How to Use Leadership Styles and Quick View™ Leadership II Together in a Coaching Session

The best leadership style coaching sessions start with a picture the leader recognizes and end with one or two behaviors they will practice next week. PRADCO’s two leadership reports are built to do exactly that. The new Leadership Styles report gives a leader the big picture: which of the four leadership styles they lead with most often. The Quick View™ Leadership II (QVL II) report gives a clear breakdown of where that leader puts their emphasis across 40 leadership behaviors. Used together, they turn “this is how I lead” into “this is what I’ll work on.”

Here is how I recommend coaches use both reports in a single session.

What does each leadership report show?

Leadership Styles shows a leader’s primary style; QVL II shows the behaviors contributing to it. Both come from the same assessment, so they tell one consistent story at two levels of detail.

• Leadership Styles places the leader on a four-style grid: Operational, Transformational, Collaborative or Motivational. It describes their strengths, growth opportunities, what they tend to say under stress, and how their style affects others at its best and when it’s overused.
• QVL II scores 40 behaviors, such as Structure, Follow-up, Empathy, Decisive and Participative. The scores show where a leader puts emphasis on the job, not how good they are at each behavior.

Everyone is a blend of all four styles, but each person demonstrates one most often. There is no right or wrong style; all four are valuable and needed.

Why use both leadership style reports in the same session?

Defining the style makes the conversation memorable, and naming the behaviors makes them actionable. A leader will remember “I’m an Operational Leader” long after the session ends. But “be less Operational” isn’t something anyone can practice. QVL II names the specific behaviors driving the style, so the leader leaves with something concrete to do differently.

Using both also keeps the session honest. A Quick View assessment produces hypotheses, not final conclusions. The coaching conversation is where those hypotheses get tested against the leader’s real experience.

A five-step leadership style coaching session using both reports

1. Start with the style. Open the Leadership Styles report and ask, “Does this sound like you?” Let the leader react to the description before you add anything. Agreement builds trust; disagreement tells you where to dig.
2. Read the grid together. A plot near the center means higher versatility: the leader leans toward neighboring styles and adapts easily. A plot in the outer corner means a stronger tendency toward one style, so adapting to others takes more intention. Ask where that particular style shows up at work.
3. Move to QVL II to find the behaviors behind the style. Look at the signature behaviors for their style, then the highest and lowest scores. Combinations are often more revealing than single scores. For example, very high Structure and Follow-up can point to a micromanaging pattern.
4. Talk about stress and overuse. Each style comes with a line leaders tend to say when under pressure. Sometimes it reflects a strength, but when overused or taken too far, it can become a problem. Ask when the leader last heard themselves say it, and what it cost the team.
5. Choose one or two behaviors to build. Use the growth opportunities in the Leadership Styles report to pick a direction, and the QVL II behaviors to make it specific. Agree on what the leader will try, with whom, and when you will check in.

Example: Coaching an Operational Leader

Consider a manager whose report shows the Operational Leader style (an illustration based on our sample report, not a real client). Operational Leaders deliver through structure, follow-up and responsiveness. Their teams know who owns what and when it’s due.

Under stress, the Operational Leader says, “I’ll just do it myself.” When the style is overused, do-it-yourself habits create bottlenecks, and people comply without fully committing. The report’s growth opportunities point to demonstrating appreciation, focusing on relationships and improving persuasiveness.

QVL II makes that specific. If Structure and Follow-up are very high while relationship behaviors sit lower, the coaching focus becomes clear: keep the reliability, loosen the grip, and invest in people. A practical commitment might be handing one deliverable to a team member with a clear owner and date, following up on the outcome rather than every step, and recognizing one contribution each week.

The leader keeps what makes them effective and adds what their team needs from them.

Frequently Questions Coaches Have About Leadership Styles

Does a low score mean the leader is bad at that behavior? No. QVL II scores show where a leader puts emphasis, not their ability. A low score can reflect a natural strength they don’t need to focus on, where they are in their career, or their current culture. Explore it in conversation before drawing conclusions.

Is one leadership style better than another? No. All four styles are valuable and needed. Each has strengths and a cost when overused. The goal of coaching is versatility: helping leaders adapt to the people and situations in front of them.

What if a leader disagrees with their style? Treat it as useful information. Results are a starting hypothesis, and the leader’s examples from work help confirm or adjust the picture. The disagreement often leads to the most productive part of the session.

Bring Leadership Styles into your coaching

Leadership Styles is now included with Quick View™ Leadership II for PRADCO clients on TalentScan, alongside the QVL II report they already receive. See a sample Leadership Styles report, or learn how PRADCO leadership coaching builds on both reports to develop managers, executives and teams. Our consultants can also run team coaching on Leadership Styles so everyone shares the same language for how they lead.