Leadership Talent Selection

Uses of Assessment Centers

• Evaluation of people for promotion or succession

• Formulation of training plan for strengths & weaknesses

• Evaluation for selection of final candidates

Leadership Assessment Centers

• Over 3,000 organizations have used assessment centers

• Evaluate for promotion, succession, strengths/weaknesses training, final selection

• Predictive validity for leadership talent; may lack job relatedness• 3-5 evaluators for 10-15 candidates over 1-5 days• 1-5 days for cost of $2,000-$30,000 each candidate (average $3,500)• Expensive-- only .5 – 2% of internal employees can do it• May be assessed only once in career while market opportunities

change constantly

Sample assessment centers

• Center for leadership Assessment

• Office of Personnel Management Talent Search

• Sample Leadership Assessment Report

What are the kinds of behaviors that should be assessed & what do you think they would indicate?

How can they best be measured?

The “Talent” approach

• What are distinguishing characteristics of people who excel at what they do?

• Sports (hockey, baseball, etc.)

• Sales

Assume you are on a search committee for identifying leadership potential in a business organization:

• How would you start to define the talents required?

• Make a list of 6-10 talents & prioritize them

• How would you identify and measure the top three talents? (be VERY behavioral)

Predictors of Leadership Performance

Low Predictors• Graphology (85%)• Interviews (81%)• References (67%)

Moderate Predictors• IQ, cognitive ability• Career Path Appreciation

(conceptual skills & promotability)

High Predictors• Biodata (high fiscal, 7%)• Personality (5-factor)• Critical incidents

(immediate job)

Leadership Assessment Centers

Typical Evaluation Methods• Biographical inventories• Vocational, aptitude, personality

tests• In-basket exercises• Leaderless group discussion• Role-play• Case analyses

Behaviors evaluated• Decision making• Leadership style• Interpersonal skills• Management control• Delegation• Planning & prioritizing• Risk taking• Creativity• Oral & written communication• Assertiveness• Stress tolerance

STEPS TOIDENTIFYING POTENTIAL

DDI’S IDENTIFYING LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL PROCESSWILL HELP AN ORGANIZATION:

ALIGN THE PROCESS • Link the process to key business drivers• Define a customized plan:

- Communication strategy- Rollout timeline- Roles and responsibilities- Performance measures

IMPLEMENT THE TOOLS • Verify nomination criteria• Clarify rating standards• Establish a data-gathering strategy using the Leadership Potential Inventory

NOMINATE HIGHPOTENTIAL MEMBERS

• Orient the managers who will serve as nominators• Initiate managerial nominations• Collect and organize nomination data

SELECT HIGHPOTENTIAL MEMBERS

• Facilitate or model the process to review nominations• Select and document final nominations• Target accelerated development strategies to each selected member

http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_identifyingpotentials_fs.pdf

Sample stages of leader identification from DDI Co.

Sample Assessment Center Agenda

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Orientation & group formationBusiness gameInterviews & psychological testingLeaderless group discussions

In-basket exerciseIndividual role playingGroup role playing

Individual case analysisPeer ratings

FeedbackCounselingFurther development discussions

Sources of Rater Bias• Halo effect– rate high or low due to irrelevant feature or global

impression

• Leniency error– tendency to give everyone higher ratings

• Severity error– tendency to give everyone lower ratings

• Central tendency– avoid extreme ratings for specific or on all dimensions

• Contrast effect– rating of one person is affected by rating of another

• Hawthorne effect– rating distortion (usually high) due to being attended to in a study

• Self-fulfilling prophecy (experimenter effect)– selective attention given to what is expected or desired

• Misplaced precision error– faults in the rating, design, or treatment may invalidate the precision of the other

• Law of the instrument– a favorite instrument will probably find only what it’s designed to find

• Number magic– the use of numbers carries the impression of greater precision than may be present