The Human in the Data

I’d read the books. Done the assessments.

I’d been in leadership development for 20 years, so I’d had a lot of exposure to amazing tools and resources.

Myers-Briggs? ENFJ.

Enneagram? Six.

CliftonStrengths? Empathy, Learner, Relator, Connectedness, Harmony.

My podcast queue? Adam Grant, Patrick Lencioni, Brené Brown.

So when I joined ADVISA and they asked me to take yet another assessment, I shrugged. Why not?

Probably nothing new here.

I spent an hour taking the EQ-i 2.0. The report confirmed what I already knew: strong in empathy, weaker in independence. No big surprises.

Then I had a meeting that changed everything.

I sat down with ADVISA’s CEO, Heather Haas.

Heather asked a couple questions, scanned the results, and dropped this:

“Your empathy score is higher than your reality testing. I wonder if your emotions sometimes cloud your ability to stay separate when someone brings you their problem?”

Gulp.

Then came another:

“Your self-actualization score says you crave fulfillment in your work. But your low independence score? That tells me you tend to give your power away.”

Yikes.

I never could have pieced that together on my own.

The Bigger Picture

Heather saw the bigger picture — and showed me what it meant for me.

At ADVISA, we sometimes refer to this as the box top for the puzzle.

That’s one important aspect of it. But she didn’t stop there. She offered next steps: for example, build problem-solving skills to balance empathy. She suggested trying questions like:

• “That’s hard. What are you going to do about it?”
• “How might we approach a solution together?”

That practical guidance turned vague insight into actual action.

Five years later, I’m a leadership coach at ADVISA having similar conversations with leaders who’ve also read the books, taken the tests, maybe even asked AI for answers. They all say the same thing: something’s still missing.

Practical guidance can turn vague insight into actual action.

The Missing Link

My daughter’s living in Croatia this year. When I visit her, we stop at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy.

The first time we planned it, I asked a travel agent if we could skip the guide to save money.

Her advice?

“You could. But unless you’re an art expert, you’ll miss the meaning behind the masterpieces.”

That’s leadership development in a nutshell.

You can read, research, even analyze the data with AI. But without a guide, it’s easy to miss the deeper story.

A guide helps you sort the noise, spot the patterns, ask the right questions, and move forward with clarity.

So, where are you stuck?

Where are you spinning your wheels?

Where are you drowning in “shoulds” with no clear next step?

Maybe it’s time to find a guide.

You can read, research, even analyze the data with AI. But without a guide, it’s easy to miss the deeper story.

ADVISA guides are standing by. Click here to request your free consultation.

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