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Assessing Leadership Potential (Companion to Let's Talk Video)
Helen Hale Tomasik MSc CHRL • Jun 28, 2021
Why is it important to assess for Leadership Potential?
Successful organizations have a future-focused talent strategy that develops and sustains a leadership pipeline. Assessing for leadership potential helps an organization predict who is most likely to be effective in more senior roles and identifies where investments in leadership development would be most worthwhile. Assessing for leadership potential also communicates to employees, who are interested in advancing their career, that you are interested in retaining and developing talent within your organization.
What should be assessed?
Too often employees are promoted based upon their performance in their current roles. Being a high performer in a current role does not necessarily predict performance in a leadership role where one needs to achieve results through their people.
The Pandemic has accelerated the need for a new kind of leader – one who is agile, is a continuous learner, likes to collaborate, and has the Emotional Intelligence to manage their own emotions while guiding others through chaos and uncertainty. Frankly, all these attributes have always been important when considering whether a high performing employee has the potential to take on more complex responsibilities and ambiguous roles in the future.
There are a variety of models for assessment of leadership potential which typically include measures of competencies, cognitive ability, and personality. In my HR practice I favoured the Learning Agility approach to leadership potential which included assessment for:
People Agility
– people who are acutely self-aware, emotionally intelligent, treat others well, welcome feedback, and are resilient when the going gets tough
Results Agility
– people who get results under pressure and inspire others to do the same
Mental Agility
– people who are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity, can think through complex problems and explain their thinking to others
Change Agility
– people who are curious, open to change and able to champion new approaches, and are always developing themselves
These agilities in combination with a direct supervisor’s assessment of the candidate’s current competencies and results track record (from performance reviews), and their commitment to the hard work of leadership, laid the foundation for high potential assessment. The final step was a multi-interviewer assessment of their soft skills, traits and values that were critical to achieving our corporate culture.
How should Leadership Potential be assessed?
First and foremost, the assessment process needs to be transparent and well communicated. Your organization must communicate why you are assessing for high potential, what it takes to be an effective leader in your organization, and how those who are interested in advancing their career to leadership roles will be assessed. Finally, how will feedback from the process be provided to those who step forward.
Secondly, to achieve a comprehensive assessment, multiple assessment methods and tools should be reviewed. Select those which have been professionally researched and evaluated.
Thirdly, to avoid evaluation bias of individuals who are closest to the candidates, I would strongly encourage engaging multiple perspectives from a cross section of leaders in your organization. The Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) is an excellent method to determine whether the candidates have the necessary leadership character and people skills to achieve a high performing and inclusive organization through the trust and respect of their people.
The MMI provides a quick and efficient way for senior leaders to develop ownership of the talent across the organization. They get a firsthand look at the upcoming talent, and employees appreciate the one-on-one face time with senior leadership. The MMI also offers a great way to enrich the dialogue at your talent assessment meetings when you are determining who will be considered for stretch assignments and leadership development.
Assessing for leadership potential is a critical first step in the development of a leadership pipeline. Contact me at Helen.Tomasik@Prospecthrmmi.com
if you are interested in learning more about how the MMI can help you determine who has the necessary attributes to take on higher level leadership roles in your ‘future ready” organization.
View the companion Let's Talk Video on this topic: