Three Ways to Maximize the Value of Leadership Assessment Action Planning
Leadership assessment is a critical part of identifying the leaders you have, understanding the leaders you need, and making better leadership decisions.
The right assessment tools for leaders help to identify the leadership potential, business impact, capabilities, and culture impact of your executive talent.
At Heidrick & Struggles, we have identified three key ways to maximize the value of leadership assessment and how that plugs into your leadership succession planning:
- Identifying the fundamentals of leadership
- How to identify the right leaders
- Using technology to develop and action unbiased leadership assessments
With assessment data, you can create a roadmap for a leader's development as well as better understand gaps your organization might need to fill with new leadership roles. To maximize the value of leadership assessment, it is important to understand how they can enhance the leadership potential of individuals and organizations.
Identify the Core Value of Leadership
The challenge of finding the best leaders—whether in-house or from outside sources—is one that organizations must tackle head-on. To ensure success, proven frameworks and resources are needed to create accurate assessments of leaders.
For the past seven decades, Heidrick and Struggles have assessed, selected, and developed leaders for the world’s largest, most influential organizations. We have assessed leaders in 90% of the Fortune 100 in over 150 countries, and we continue to grow our footprint.
Out of that experience and analysis, our psychologists and data scientists have developed the Heidrick Leadership Framework™, a comprehensive summary of the essential attributes of effective leadership. The Leadership Framework shows that the most effective leaders:
- Have had distinctive business impact exceeding objectives and delivering results
- Possess critical leadership capabilities and competencies
- Have the leadership potential to grow and adapt
- Use their values to make a positive cultural impact in their organizations
Our Heidrick Leadership Framework™ is based on extensive research and analysis, and it provides a comprehensive summary of the essential attributes of effective leadership. Our approach goes beyond just identifying the skills and competencies of leaders. We focus on assessing their potential to grow and adapt to changing circumstances.
The Heidrick Leadership Framework™ also recognizes the importance of values in leadership and how they can make a positive cultural impact on organizations. With this proven framework and our experienced psychologists and data scientists, we can help organizations find and develop the best leaders for their specific needs.
Identify Potential Leaders
Leadership assessment can be used to identify potential leaders within an organization. This is particularly important for organizations that are looking to develop a pipeline of future leaders. By identifying individuals with leadership potential, organizations can invest in their development and equip them for future leadership roles.
The use of a comprehensive leadership intelligence platform allows you to assess, manage and develop your leadership population at scale to achieve your business goals. From a platform like this, you gain insight into your leaders through dynamic leader profiles that help you understand the business and culture impact your leaders create.
Using Unbiased Leadership Assessment
Unbiased leadership assessment is a crucial part of a successful leadership management strategy. Objective leadership assessments provide leaders with the necessary feedback to grow, improve, and succeed in their roles. Deploying various assessment tools, such as self-assessments, multi-rater feedback, and 360-degree assessments, can help organizations collect valuable insights about their leaders.
Until today, placing leaders in new roles has been a manual, word-of-mouth style process. Utilizing tech to create an unbiased viewpoint on leadership and role fit is the next step in the process of ensuring business and cultural impact factors, as mentioned in the Leadership Framework above, are weaved into the process of succession.
These assessments can track leadership health, identify areas for improvement in training programs, and model future leadership moves. Throughout this process, it is important to ensure that the assessments are unbiased, as any bias can lead to inaccurate insights and hinder the success of the organization.
With the help of AI and automation, unbiased assessments can be conducted with more accuracy and efficiency. This allows organizations to match leader profiles to current and future role profiles without the influence of personal bias. Overall, unbiased leadership assessments are an essential component of any comprehensive leadership talent management strategy.
Conclusion
Leadership assessment is a critical part of identifying the leaders you have, understanding the leaders you need, and making better leadership decisions.
Leadership assessment is not a one-time event but an ongoing process that should be integrated into the culture of an organization. By investing in leadership assessment, organizations can identify and develop future-ready leaders that can drive their organizations forward.