The primary purpose of leadership assessment is to provide an insight into the type of leadership skills one has. Notably, it helps in guiding career goals, increasing self-awareness, improving on various stages of career development, and refining leadership growth plan. Leaders remain central drivers of an organization. In addition to developing organization's vision and key objectives, a leader motivates employees; pushes them to their highest performance limits, and implements strategies. However, most organizations are never sure of the type of leaders best poised to take an organization to the next level. Leadership assessment is an instrumental tool that recognizes effective leaders and ways of improving the leadership of present employees. At the same time, it positions the organization in the right direction. In essence, leadership assessment entails a process where an individual's outstanding characteristic fits within requirements of an organization. It describes how a leader drives a leadership position at any given time. The information derived from the assessment is instrumental to an employer in decision making, replacement, and selection of employees. The outlined leadership assessment is aimed at helping Todd Robinson find the right persons and place them in the leadership position required.
Keywords: Leadership Assessment, Mission, Vision, Objective, Decision making
Case Study: Leadership Assessment at Robinson Insurance Agency
Key factors for identifying Leadership Potential
At the center of every successful organization is a group of capable leaders making the right decisions. Mitchinson and Morris (2014) explained that setting out to identify the right leaders require unwavering attention to key leadership factors. It is appropriate to put in place the right tools to evaluate one's potential and talent. Identifying leadership potential requires looking out to precise traits in an individual in addition to implementing an appropriate process. Besides the usual metrics and tools for determining an individual's leadership potential, Scott and Reynolds (2010) add that there is a key attribute that helps in identifying prospective leaders in a given company. The traits represent critical combinations of conduct that an individual must have to advance to a given leadership position.
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Chemistry
Leadership requires ability to engage and connect with others. It thus implies possessing sincere bearing to provide guidance and motivate others, conduct that is welcomed by the company, uplifting and pleasant ( Chapman & Giri, 2017) . Having the connection ability with others implies that an individual's personality is fitting with the organizational culture. It denotes that one has the decisive ability to achieve success.
Conviction
A prospective individual shows desire for success and achievement of an organization's vision and mission. It thus needs the firm to have the belief that one can protect organization's values, ethos, and brand. Mitchinson and Morris (2014) argued that leadership requires deep authenticity, and enthusiastic desire to go an extra mile for the good of an organization.
Character
An effective leader stands on values and aligns them to organizations' mission and objectives. Herd, Alagaraja and Cumberland (2016) argued that a prospective leader must thus possess an enduring ideology, must differentiate themselves, must be ready to deliver, and must serve the right purpose(s). These do reveal outstanding traits of a true leader that an organization requires. For example, an individual's integrity is very critical to an organization's path towards success.
Commitment
Consistency is critical when it comes to leadership. It serves both others and the company. Scott and Reynolds (2010) argued that a committed individual shows reliability and stability, essential attributes for effective leadership. Effective leaders understand the importance of managing themselves and committing to a given course of action.
Courage
An employee who has proven that they are confident, courageous, and self-driven works without arousing interruption. It thus calls for mental toughness, competency, desire to know, and impeccable timing. According to Herd et al., (2016) the attributes acquired serve an essential function of an individual's desire opportunity-drive, forward-thinking, and innovative.
The above vital factors develops and enacts the best assessment plan critical to identifying possibility of a prospective leader. At the same time, the discussed factors must also put into consideration one's potential, an individual's investment in the company, talent, job rotation, performance reviews, and past job engagements (Mitchinson & Morris 2014). Others include a person driven results, resilience, emotional intelligence, and previous career performance.
How assessment processes and assessment instruments can be used to identify potential leaders and their leadership development needs
Mitchinson and Morris (2014) maintained that leadership is multidimensional; thus, translates to approaches and tools in identifying and improving the skills. Leadership assessment approaches offer hands-on steps to applying and measuring an individual's leadership; therefore, works towards improving on their relevant capabilities ( Chapman & Giri, 2017) . There exists various leadership assessment approaches and tools available for Todd Robinson to help assess his team and employees for a possible restructuring and positioning of the company. The most appropriate strategies/tools include the Disc Profiling, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Gallup Strengths Finder, the 360 Degree Feedback, and Enneagram. Over the past couple of years, Robinson Insurance has merged and bought several insurance agencies. It thus shows that Todd Robinson has little knowledge about the agencies employees and leadership. He, therefore, needs an approach that will help him understand leaders/employees strengths, weaknesses, potential, skills, and performance. The best approach will help him have a comprehensive understanding of leaders, including all the above-listed attributes and leadership factors ( Scott & Reynolds, 2010) . The 360-Degree Feedback is an instrumental approach that will help Robinson understand leaders and employees. 360-Degree Feedback entails getting Feedback from other employees about a leader's weaknesses, personality, strength, and performance.
The employees around the leader fills out several pages of the questionnaire concerning the targeted leader. The results are then compiled after which a report is produced. The results gotten from the responses offer a framework of judging the leader's performance, development, and critical attributes. Since Mr. Robinson has little understanding about majority of leaders, especially those from agencies acquired, he can use this approach that relies on Feedback from those who know and understand the leader under assessment. Since results emanate from various sources, Mr. Todd can deploy them to determine a leader's effectiveness, performance, and critical skills relevant to the organization's vision and mission. The feedback questionnaires entail questions measured on a rated scale, asking employees to offer comments. Leaders and managers employ the approach to get an extensive understanding of employees/leaders strengths and weaknesses. It measures out competencies and behavior, how employees relates with the leader, leadership effectiveness, and character. The approach is relevant in helping Robinson Insurance utilize its employees to gather relevant data and information critical to the assessment.
According to Mitchinson and Morris (2014) the 360-Degree method offers an insight on how a leader can apply leadership skills towards achieving organizational goals. In using the approach, Robinson would get direct confidential feedback from employees working under the leader being assessed. For example, if the leader has excellent communication skills, Robinson would be in a position to determine their integrity and honesty levels. These will play a critical role in understanding the leader’s teamwork abilities in addition to passion and commitment to the company ( Scott & Reynolds, 2010) . The questionnaire will also offer an insight into the leader’s strengths such as a robust personality capable of instilling a working passion in the employees.
Specific assessment instruments to evaluate leadership potential, justifying the use of each assessment instrument for its intended purpose
Assessment instruments gives an understanding into areas that one needs to put more effort and focus. Three analytical tools that can be used include EQ-I 2.0 for Emotional Intelligence, Clifton Strengths, and passion profiler.
The Passion Profiler
It is an instrument that is important in identifying an individual’s unique urges. For example, according to Chapman and Giri (2017) the psychometric tool helps identify specific attributes that can play a role in inspiring others and motivates them to offer their best.
The EQ-I 2.0 for Emotional Intelligence
Describes an instrument used to measure how an individual expresses and perceives himself/herself, maintains their group circles, and the coping mechanisms with problems ( Herd et al., 2016) . It is a critical instrument for coaching engagements and offers an essential indicator of one’s leadership performance.
Clifton Strength
The instruments help empower a person to live their best lives. A leader can discover their best attributes in addition to assisting them focus on the most critical aspects of their characteristics (Mitchinson & Morrie, 2014). It further helps one develop and improve on their strengths. By the use of this instrument, Robinson Insurance can help its departmental leaders and employees grow and build on what is relevant for the organization. For example, it can use the Clifton Strengths to develop its leader’s weaknesses together with how they can work towards growing.
Justification
The above instruments are essential for Robinson in focusing on improving the leader’s efficiency and effectiveness in line with Robinson’s primary objectives of expanding and handing over the firm to capable leaders. For example, the EQ-I 2.0 For Emotional Intelligence will be vital towards helping leaders cope with daunting challenges and growth dynamics of the company.
Results of Proposed Assessment Plan
The 360 Degree approach stands to produce varying outcomes originating from various sources. However, some key features will stand out in the final results. However, the most critical aspect of the approach is career and personal development for targeted leaders whose capabilities and performance will be rated. Due to the background of the agencies, most results will be negative where leaders will be portrayed as incompetent, demotivating, lacking in effective decision making, and high-handedness in daily management. The responses will highlight poor teamwork organization that has resulted in poor organizational management and employee inspiration. The reactions will portray a slightly average positive environment that lacks in productivity thus lowering performance of the employees towards achieving overall objective of the organizations. The results will also indicate an overwhelming lack of support for leaders due to what they consider as lack of focus on leaders in addition to inadequacy of technical know-how on managerial skills critical for productivity. Lack of employee engagement will also be noticeable. Poor organizational abilities on the part of mid-level managers would also feature prominently in the feedbacks.
Details of practical considerations of your plan, such as who will implement which parts of the assessment plan (an insider, an outsider, or a combination of both)
Using the EQ-I 2.0 For Emotional Intelligence, it will be essential to put in considerable differences in leaders emotional attributes. It will also be necessary to factor in secondary factors that may have an impact on the leader’s ability to perform the required expectations. Other considerations important during the assessment, especially Clifton Strengths, will be the organizational structure of the company that may have influenced or played a role in the overall attributes of the leader ( Chapman & Giri, 2017) . On a minor scale, business environmental factors such as working conditions will leverage on any outstanding behavioral feature.
Other important considerations, such as who will implement the assessment, will play an essential role in the overall success of the evaluation. For Robinson Insurance, a combination of both an independent outsider and insider will be involved in the entire process of the assessment. The insider will undertake minor details of the evaluation and will majorly offer guidance to the independent external body conducting the review. Since the insider will be well-conversant with the company, his/her participation in the assessment will be vital for the outsider especially in carrying out fine details such implementing assessment instruments including Emotional Intelligence and the passion profiler.
Type of certification may be necessary to administer each assessment
The independent external body will be required to be fully established and legally in operation. It will have to provide all official documentation detailing its assessment operations in various fields. These will include government certification, professional accreditation, and the legal status of its existence and activity in the market. On the other hand, the insider will have to fulfill set requirements that include certification in assessment proficiency, professional accreditation, especially in a business-related course in addition to at least three years working for Robinson Insurance.
How the managers within Robinson Insurance will be consulted and involved in the assessment process
Managers at Robinson will be involved if need arises. However, they will form a core part of the assessment from the initial stages to the end. All correspondents will be guided by relevant managers tasked to oversee success of the exercise.
Potential legal ramifications that may arise and ways of ensuring that the approach you recommend for the company is legal and justifiable
In the situation, Robinson Insurance applies the assessment that will seek to identify leadership potentiality; thus, several legal ramifications will arise. Since the 360 Degree Feedback will be undertaken online, privacy of those partaking may be compromised. Given that Robinson Insurance remains a private and family run business; participants will have to sign a confidential paper to counter any arising adverse impacts of the assessment. All participants will also be made to understand the primary purpose of the evaluation to safeguard any attempts to compromise the results.
Conclusion
An efficient succession plan will entail a comprehensive assessment that help in facilitating continuity. At the same time, it will align aspects of management to the company’s strategy, values, and objectives. The assessment approach offered in the paper has a comprehensive model that will help the management plan a well-structured succession blueprint. The company and employees will gain from the exercise thus helping them understand their potentiality and participation in the company. It is thus critical for the top management and middle managers of Robinson Insurance to pay more considerable attention to managing the company’s resources and efforts towards building a strategic and outstanding plan in an attempt to achieve set goals outlined by Todd Robinson.
References
Chapman, A. L., & Giri, P. (2017). Learning to Lead: Tools for Self-Assessment of Leadership Skills and Styles. In Why Hospitals Fail (pp. 137-148). Springer, Cham. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jill_Aylott/publication/318237644_Assessing_the_Return_on_Investment_ROI_Through_Appreciative_Inquiry_AI_of_Hospital_Improvement_Programmes/links/5ace6ba5a6fdcc87840efc58/Assessing-the-Return-on-Investment-ROI-Through-Appreciative-Inquiry-AI-of-Hospital-Improvement-Programmes.pdf#page=140
Herd, A. M., Alagaraja, M., & Cumberland, D. M. (2016). Assessing global leadership competencies: the critical role of assessment centre methodology. Human Resource Development International , 19 (1), 27-43. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Denise_Cumberland/publication/279953921_Assessing_and_developing_global_leadership_competencies_The_critical_role_of_assessment_center_technology/links/5a8b3b2daca272017e639e09/Assessing-and-developing-global-leadership-competencies-The-critical-role-of-assessment-center-technology.pdf
Mitchinson, A. & Morris, R. (2014). Learning about learning agility. Retrieved from http://www.ccl.org/Leadership/pdf/research/LearningAgility.pdf
Scott, J. C., & Reynolds, D. H. (2010). Handbook of workplace assessment (Vol. 32). John Wiley & Sons.
