Find Your Holistic Identity with IPSAT

When Nay Mi Chele first heard about the Identity Profile Self-Assessment Tool (IPSAT) training offered by Scatter Coaching, she wasn’t entirely sure what to think—but she knew the chance to discover her leadership skills and unique makeup was too good to pass up.

“Everyone has the potential to be leaders but in different ways,” said Nay, a graduate public relations and advertising student at the University of Southern California. “When I was given this opportunity, I said, ‘Oh wow—I’m already interested in exploring that. So, let’s see what kind of a leader I am and how I can improve or just grow in my leadership potential.’ That’s how I got introduced.” 

IPSAT Overview

The IPSAT training itself puts students through a series of modules all centered on helping students know their S.H.A.P.E.—a term coined by Erik Rees in his book of the same title that refers to a person’s Spiritual gifts, Heart/passions, Abilities, Personality and Experiences.

That knowledge, taken as a whole, is what Scatter Global hopes will guide students into a firm conviction of what God has created them uniquely to do—not just in ministry or in their vocation, but as a holistic representative of Christ in the world.

Margaret Sinsel, one of two IPSAT coaches at Scatter Coaching, noted that IPSAT is designed to give students and young professionals the ability to discover, optimize, and unleash the God-given potential inside of each person.

“I think we’re all in a process of learning and growing and developing our entire lives,” Margaret said.

“And the earlier you can even start on that, the more you can allow that to develop and grow and broaden and be used more fully in all aspects of your life—not just in your work career, but in your relationships, with your family, with others, with teammates.”

IPSAT Identifies Pit-falls

Of course, with potential to surge ahead comes the equally powerful chance to veer off-track in life—the double-edged nature of nearly everything. It’s a danger that Margaret has witnessed many times in her 15 years as a coach in various capacities within the ministry world. 

For example, say you’re a skilled communicator with lots of confidence and passion. While people with those abilities can use them to great effect in life, they also can come off as over-confident or use them to shut people down, Margaret said.

Foreseeing things like that so you can make the necessary adjustments can itself make IPSAT training well worth it. 

“I think the biggie for people in their 20s is, ‘Where do you have the potential to be derailed?’” Margaret said. “For every positive strength you have, there is a basement side. And if we’re not aware of that basement side, we go through life constantly saying, ‘Why didn’t that work out?’ and ‘Why can’t my team just understand?’ or ‘How come I’m always having this particular problem in relationships?’ A lot of times it’s those derailers that are under the surface that we don’t realize. The earlier you can gain that knowledge, the better off you’re going to be.”

How Does IPSAT work?

Nay said she enjoyed the format of the modules, too—videos that are followed up by worksheets that helped her take notes on what she learned so she could review the material better with her coach, who happened to be Margaret. IPSAT participants are tested and scored on their worksheets. After Nay’s scores were tabulated, she created an identity overview statement, which is a 100-word or less summation of her strengths and weaknesses and who she is, all based on the worksheet results.

From those results, participants determine their core values and passions. For Nay, who also works in Scatter Global’s marketing department, two of those were mentorship and living out their mission in the business world. 

“I have valued that connectedness with people and one-on-one time with people,” Nay said. “Starting with my high school years, I’ve always valued a teacher—or in college, a professor—guiding me through life. Because of those experiences, even now, I look for someone to guide me. And I’ve also been on the other end of helping someone through their college years.”

“So, knowing that my passions are shaped by my experience, I can really think about, “What is my experience, what do I enjoy doing [and] what do I not enjoy doing?’”

Nay said she’s taken other personality assessments, but none of them helped her understand how to put those insights into practice like IPSAT did. On top of that, IPSAT helped her develop a self-leadership plan, at the end of which she identified an area she wants to grow in.

Next Steps

“I would say I would recommend it to a lot of my friends who really are interested in leadership or just knowing more about themselves,” Nay said. “I feel like a lot of college students want to know, what am I good at? What are my skills? What are my strengths? How can I grow as a person? How can I grow as a leader? How can I use the information and the assessments of myself and put them together so that I understand more about myself and grow in different areas that I’m interested in? Your coach can really guide you through any type of area that you’re struggling with.”

To find out if IPSAT is right for you, connect with a coach on a ten-minute Discovery Call!