Personal development profiles, also known as personality profiles, are a tool I frequently use before starting a course of coaching with a client. The client answers a series of questions about preferred behaviour styles and their responses generate a report which outlines their strengths, areas for improvement, blind spots, their contribution to the team, ways they could improve their communication and how to deal with challenging people.
I find personal development profiles are a great start to the coaching process as the profile helps the client to begin looking at their own behaviour in ways they have probably never done before. It helps to develop rapport as the coach is not providing the feedback at this stage