leadership assessment for development

'If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?'—Zen proverb

To develop a manager’s leadership skills as they are learning and making mistakes, Mettle believes that it is necessary to use a system that is entirely separate from the performance management system. It must be one that will encourage honesty and constructive disclosure from both the person herself as well as from the person’s peers, direct reports, managers and sometimes clients and other stakeholders.

As we do in our culture assessment, Mettle uses both quantitative and qualitative assessment processes for individual leaders.

Qualitative approach

Qualitatively, Mettle relies primarily on two interventions:

• Individual interviews with leaders and their colleagues, direct reports with leaders and managers by our qualified coaches who work to determine where strengths and development needs lie
• Facilitation of regular 'on-the-balcony' sessions with intact teams in which they are taught to create a sacred space of respectful dialogue where everyone feeds back to everyone else using the principles of appreciative inquiry. We focus on three points for each person of the team in this session:
  • What do their colleagues or direct reports value most about them?
  • What would they need to do with each of the other people on the team to strengthen the relationship?
  • What three things would they do in the next three months to become a more effective leader?

This is not a free-for-all dumping session. It takes practice to think with positive psychology and not focus on the faults of our colleagues and bosses. With the initial training of a Mettle facilitator, teams can learn to be each other’s best teachers and coaches, and the examples of behaviour they can use as 'proof points' are far more powerful than ones that any external coach could use.

Quantitative approach

Quantitatively, Mettle prefers to use its own 360 tool, the Mettle Leadership Gauge, although we are qualified to work with clients on a variety of existing 360 tools in the market such as Human Synergistics’ Leadership Styles Inventory and Leadership Impact, Centre for Creative Leadership’s Benchmarks 360 and the Denison Leadership 360.

A 360 tool is always useful in providing a 'jolt' of awareness regarding the need for behaviour change. This becomes the starting point for self reflection into the blocks, patterns and limiting beliefs a person may be experiencing. The results of the 360 are presented back to leaders in a one-hour, one-on-one debrief session. The information presented allows leaders to see how they perceive themselves (personal results) compared to how others perceive them (mirror results). Leaders can receive their feedback and be debriefed prior to the next team leadership program. Leaders would then be able to enter the workshop sharing a common language and an already heightened awareness. Each participant also receives a comprehensive learning book that provides insights, ideas and practical leadership applications to enhance their chances of success.