Leadership assessment test: qualities, styles and tools

Leadership assessment test is an effective recruitment tool that allows to detect if a candidate can be a good leader.

It is also very useful for the person being assessed to become aware of the role to assume in the company and the importance of leading teams in line with the project’s objectives.

For these reasons, in this article we want to help you deepen in the qualities, styles and tools to make your leadership assessment tests a success. 

What is leadership assessment test?

Leadership assessment test is an evaluation system that allows to determine if a candidate has the necessary skills to manage teams and become a good leader. 

Its importance lies in the fact that, in a context of constant change, companies need to manage and develop leadership in order to increase competitiveness and avoid talent drain. 

To achieve this, Human Resources (HR) strategies make use of various leadership assessment tests that identify the strengths and weaknesses of their human capital. 

These tests can follow different approaches and assess aspects such as personality traits, power skills or how they react in specific situations.

In recruitment, leadership assessment is useful to foresee (as well as other tests such as, for example, the dark traits test). how candidates can fit into positions of responsibility and what their professional projection can be.

Leadership assessment qualities

Leadership assessment must be able to identify qualities in the candidates that will enable them to lead their teams to high performance in line with the company’s objectives. 

Regardless of the leadership assessment style used, the test to measure leadership in an individual has advantages related to the qualities:

• It helps determine whether the person being assessed has a high capacity, in the case of candidates who meet all the leadership requirements, or a low capacity, in the case of candidates who meet only some of the requirements, or no capacity at all.
• It helps the person understand and improve their strengths and weaknesses. 
• It allows the assessed person to become aware of the importance of management and to focus on improving skills to be able to meet the challenges of leadership. 
• It is effective in strengthening the leadership of an organization and increasing its competitiveness by attracting highly qualified profiles for team and project management. 
• It consolidates the commitment of talents with the corporate culture by allowing to boost the professional career of leaders.

Leadership style tests 

Before continuing, it is important to dwell on the usefulness of leadership style tests. 

These tests allow you to identify the 4 basic types of leadership that can be expected from a leader.

1. Autocratic. The leader makes the decisions and takes full responsibility for the project. The team follows his orders.
2. Paternalistic. The leader develops team management based on rewards and punishments. This profle is empathetic and empowers people. 
3. Democratic. Builds teams that collaborate in decision making and creates an environment that encourages the exchange of ideas.
4. Laissez-faire. Employees enjoy a great deal of freedom and decision-making authority. This is often seen in the intrapreneur, an employee who develops a line of business or product autonomously but within a company.

Regardless of the leadership style test you use, it is advisable to adhere to the following basic principles: 

1. Customization based on the type of leadership you want to develop in your project. 
2. Align with the strategic goals of the organization. 
3. Attractive communication of the benefits of the assessment to the person being evaluated. 
4. Action planning according to the results obtained to improve the profiles. 

Leadership assessment tools

Within the leadership assessment framework, personality leadership tests allow to determine whether the person possesses the traits and skills that usually characterize a good leader.

They are mostly based on tests with multiple-choice questions, which facilitates the evaluation process.

Here are some examples of the most commonly used leadership assessment tools, both in recruitment online, with the help of specialized software, and in internal procedures. 

Dark traits test

One of the tests you can use to assess your future leaders is the Dark traits test. 

It allows you to determine if the person has counterproductive or conflicting traits that may interfere with the proper execution of their responsibilities. 

DISC test

The Disc test is a personality test that evaluates the candidate in terms of 4 basic behaviors that make up the acronym DISC: 

1. Dominance.
2. Influence.
3. Steadiness.
4. Conscientiousness.

Myers-Briggs type indicator 

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, known as MBTI, is a test that focuses on self-assessment based on 4 dichotomies: 

1. Introversion-Extraversion. 
2. Sensing – intuition. 
3. Judgment-perception. 
4. Thinking-feeling.

Gallup test

The Gallup test focuses on the respondent to determine if the candidate has 4 strengths needed in leaders: 

1. Executing.
2. Influencing.
3. Building Relationships.
4. Strategic Thinking.

This process allows the development of these strategic talents in the management of teams to achieve the best results.

Saville Wave

This is a psychometric test widely used to identify potential leadership talent.

The Saville Wave methodology explores 3 professional dimensions of the person: 

1. The type of talents the candidate has. 
2. Work motivations. 
3. The environment in which the candidate performs best or the type of corporate culture in which the applicants can be at their best.

360º Feedback

360 degree feedback encourages constructive criticism by exposing managers to the evaluation of their teams, their customers and also their superiors. 

Thanks to this process, they can become aware of points of improvement in their leadership.

Enneagram

It consists of a quick test that, using a kind of map of the human mind, helps to define the candidates’ personality types and how they relate to their environment according to 9 personality traits. 

Emotional intelligence (EQ) test

This test measures the candidates’ ability to recognize and manage the own emotions, as well as inhibitions, thanks to their emotional intelligence.

For all of your online leadership assessment tests, you need to be able to provide your test takers with a safe, respectful experience that is consistent with your employer branding. 

At Smowltech, we have extensive experience in creating professional and customizable proctoring plans for your projects. 

Request a free demo where we will show you effective and innovative online proctoring solutions.