Regulation Managing emotions effectively is key to resilience. Techniques such as mindfulness meditation, deep breathing exercises, or progressive muscle relaxation can help you stay calm and grounded. When you regulate emotions, you create space to respond thoughtfully rather than react impulsively to challenges. Strengthen Relationships Resilience is not only an individual trait but also influenced by your connections. Build a network of supportive friends, family, colleagues, or mentors who can provide encouragement, perspective, and help during tough times. Foster authentic communication and invest in relationships that empower you. Set Realistic Goals Setting achievable goals helps create focus and momentum. Break larger challenges into smaller, manageable steps, and celebrate progress along the way. When your goals are realistic, you’re more likely to build confidence and maintain motivation, making setbacks less overwhelming. Learn from Failure Resilient individuals view failure as an opportunity to grow. Reflect on what went wrong, what you’ve learned, and how you can improve in the future. By adopting a growth mindset, you can turn failures into stepping stones toward success, fostering adaptability and perseverance. Build Physical Health Your physical well-being influences your mental resilience. Prioritize healthy habits such as regular exercise, balanced nutrition, and sufficient sleep to maintain energy and reduce stress. Physical activity, in particular, boosts mood and supports cognitive function, helping you navigate challenges effectively. Adopt Problem-Solving Skills Strengthen your ability to approach problems with a clear and constructive mindset. Identify potential solutions, weigh options, and take thoughtful actions to address obstacles. Problem-solving builds confidence and resourcefulness, preparing you to tackle unexpected challenges. Develop Adaptability Life is full of change, and resilience requires the ability to adjust to new circumstances. Embrace change as an opportunity for growth rather than fearing the unknown. Practice flexibility in your plans and perspectives, recognizing that adaptability is a strength that helps you thrive. Practice Gratitude Gratitude fosters optimism and emotional resilience. Regularly reflect on the positive aspects of your life, from small victories to meaningful relationships. Journaling or sharing what you're grateful for helps shift focus from adversity to abundance, promoting a resilient mindset.
By Monique de Villiers February 13, 2025
Step 1: Take an inventory. List all the situations that cause you to feel stressed, anxious, worried, frustrated, and helpless. Don't rush through it. It's not a race; it's a process. In fact, you should consider it a work in process, adding to it as things enter your mind. Step 2: Next to each item on the inventory, write down at least one way to modify that situation to reduce its stress, and then begin implementing them into your routine. Don't get frustrated if you don't see immediate changes or feel immediate results. Burnout doesn't happen overnight, so it's unrealistic to expect it to go away overnight. Consistent implementation of positive changes into your routine is the best way to see improvement. Step 3: Just say "no." While you're "recovering," avoid taking on any new commitments or responsibilities. I know you have to live in the real world and there will be some things that you just can't get out of doing. Resist that urge. Step 4: Delegate as many things as possible, even if the person you're delegating to may not do them as quickly or as well as you would. Step 5: Take breaks between big projects. Burnout puts your mind and body in a weakened state, so avoid jumping from one stressful, time-consuming project to the next in order to give your mind and body a chance to recover. Step 6 : Control your devices. Gadgets, such as iPads, computers, and smart phones, can consume large amounts of your time and energy. Turn them off as much as possible. Step 7: Socialize outside your professional group. This can provide fresh perspectives, stimulate new ideas, and help you discover previously undiscovered resources. Step 8: Resist the urge to take work home. Yes, I realize you have a job to do and at some point the work has to get done. You have to slow down a notch until you can safely get back up to that speed. Step 9: " Reinforce effort, not outcome. Not even the best players hit home runs every time they get up to bat. Remember to reinforce yourself for trying rather than only for the end result. Step 10: Consider a support group. Although a support group may be a therapeutic group, it doesn't have to be. It can be a professional organisation that provides support or mentoring, or a group of casual friends getting together to vent and share ideas. Whichever you choose, a support group serves two purposes: 1) sharing feelings often reduces stress, and 2) getting together with others reduces isolation, a common consequence of burnout.