Leadership Assessments

My leadership assessment candidates describe my approach as welcoming, warm, insightful, honest and they find the conversation enriches their self-understanding. I enable them to be the best they can be in the conversation, so I can develop a deep understanding of who they are, what their values are, what makes them tick, how they like to lead and what they are really like to work with. I create an environment where they are comfortable sharing a full picture of themselves so I can paint a true picture of the candidate as a leader to the hiring panel. And yes – sometimes that really does mean saying to the panel very clearly that this is a leader who has derailed and is a high risk. Thankfully, not often however, as with leadership – it is about finding the right context for you to be your best in, rather than being wrong.

I then work with leaders in their journey through the organisation. From those stepping up into their first leadership positions, to those accelerating to the top. I take a holistic approach offering a business and personal coaching service. After all, we are not just our work persona and the personal dimensions are as important in leadership. Clients describe my coaching style as incisive, supportive, focused, helping build a positive sense of self and generating movement; by asking the right questions, at the right time, to help them find motivation and implement change.

Typically the process takes about two weeks from the request. This enables the candidate to complete the questionnaire(s) over the weekend or at a time convenient for them. This process can be completed quicker if required but this requires pre-booking time with the psychologist and the candidate.

The candidate should allow about half an hour to complete each questionnaire. The silver service includes one questionnaire and the gold and platinum services are two questionnaires, both WAVE and Strengthscope. They should complete the questionnaire in one-sitting and in a quiet place where the candidate is unlikely to be disturbed. This does not need to be observed by the hiring organisation and can be completed from a location of the candidate’s choosing; on mobile, tablet or laptop.

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We recommend using this service after you have completed any long-listing of candidates, so when you have reached a short-list. Typically this would be 3 to 5 candidates for most leadership roles. There is no minimum or maximum; although larger volume campaigns will require a longer timescale and potentially additional associate psychologist resource.

We have developed this process based on the extensive experience of our psychologist and her work in the leadership assessment field. However, aside from WAVE and Strengthscope which we use in this process, Rebecca is trained in a number of psychometrics and we are open to adapting our process for other tools, should they be recognised by the British Psychological Society and have sound reliability and validity for use in selection processes, such as these: OPQ, HDS, BeTalent, COAST, Dimensions, EIP, Facet5, LJI. We would need to review timescales and costs for bespoking our services to alternative tools.

Depending on the package, the psychologist can provide a full verbal briefing to the hiring panel. However, should you wish, the psychologist can be in attendance and be part of the interview panel should that be useful. Additional costs would be provided for this service if required.

We recommend you advise your candidates of the objective of the assessment prior to us contacting them to complete the questionnaires. That is, ensure they understand it is part of your commitment to getting to know the candidate at a deeper level, their personality, their strengths and leadership style. Explain it is to provide the hiring panel with an objective viewpoint, from a trained professional outside of the organisation. There are two things for the candidate to think about when preparing. Firstly, when completing the questionnaire(s) please think of themselves in a work context. Secondly, for the meeting with the psychologist it can help them to think about examples of them as a leader in the workplace and be prepared to talk about their approach and experiences from the last three years. They are welcome to have notes with them for their meeting with the psychologist. Please reassure them it will be a business focused conversation and questions will be relevant to a business context.

There is always a chance a candidate will not wish to undertake a leadership assessment, either because they are nervous, anxious, under-confident or even arrogant and feel they should not have to. The best approach is to be very clear that all candidates will be asked to complete this prior to final interview and it is to improve your hiring decision, as it is in both parties interest the best fit is found between the leader and the organisation. Also reassure candidates about how their personal data will be held (i.e. your system and on our systems), who will have access (hiring panel, psychologist, administrator) and when it will be deleted (after one year typically). It is also better practise to offer a copy of the psychologist’s report to the candidate for their future development, to be sent by you to the candidate once the process has completed. Most candidates like to use these as part of their ongoing leadership development.