Benefits & Uses of a Leadership Assessment
Organizations routinely track and measure the performance of their employees, and this does not stop at the employee level. Leaders too are subject to assessment; after all, organizational outcomes ultimately fall under the remit of leadership and management.
Using leadership tools can be instrumental in the following ways.
1. To gain self-awareness
Primarily, all assessments help shine a light on leaders’ abilities. This can include their strengths, behavioral patterns, preferred ways of communicating, and gaps in their knowledge or skills.
Self-awareness lays the foundation for future development efforts that seek to boost leaders’ effectiveness.
2. To identify future leaders
Organizations can use leadership assessments to identify employees suitable for future leadership roles. Building awareness of employees’ capacity for leadership allows organizations to safeguard against future cultural turbulence by having a clear plan for the transition of leadership roles. Similarly, some tools are used during recruitment to hire candidates with leadership potential.
3. To understand team dynamics
Tools such as the Clifton StrengthsFinder™ can be used to understand the dynamics of a team. These assessments allow organizations to leverage the diverse strengths of team members, which can be highly effective for collaborating on shared goals.
When leaders understand how their teams work best, they can build positive, high-performing teams.
4. To audit individual performance
Some leadership assessments, such as 360-degree feedback (see below for more detail), provide useful insights into an individual’s performance, such as how well they manage their team, how well they collaborate across functions, and how well they engage with stakeholders.
This feedback can be used to set development goals and evaluate long-term leadership competency.
5. To manage conflict
Assessments such as the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument highlight how individuals are likely to respond to a stressful situation, with individuals tending to either react assertively or cooperatively.
When leaders are aware of how their team members will respond to conflict, they can better mediate toward resolution and build psychological safety.
6. To assess organizational culture
Lastly, leadership assessments can be used to get a broad snapshot of how the practices of leaders align with the values and wider culture of the organization.
Studies suggest that how leaders conduct themselves has a significant bearing on company culture and values, including behavioral norms (Giberson et al., 2009).
Importantly, leadership assessment tools have uses far beyond developing individual leaders’ skill sets. They can provide unparalleled insights into how an organization is functioning and can act as specific guides when navigating through periods of transition.
Given the popularity of leadership assessments, it is no surprise that there is an abundance of tools on the market.
These typically range from personality assessments and measures of behavioral tendencies and leadership styles to performance management tools. Below, we outline these approaches in more detail.
Leadership style assessment
These types of assessments usually focus on a leader’s behavioral patterns. Some popular examples include:
1. Situational Leadership Assessment
The Situational Leadership Model was developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in 1969 and is used to help leaders adapt their leadership style to better account for the needs of their team at any given moment in time.
This approach understands that all situations are unique, and as such, flexibility is required from leaders to get the best responses and performance from their teams.
2. DISC Assessment
This assessment was based on a theoretical model proposed by William Moulton Marston (1928) and measures behavioral and communication styles of leaders.
The assessment categorizes individuals into four main types of leader:
- Dominance
- Influence
- Steadiness
- Conscientiousness
Within each category are priorities that individuals lean toward, such as stability and accuracy for conscientious leaders. In more recent years, DISC has further expanded to provide individuals with a profile on emotional intelligence and conflict resolution.
3. Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)
James Kouzes and Barry Posner created the LPI as a leadership assessment tool in 1988. It assesses leadership behavior based on five practices:
- Model the way.
- Inspire a shared vision.
- Challenge the process.
- Enable others to act.
- Encourage the heart.
Kouzes and Posner (1988) argue that these five behaviors are key to achieving exemplary leadership. By identifying where leaders are positioned in each of the five practices, leaders can focus their efforts on addressing any gaps or deficits.
360-degree leadership assessment
This assessment is a means of gathering feedback on performance from multiple sources, including team members, managers, and peers, to provide a well-rounded view of an individual’s work.
One of the reasons that 360-degree feedback is so popular is the widely held belief that receiving developmental feedback drives individuals to create positive change (Brett & Atwater, 2001).
However, it is also important to note the limitations of this approach, which primarily include the allocation of resources required to carry it out (e.g., time and budget).
Strengths assessment
Identifying strengths is another highly popular approach to leadership assessment. Whereas 360-degree feedback helps individuals understand how they are perceived by others within the organization, a strengths assessment is used to help individuals build self-awareness of their innate talents and show them how to leverage these strengths.
CliftonStrengths™, run by Gallup (n.d.), is one of the most rigorous and widely used strengths assessments out there, with over 32 million users worldwide.
Personality and emotional intelligence scales
These assessments typically measure aspects of personality and emotional intelligence such as self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills. Leaders with high emotional intelligence are often more effective at managing teams and navigating complex interpersonal situations (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2003).
Organizations and leaders can combine different assessments and emotional intelligence scales to assess development and performance. Ideally, organizations should seek to employ a variety of these in order to create a full picture of their leaders’ skills and needs.
1. The Hogan Assessments
The Hogan Assessments (Hogan & Hogan, 2002) typically evaluate an individual’s personality and values. However, they also help identify any potential behavioral issues, which can lend enormous insight into leadership efficacy.
One of the greatest advantages of the Hogan Assessments is their basis in rigorous scientific research (see below for more information).
2. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The MBTI (Myers & McCaulley, 1985) is not specifically aimed at leaders; however, it is an inordinately popular tool and often deployed to help individuals understand their personality preferences, communication styles, and decision-making approaches.
Warning: Readers should be wary, as the Myers-Briggs is not a scientifically validated tool (more on this below.)
3. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT)
The MSCEIT (Mayer et al., 2002) is a highly popular assessment used to determine an individual’s emotional intelligence ability. This is a promising test for leaders that positions emotional intelligence as a skill that can be sharpened. Despite its basis in academic literature and its widespread use, mixed results on whether it is a valid tool abound (Maul, 2012).