Navigating Leadership Assessments: A Science-Backed Approach

Leadership assessments are more than just tools; they are crucial to identifying and developing effective organizational leadership. Plenty of options exist for “leadership assessments,” from off-the-shelf tools costing $15 to the incredible bespoke, intense, and, sometimes, invasive assessments that use multiple psychologists and can cost upwards of $50,000. In this blog, I’ll provide a framework for leadership assessments with the right amount of measurement rigor that won’t break the bank or your candidates. I’ll focus on leadership assessments in the selection (i.e., hiring) context, although the information extends to assessments for leadership development.

The Role of Job Analysis in Leadership Assessments

In any selection context, it’s important to begin with a job analysis so you understand what you are trying to measure. In other words, what does “good” look like? We find that using historical information (e.g., job description, ONET data, industry information, etc.) followed by detailed discussions with subject matter experts within an organization appropriately balances efficiency and comprehensiveness in pinpointing the essential skills and tasks necessary for a leader to succeed. 

Designing Robust Leadership Assessments

From the job analysis, we gather a list of the critical skills along with their importance ratings. With this information, we create a comprehensive leadership assessment incorporating several methodologies to evaluate potential leaders. These include:

• Construct Validity: Utilizing psychometric tools that are rigorously tested and validated to measure specific leadership constructs effectively. For example, measuring a candidate’s ability to influence may involve assessments like the Hogan Insight Series and the Leadership Effectiveness Analysis, as they have proven their constructs with leadership samples over the past decades.
• Content Validity: Structured interviews reflect the competencies identified during the job analysis stage. These interviews are crafted to probe deep into the candidate’s experiences and skills in areas critical to the role.
• Criterion-Related Validity: The real test of an assessment’s value is its ability to predict actual job performance. Correlating assessment outcomes with real job performance metrics confirms the predictive validity of the assessment tools.

At People Strategies, we integrate these approaches to ensure our leadership assessments are not just theoretical but also practical and actionable.

Effective Reporting for Informed Decision-Making

Despite the complex underpinnings, the reporting of assessment results is simplified to aid quick and informed decision-making. Each leadership skill assessed is rated and integrated into a weighted fit score. This score reflects its importance as determined in the job analysis, providing a clear, quantifiable measure of a candidate’s suitability for the leadership role.

Conclusion

Effective leadership assessments are vital for nurturing and selecting the right leaders to meet an organization’s strategic goals. At People Strategies, we emphasize a scientific approach, integrating thorough validation processes to ensure that our assessments are accurate and deeply informative. This rigorous methodology allows us to deliver assessments that are both comprehensive in their analysis and practical in their application, ensuring that organizations can confidently make crucial leadership decisions.

About the Guest Author: David Dubin, PhD

David Dubin, PhD, is founder and principal of People Strategies.  People Strategies knows that a business strategy means nothing without the people. We help busy leaders and HR professionals find and implement the tools they need to bring the benefits of people science to their organizations so they can bring hiring and employee development to the next level.