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Why Generic Training Fails and Personalised Development Wins

Two managers attend the same leadership training. Both rate it highly. Both leave with the same action plan.

Six months later, one has transformed their team’s performance. The other has reverted to old habits.

What’s the difference? - Self-awareness.

The manager who succeeded understood their natural communication style, their stress triggers, their motivational drivers, and their blind spots. They didn’t just learn what to do differently - they understood why their default behaviours weren’t working and how to adapt them.

This is the assessment advantage. And research increasingly shows it’s the missing ingredient in most training programmes.

The Personalisation Problem in Training

Carter, Tracey, and Noe’s research emphasises matching training methods to desired outcomes. But there’s another match that matters just as much: matching training recommendations to individual differences.

Generic advice like “communicate more clearly” or “delegate more effectively” fails because:

• It ignores baseline: What’s “more” for someone who naturally over-communicates vs. someone who under-communicates?
• It assumes uniformity: Different personality styles need different strategies to achieve the same outcome
• It lacks self-monitoring: Without awareness of your default patterns, you can’t catch yourself in the moment and choose alternatives

This is where assessment tools transform training from generic advice into personalised development - and where transfer rates jump from 10-30% to 40-70%.

The Research on Assessment-Driven Development

While Carter, Tracey, and Noe’s work focused primarily on training methods, parallel research streams have examined the impact of personality and self-assessment on learning outcomes:

Tasha Eurich (Harvard Business Review, 2018):

Found the self-aware individuals are more confident, more creative, make sounder decisions, build stronger relationships. Self-aware Leaders are rated as 32% more effective by their teams and as Self-aware Team Members they demonstrate 20% better performance

Sadly only 10-15% of people are truly self-aware, despite 95% thinking they are. Of course it would be nice to argue that those of us that take self-assessment inventories are in the 10-15% group, wouldn’t it?

Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Research:

Gallup’s meta-analysis of over 1 million individuals and 50,000 business units demonstrates that strengths-based development (which begins with assessment) produces:

• 6x higher engagement among employees who know and use their strengths
• Measurably higher performance in sales, customer engagement, and productivity
• Lower attrition and stronger team cohesion

Organisations that invested in training supported by Gallup’s Strengths-based insights realised an estimated £1,812 return in productivity per employee in the first year.

Academic Research on Self-Assessment:

A meta-analysis published in educational research journals found that self-assessment interventions improve academic performance with effect sizes ranging from 0.3 to 0.6 - meaning students who engage in structured self-assessment perform significantly better than those who don’t.

The mechanism? Metacognition: awareness of one’s own thinking and learning processes enables more effective strategy selection and self-correction.

Personality Assessment and Training Transfer:

Research examining personality traits and training outcomes consistently finds that:

• Conscientiousness predicts training motivation and completion
• Openness to experience predicts willingness to try new behaviours
• Emotional stability predicts ability to handle feedback and setbacks
• Self-awareness (across all traits) predicts transfer of learning to workplace behaviour

When training includes personality assessment and tailored coaching, participants are better equipped to navigate these individual differences and achieve behaviour change.

How Assessment Tools Drive Transfer

Here at MLR we integrate assessment tools into every training programme. Here’s why:

1. Baseline Awareness

Tools like Personal Style Inventory and Whats my Communication Styles help participants understand their current patterns:

• How do I naturally communicate?
• What motivates me?
• How do I respond to stress?
• What are my blind spots?

This baseline is essential for meaningful development. You can’t change what you’re not aware of.

Where 180-degree assessments (Self + Direct Reports + Boss) tools like PMC Leadership Assessment are used the comparison of self-perception against Line Manager perception and Direct Report perception significantly reduces the chance of blind spots so the baseline score of attitudes, behaviours and resources is more accurate which in turn helps produce a better targeted Personal Development Plan

2. Targeted Recommendations

Even with self-assessment model once we understand individual styles, we can tailor recommendations:

• High Dominance styles need strategies for slowing down and listening
• High Influence styles need structures for follow-through and detail
• High Steadiness styles need permission and support for assertiveness
• High Compliance styles need frameworks for managing ambiguity

Generic training ignores these differences. Assessment-driven training leverages them.

3. Team Dynamics

When an entire team complete assessments, they gain insight into:

• Why certain conflicts keep recurring
• How to communicate more effectively with different styles
• How to leverage diverse strengths for better outcomes
• How to give feedback that lands

This isn’t just individual development - it’s organisational capability building.

The Big Mistakes and Talk To Reports from Birkman are very powerful group and paired discussion tools for a Team-Building or Communication Workshop that help produce important and immediate behaviour change lifting team performance.

4. Monitoring and Correction

The most powerful benefit of assessment is ongoing self-awareness. Participants learn to:

• Notice when they’re defaulting to ineffective patterns
• Recognise situations that trigger their stress behaviours
• Choose alternative responses in real time
• Reflect on outcomes and adjust

This is the essence of learning transfer - and it’s impossible without self-awareness.

With 180-degree assessments tools like PMC Leadership Assessment you can measure the change in behaviour after six months following the training or coaching. When you compare the baseline with the new data the “Subject” the Line Manager and the Direct Report the improvement in performance, or not. And with PMC the evidence is clear. When the Direct Report results improve the Team Performance for the business will have improved.

The Birkman Method: Assessment at Scale

At Be More Effective, we use The Birkman Method with 80% of our direct coaching clients. Here’s why:

Birkman measures personality across multiple dimensions:

• Usual Behaviour: How you naturally act
• Underlying Needs: What motivates you
• Stress Behaviour: How you act when needs aren’t met
• Interests: What energises you

This multi-dimensional view enables:

• Recruitment: Matching candidates to roles based on motivational fit, not just skills
• Coaching: Identifying development priorities and stress triggers
• Team Development: Building complementary teams and reducing friction
• Leadership Development: Understanding how your style impacts others

Clients report that Birkman insights are “the most valuable development tool they’ve ever used” - because it’s personalised, actionable, and enduring. The Coaching Report and the Stress Behaviour Management Report which both come out of the same questionnaire produce highly targeted and prioritised recommendations for the Subject’s Personal Development Plan.

The ROI of Assessment-Driven Training

Let’s quantify the assessment advantage:

Scenario A: Generic Training (No Assessment)

• Transfer rate: 15%
• £100k investment captures: £52,950 of potential £353k ROI
• Net return: -£47,050 (loss)

Scenario B: Assessment + Generic Training

• Transfer rate: 30% (doubled through personalisation)
• £100k investment captures: £105,900 of potential £353k ROI
• Net return: +£5,900 (6% ROI)

Scenario C: Assessment + Experiential Training

• Transfer rate: 60% (assessment + simulation + coaching)
• £100k investment captures: £211,800 of potential £353k ROI
• Net return: +£111,800 (112% ROI)

The assessment itself costs £145-£397 per person (depending on tool). For a 20-person cohort, that’s £2,900-£7,940.

That investment increases transfer rates by 2-4x - turning losses into six-figure returns.

What Assessment-Driven Training Looks Like

Here’s our blueprint at Be More Effective:

Pre-Training:

• Participants complete personality/style or 180-dgree assessments
• Individuals have 1-2-1 sessions to explore the results and write a PDP
• Customised training or coaching materials reflecting participant profiles
• The Boss declares both behaviour change and business improvement goals

During Training:

• Experiential simulations with style-specific debrief questions
• Peer coaching exercises using assessment insights
• Action plans tailored to individual development priorities

Post-Training:

• One-to-one coaching sessions referencing assessment data
• Team sessions to apply insights to real challenges
• Ongoing access to assessment reports for self-reflection
• Structured observation of specific behaviours in workplace contexts
• Performance Metrics to prove business improvement goals are met

The result: Transfer rates of 50-70% and measurable business impact within 3-6 months.

The Tools We Use

Our assessment toolkit includes:

        Personal Style Inventory: DISC-based, ideal for communication and team dynamics

        Whats my Communication Styles: Quick, accessible, perfect for workshops

        Birkman Method: Comprehensive, multi-dimensional, ideal for leadership coaching

        Empathy Styles: Understanding how people build rapport and connection

        Motivational Maps: Identifying intrinsic drivers and engagement factors

        PMC Leadership Assessment: Your ability to coach and develop your direct reports

Each tool serves different purposes, but all share one goal: turning generic training and coaching into personalised development.

Your Next Step

If you’re investing in training but not seeing behaviour change, the missing piece might be self-awareness.

Let’s explore how assessment-driven development can transform your training ROI.

Let’s talk about personalised development that actually transfers.

Contact Bob Hayward at MLR / Be More Effective:

📧 MLR@bemoreeffective.com 📞 +44 (0)1793 686512 🌐 https://www.mlruk.com