Heartstyles ethical guidelines

Heartstyles is passionate about ensuring the ethical use of the Heartstyles Indicator. Ethical guidelines ensure that the respondents receive accurate, clear, and supportive information about behavior and the meaning of their Heartstyles Indicator results. Such information helps individuals feel comfortable about facilitating sessions that explore effective and ineffective thinking and behavior.

Two areas of ethical guidelines:

1. Facilitation and coaching competence

2. Professionalism: confidentiality and integrity

The aim of these guidelines is to enable the Heartstyles facilitator’s individual ethical judgements and decisions to be informed by shared values and experience, rather than to be imposed by Heartstyles. The guidelines therefore seek to document the principles held by Heartstyles and to identify the factors which may obstruct their implementation.

Heartstyles’ aim is to promote ethical practice in the use of the Heartstyles Indicator and the Heartstyles facilitation and feedback process by offering these guidelines as advice on best practice for individual facilitators. They offer a framework within which the conscientious Heartstyles facilitator should, for the most part, be able to work comfortably. Where departures from the framework of principles are contemplated, they should be the result of deliberation rather than of ignorance.

The importance of personal responsibility for the effective use of the Heartstyles Indicator rests with each Heartstyles facilitator. Responsibility entails thinking about the consequences of one’s actions upon others, and thus endeavoring to provide accurate, clear and supportive information to anyone in the context of the Heartstyles Indicator.

Ensure there is an EAP service in place, or speak with the appropriate decision makers to bring the resource into the organization. Every country has a national EAP association, so tap into the resource to find appropriate service providers

Facilitation and coaching competence

• Operate within the limits of your own competence: Recognize where your competence may be exceeded and take action to get support, including consultation or referral.

• Ensure participants can read through the descriptions of 16 behaviors in their Personal Development Guide: Assist them in understanding and interpreting their results.

• Clarify the meaning of graph bar extensions in the results: They reflect only consistency in self-perceived behavior and behavior as perceived by others, not excellence, competence, or maturity.

• Describe behaviors in non-judgmental terms at all times: Avoid any language that could be perceived as evaluative or critical.

• Be aware of your presentation style's influence: Ensure it does not inadvertently bias the feedback.

• Communicate unconditional positive regard: Provide feedback with empathy and respect for all respondents.

• Present Heartstyles as describing normal or healthy thinking and behavior differences: Clearly differentiate these from psychological disorders or fixed traits.

• Prohibit the use of Indicator results to label or limit respondents: Ensure the results are used constructively.

• Distinguish between research-backed information and anecdotes: Provide accurate information supported by research.

• Encourage questions, clarification, and interaction during feedback: Make the session interactive and responsive to the respondent’s needs.

• Position the feedback session as the start of a developmental journey: Emphasize ongoing growth and development.

Professionalism: confidentiality and integrity

• Identify Heartstyles Leading with Heart and the Heartstyles Indicator as the work of Stephen and Mara Klemich: Ensure proper attribution.

• Ensure EAP support before implementation: Verify that EAP services are available in the organization.

• Refer to professional psychologist/counselor or EAP provider when required: Recognize the limits of your role and refer appropriately.

• Stay within your professional competence: Avoid overstepping your professional boundaries.

• Disclose information only with explicit agreement: Maintain confidentiality unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise for safety reasons.

• Continue professional responsibilities beyond the coaching/feedback relationship:

  • Maintain confidentiality of all information.

  • Avoid exploiting the former relationship.

  • Provide agreed follow-up.

  • Securely maintain all related records and data.

• Use the Heartstyles Indicator only for development, not for recruitment or selection: Maintain the integrity of the tool’s intended use.   

• Address disagreements with the report results non-defensively: Facilitate a constructive exploration of the respondent’s hesitations and accuracy perceptions.