How to Measure a Leader’s Competence and Ability
By Michael J Griffin
5 minute read
Being able to discern a leader’s competence and ability is crucial for business owners and senior directors to make good hiring and promotion decisions. Faulty hiring and promotions can be very costly financially and be damaging to team and employee morale. Let’s review some of the tools I use to better assess a manager’s ability to lead others effectively. I start with the 1/3 – 1/3 – 1/3 rule.
To start with, Howard Stevens recommends that you use this rule to make good hiring or promotion decisions: 1/3 on past performance, 1/3 using valid assessments, and 1/3 on input from past bosses, including yourself on the manager’s future potential.
Review Past Performance
Reviewing past performance is fairly easy but with the caveat that past performance may not be a good indicator of future success in a role as a leader. How many of us have promoted a super salesperson to be a sales manager/coach only to see poor sales team leadership? When reviewing past performance look for the KPI’s and skill level that relate to the new job or promotion!
Back in the 1990’s I was not having good success hiring Indonesian managers. In interviews, both the interviewer and candidate wear “topeng” or masks to put forth a good impression. I was finding it difficult to get the candidates to open up so as to remove their “topeng.” I then discovered that employing globally recognized and culturally relevant assessments and profiles was a sure way to truly discover a candidate’s competence and attitude for the positions I was hiring for. Why? People want to always find out about themselves and when you review an assessment or profile with them, they collaborate with you and more openly answer your questions. This is true for new hires or those pitching for a promotion.
Use Quality Assessments
Employing the 1/3 rule using quality assessments greatly improved my hiring and promotion success leading to improving revenue and employee motivation. I also was more confident that I was making win – win collaborative decisions for people who work or get promoted at ELAvate. Here are the select high quality assessments I employ to promote and hire:
Skill Mastery Tests. These are tests that assess knowledge only and not skill or behavior. If they don’t have it “upstairs” in their brain, they most likely will not demonstrate the skill on the job. Secondly, knowledge tests can be developed cheaply and cost little to administer.
TTISI DISC Behavioral Profiles. Seven seconds of everyday, someone around the world is doing the TTISI DISC Profile. The DISC profile measures and identifies the way a person communicates, relates, problem solves on a day to day basis under no stress or some stress. The TTISI profile can also generate a 25 competency ranking and the candidate communication strengths and areas of improvement for a job. There are different versions of DISC for CEO, manager, staff, project, sales, customer service, student and family. Many of our clients come to us to use this DISC profile for hiring.
TTISI Driving Forces and Motivator Profiles. Attitude and motivation are just as important when filling positions. TTISI has found that there is a direct correlation between motivators and job success. This profile basically helps answer the question “will the employee be motivated to succeed in this job or position?” A practical example is the strong correlation of the Utilitarian/Resourceful motivator with success in a sales role.
Gallup StrengthsFinder. The StrengthsFinder assessment is a personal development tool developed by Gallup Education, which provides an individual with their “Top 5” strengths. The 34 “strength” themes are divided into four domains of Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building, Influencing and Executing. StrengthsFinder assessment helps identify the areas where a person (or team if being used in that context) have the greatest potential for building strength. It measures recurring patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior.
ELAvate Leading for Results (LFR) 360 Survey. ELAvate has developed this survey to assess a leader’s current competence and attitude by gaining feedback from their superior/boss, peers, subordinates and in some cases, vendors. Most companies us this 360 survey for developing manager/leaders or for promotion. The LFR survey has 32 competencies across the six Leader Roles of Visionary, Orienteer, Communicator, Investor, Influencer and Ethical Leader. ELAvate has customized this 360 for a number of multinational clients for use across the world.
A caution on assessments. Never use just one survey or profile as every assessment has strengths and weaknesses. By using at least two assessments, you are “turning the diamond to see the different colors” of a person’s ability and strengths.
Gain Qualitative Feedback
The final 1/3 rule is gaining feedback from past/current supervisors, or in the case of hiring, from those involved in the interview process. The keys to using this “1/3 rule” are to be able to ask good insightful questions, be persistent in requiring proof that back up qualitative statements, and using your “gut.”
Your “gut” or intuition is based on your experience and feelings. I usually ask myself three “gut” questions for any person I will hire or promote. The first one I learned from Peter Drucker: “Would I want/feel comfortable if my son or daughter is managed by this person?” My second question is “How well will this person fit into our culture (or the team)?” Finally, the third question: “Is this person teachable?” If your answers are a “no” or doubtful, don’t hire or promote!
These three rules of hiring and promoting can greatly improve your success in putting people into the right positions they will enjoy, be motivated and competent and have potential to improve the success of your team or organization.
If you require more insight into how you might use the three rules and assessments for better job fit, email me at michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com
Lead well. Hire well. Promote wisely.
Michael J Griffin
CEO Founder of ELAvate
Experienced Hiring Specialist
Maxwell Leadership Founder