As organizations seek to develop their leaders, one important step is to understand their strengths and areas for development through leadership assessment tools. There are various leadership assessments available that provide insights into a leader’s personality, behaviour, and preferences. These assessments can help identify potential blind spots, opportunities for growth, and areas where a leader may excel.
In this blog, we will explore some of the most popular leadership assessments available, their benefits, and the leadership assessments used by Spark Success Coaching. By understanding the different types of assessments and their benefits, you can choose the right tools to help you or your team members develop leadership capabilities.
In looking at the leadership assessments used by Spark Success Coaching, we will discuss why we believe they are effective. By utilizing these assessments, we have been able to help our clients gain a deeper understanding of their leadership styles, identify their strengths, and create action plans to address areas for improvement.
Whether you are a leader seeking to develop your skills or an organization looking to develop your leadership team, this article will provide valuable insights into the different leadership assessments available and how they can help you achieve your goals.
What are the Main Types of Leadership Assessment Tools?
There are various leadership assessments available, each with its own unique approach and benefits. Here are some of the current top leadership assessments:
- DiSC: The DiSC assessment is a personality-based assessment that categorizes individuals into four main behavioural styles: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. This assessment helps individuals understand their communication preferences, decision-making style, and how they interact with others. Because this is a behavioural assessment, and our behaviours can be modified to suit the situation, one of the outcomes of this assessment is to learn how to adapt our own style to better communicate with people with different styles to ours. We also use the DiSC Work of Leaders assessment for people in leader of leaders roles.
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): The MBTI assessment is a personality-based assessment that categorizes individuals into 16 different personality types based on four dichotomies: Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. This assessment helps individuals understand their personality preferences and how they relate to others. The premise of this assessment originating from Carls Jung’s theory of personality is that we are born with innate preferences, preferences which are illustrated through these four dichotomies.
- Emotional Intelligence (EI): The EQ-i assessment measures an individual’s ability to recognize, understand, and manage their own emotions, as well as their ability to recognize and understand the emotions of others. This assessment helps individuals develop self-awareness and empathy, make decisions taking emotions into consideration, leading to improved communication, relationships, and decision making, and reduced stress. There are 360 degree versions of this assessment.
- StrengthsFinder: The StrengthsFinder assessment focuses on identifying an individual’s strengths and talents. The assessment categorizes individuals into 34 distinct strengths, allowing individuals to understand their unique abilities and how to leverage them for personal and professional success.
- Values: Values assessments support a leader to gain clarity on their professed values but then also to practice their desired values. When leaders lead from their values, they are authentic leaders. People know what to expect from them. They support others to work from their values which creates greater engagement and fulfillment.
- 360-Degree Feedback: 360-Degree Feedback assessments gather feedback from an individual’s peers, subordinates, and superiors. This assessment provides individuals with a well-rounded perspective of their strengths and areas for improvement, allowing them to create an action plan for personal and professional growth.
These are just a few examples of the current types of top leadership assessments. Each assessment has its unique benefits and can provide valuable insights into an individual’s leadership style and capabilities.
What are the Leadership Assessments that are Offered by Spark Success
Spark Success Coaching believes in empowering leaders to make a positive impact for the benefit of themselves, their teams, their organizations, and the world, and we use assessments that align with this philosophy. The leadership assessments that we use include the DiSC Behavioral Assessment, Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator, the Barrett Values Centre Leadership Self Assessment and 360 Leadership Values Assessment, the Leadership Challenge 360 Leadership Assessment, the EQ-i 2.0 Leadership and the EQ-i 360 assessment, and the Positive Intelligence Saboteur and PQ Score assessments.
We use these assessments for several reasons
- The DiSC Behavioral Assessment and Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator help individuals understand their communication style or personality type, decision-making approach, and personality preferences, allowing them to develop self-awareness, and awareness of others’ styles and types and, thereby, improve and adapt to their interactions with others. The DiSC Work of Leaders assessment is for people in leader of leaders roles who work through others to implement Vision, Strategy, and Implementation.
- The Barrett Values Centre Self Leadership and 360 Leadership Values assessments help leaders to understand their personal and leadership values and assess how their values align with their leadership style and the organization’s values. This assessment helps leaders create alignment between their values and actions, leading to more authentic and purpose-driven leadership. It also supports them to see what might be holding them back or what might be their next values to focus on.
- The Leadership Challenge 360 Leadership Assessment focuses on identifying leadership strengths and areas for development based on the five practices of exemplary leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. This assessment helps individuals understand their leadership style and create an action plan for growth and development.
- The EQ-i 2.0 Leaders and EQ-i 360 assessments focus on emotional intelligence, measuring an individual’s ability to recognize and manage their emotions and relate to others. These assessments help individuals develop self-awareness, empathy, and effective communication skills, leading to stronger relationships and better leadership.
- Finally, the Positive Intelligence Saboteurs and PQ Score assessments help individuals identify the mental and emotional patterns that hinder their performance and limit their potential. This assessment helps individuals develop mental resilience and positive habits, leading to improved decision-making and performance.
Leadership assessments play a crucial role in developing self-leadership and enhancing leadership capabilities. By utilizing assessments such as the above mentioned, leaders gain valuable insights into their communication style, personality preferences, emotional intelligence, strengths, and values alignment. These assessments provide a deeper understanding of oneself and others, enabling leaders to adapt their approach, foster self-awareness, strengthen relationships, and make informed decisions. With the support of Spark Success Coaching and the wide range of assessments we use, leaders can create personalized action plans for growth and development, unlocking their full potential and making a positive impact in their organizations and beyond. Invest in your leadership journey by harnessing the power of leadership assessments and watch as you thrive as an authentic and influential leader.
We invite you to schedule a complimentary exploration session so that we can further discuss which leadership assessments may be beneficial to you and how they can be incorporated into your overall development plan for personal and professional growth. This, in turn, will allow you to become a more effective and authentic leader, and amplify your positive impact for the benefit of all.
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Yours in understanding oneself and others,
