What makes ACI for Coaches unique?
 Theory Based Assessment and
a Complete Coaching Package

There are a lot of programs that are designed to help you become a better coach, build your practice, and have a profitable business. ACI for Coaches stands out from the rest because it is solidly based on a well researched proprietary Perceptual Style Theory of human behavior that provides guidance for every aspect of the coaching process from assessment to impact.

Why is Theory Based Important to You?

You don’t need to know all the details of our Perceptual Style Theory to apply the power of ACI for Coaches to your practice. (You can learn it if you want to!). But either way you can use the ACI for Coaches system with the confidence that it was developed from a comprehensive explanation of an important aspect of human behavior that is backed by 32 years of research data.  Our theory (we call it PST for short) is a model of human behavior that has reliable explanatory power and is well supported by evidence. It is the power of PST that makes ACI for Coaches a one of a kind coaching system.

While there are many personality type and styles theories, each offering different perspectives to explain why people are different and yet share common experience or behaviors, most focus only on actual experience.

The difference with PST is its focus on potential – inherent capacity – in addition to actual, realized behaviors and skills.

The focus of PST is NOT to change who you are but rather to help you take advantage of who you are!!

Perceptual Style – the heart of PST

PST categorizes the various ways people perceive into six distinct Perceptual Styles which define the way people take in information through their five senses and make that information meaningful. Perceptual Style acts as a filter between sensation and understanding. It is at the core of who a person is, and it dictates their values, beliefs, feelings, communications, leadership, learning and psychology.

The decisions people make, the actions they take, and the directions they choose are all influenced by their Perceptual Style because it defines reality for them.

All six Perceptual Styles provide distinctly different experiences of the world.  These differences result in a profound psychological and perceptual diversity that is the most important diversity there is.

Every person has a Perceptual Style that is unchanging, genetic, and innate. What does change over time is a person’s degree of awareness of their Perceptual Style and how it influences their behavior.

Each Perceptual Style has a vast repertoire of natural skills and behaviors that are unique to the particular Perceptual Style.  Everyone develops some of their natural skills and behaviors and uses them all the time.  And everyone has some natural skills and behaviors lying dormant waiting to be recognized and used!

Here’s a quick summary of each of the six Perceptual Styles:

• Activity – People with the Activity Perceptual Style jump into life with both feet. They fully engage with the confidence that the details will sort themselves out. Direction, ideas, and pursuits emerge as the result of constant action and involvement with others and their surroundings. They engage until some new possibility or interest emerges to capture their attention. They cultivate extensive networks of friends and associates.
  
  
• Adjustments – People with the Adjustments Perceptual Style see the world as an objective reality that can be known if they take the time to gather complete information about its intricacies and complexities. They pursue the acquisition and application of knowledge as the basis for their life experience. They enjoy sharing their knowledge with others and gathering new information from research or conversation. They have a strong sense of diplomacy and project a calm certainty.
  
  
• Flow – People with the Flow Perceptual Style are instinctive advocates for the natural rhythms of life. They see the complex connectivity among seemingly unrelated people, environments, and situations. They intuitively integrate and harmonize their actions within a broadly defined community that provides them and others with a sense of belonging. They honor the continuity between past, present, and future.
  
  
• Goals – People with the Goals Perceptual Style stride through life focused on the accomplishment of specific results and well-defined objectives. They experience a sense of urgency and clarity of purpose. They believe achievement is primary and method or process secondary – the end justifies the means. They evaluate all activities based on possible contribution towards the achievement of the results they expect. They thrive on competition and believe that life is a constant competition with winners and losers.
  
  
• Methods – People with the Methods Perceptual Style approach life in a practical, matter-of-fact manner. They focus on how things need to be done. They believe that ordered processes, properly followed, will produce the desired results. They will discern the best process or technique to apply to any specific situation in order to produce reliable, repeatable outcomes. They impose order and they believe that everyone prefers to use well known and proven methods.
  
  
• Vision – People with the Vision Perceptual Style approach life as a singular experience, a journey toward the future. They face the realities of a situation with serious intent and with an optimistic perspective that a solution will be found and confidence that if one is not, there are always other alternatives to explore. They intuitively see new directions and actions are taken or dropped opportunistically based on a sense of future possibilities and potential. They are highly persuasive and easily convince others to follow their vision.

PST describes in detail the natural skills and behaviors associated with each Perceptual Style including:

• Perceptual Experience
• Optimal Environments
• Time Orientation
• Learning Preferences
• Communication
• Perspective on Change
• Keys to Motivation
• Approach to Conflict
• Team Participation
• Management Tactics
• Leadership Approach
• Art of Persuasion
• and much, much more!
  

Preferences for Interaction – why everyone really is unique

While Perceptual Style is at the core of who a person is, another very important aspect is how a person prefers to interact with others. PST defines three major categories of interaction between people – Transactions, Operations, and Resources – and everyone has equal capacity for the actions associated with all three. In fact, every one of us uses all three categories every day.

Interestingly, everyone develops a distinct ordered Preference for Interaction during childhood that stays with them throughout their adult life.

It’s the combination of a person’s Preference for Interaction and Perceptual Style that distinguishes them from others who share their Perceptual Style.

PST Capacities Matrix – measuring actual and potential – and putting it all together for practical application

The Capacities Matrix defines a basic set of Natural Action Capacities (NAC) – complex groupings of skills and abilities that people perform as they interact.

There are 18 different and distinct NACs described by our theory.  Every NAC is supported by a specific set of skills, abilities, and behaviors.

PST describes, for each individual, how the Capacities they prefer fit with their innate Perceptual Style and their developed Preferences for Interaction. The results of the Talent Assessment provide a roadmap for personal awareness and growth by identifying for an individual which Capacities are: 

• Talents–strongly supported by skills and abilities aligned with their Perceptual Style that are recognized and used often,
• Opportunities – supported by unrecognized skills and abilities available because of their Perceptual Style but not yet recognized and used,  
• Endeavors – supported by recognized skills and abilities that are foreign to their Perceptual Style, and  
• Distractions – supported by skills and abilities that they have little interest in performing and that are totally foreign to their Perceptual Style.

The best route to happiness and success comes from focusing on the use of Talents and the development of Opportunities.  They will always provide the greatest sense of satisfaction and reward. And Talents and Opportunities require less psychological, emotional, and physical energy to perform than any Endeavors or Distractions!

PST is an original Perceptual Style and behavioral capacities theory

Developed over the course of 32+ years by Gary M. Jordan, PhD. and Lynda-Ross Vega PST is easy to understand, easy to use, and provides fabulous results.

PST is based on observations made from clinical practice, organizational experience, skill development coaching, and consultation in organizational development.  Lynda-Ross and Gary’s work has been influenced by their experience and training with perceptual psychology, monotheistic religion, the character analytic theory of Wilhelm Reich, Jungian type theory, and radical constructivism as developed by Paul Watzlawick, PhD.

Experience the power of PST for yourself
with Module 1 of ACI for Coaches

Nothing beats personal experience.
Why wait?