Head of CEO and Executive Assessment, NA
Leadership
What Should a Leadership Assessment Measure?
What makes an effective leader? Focus your 360-degree executive assessment on four key metrics to drive stronger leadership outcomes.
June 09, 2025
How Executive Assessments Help Develop Your Future Leadership
Instincts still influence business decisions—but without data, they’re a gamble. This is especially true when identifying future leaders.
“Our research shows that when hiring managers rely on gut feelings alone, their chances of picking a future high performer are roughly 50/50—no better than a coin toss,” says Korn Ferry’s Evelyn Orr.
The smarter move? Use data-driven executive assessments to uncover hidden talent that could drive your business forward.
Two steps to spot future leaders:
- Build success profiles aligned with your organization’s goals.
- Assess talent across four critical dimensions.
Here’s how to do it.
Success Profiles—the VIP Leadership Assessment Tool
Success profiles provide a blueprint for leadership roles. Built around your organization’s strategy and culture, they define the traits, skills, and mindsets that drive success.
The right assessment partner can design success profiles that you can use to:
- Benchmark against top-performing leaders
- Map your current team to identify gaps
- Improve leadership fit
They’re called success profiles for a reason—they significantly increase your chances of business success. One of their proven benefits is a better leadership fit. And leaders with the best alignment to their roles are up to 13 times more likely to be highly engaged.
What Are Leadership Assessments?
You need to have a clear picture of your candidate’s potential. That’s where a strategic leadership assessment comes in, and it needs to measure talent in these four crucial areas.
1. Past and Current Performance
Looking at past results is a good start. But you also need to assess their current performance and identify what makes them stand out from their peers.
“Determine what the high performer is doing better than or more of than a regular performer,” says Korn Ferry’s Karin Visser.
To evaluate how potential leaders are performing against your success profile, you might look at:
- Data-led supervisor evaluations
- 360-type feedback assessments
- Behavioral interviews
- Reference interviews
- Results of simulations
Compare results to your success profile benchmarks.
2. Leadership and Development Potential
Even when someone is good at their current job, they may not have the chops (or the desire) for leadership.
You need to identify individuals who have the unique strengths required to thrive in more demanding positions. The best way to do this is by using customized success profiles as your guide in your 360-degree leadership assessment.
Developing executives who don’t have what it takes wastes everyone’s time. It’s important to identify who has the ability and motivation to grow.
Find those who have genuine leadership strengths using assessment techniques. These might include psychometric and personality tests as well as interviews. These help you understand your candidate’s aptitudes, traits, mindsets, motivations, and values.
“When someone starts in an organization, there’s a natural career path for them within the company,” says Visser. “You want to know if the person has the potential to grow. You don’t only recruit for the position—you recruit for the whole career path."
3. Leadership Readiness
You’ve got the right person with the right leadership competencies and oodles of potential—but are they ready to move up now?
In-depth, simulation-based assessments can highlight any development gaps that need to be filled. Developing future leaders is something every strong company should bake into their talent management DNA.
“An organization that's following talent management best practices will be cultivating a pipeline of people over time. And they will think in terms of generations of people who are being prepared for particular roles,” says Orr.
Determine who might be ready to take on higher-level responsibilities. What makes them ready now, and what gaps need to be filled in to ensure a smooth transition to the relevant leadership position?
4. Culture and Positional Fit
To ensure you’re not trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole, you need to perform a fit assessment.
Use psychometric tests and interviews to see who is best suited for an immediate role in your specific business and culture. Ensure the leader’s values and behaviors align with your organizational culture. How will they reinforce the desired culture?
Match these to attributes you’ve determined your organization needs for leadership effectiveness:
- Specific capabilities
- Functional expertise
- Leadership experience
- Skills
- Style
- Personal goals
- Values
“Performing a fit assessment is especially important with external candidates, because you don't know them—you haven't seen them progress through their career yourself,” says Visser.
Get Leadership Assessment Right
Before you can think about how to mentor developing leaders, you need to be sure you're focusing on the right people.
“When you use assessments, you’re stacking the odds in your favor,” says Orr. “You’re more likely to choose someone who not only fits the profile for that role but will likely go on to be a high performer, contribute more value over time, and have the potential for bigger and more impactful roles in the future.”
But not all assessment partners are equal. You need to feel confident that the results will find you the right people.
Need help choosing the right strategy? Our eBook How to Choose a Leadership Assessment Strategy provides the clear-cut guidance you need.
Related insights
