Monday, January 19, 2009

How a Talent Assessment Can Help Determine Future Leaders

By T.S. Field

Why use a talent assessment to find future leaders? An organization that promotes from within will have very little trouble recognizing potential leaders because a past job performance is usually a good measurement of leadership skills and abilities. But what if the company is seeking to hire recent college graduates who will be developed into future leaders over time? The human resource manager can use an asssessment to determine the best candidates for a leadership position.

An organization may want to also develop, revamp or upgrade a leadership training program that has become obsolete. As the leadership training committee maps out a plan to find likely candidates for training. They can also develop their ownassessment and interview process. A talent assessment for leadership abilities can be given as part of a psychometric assessment that includes aptitude and personality testing. There are twelve indicators of a good leader that can be determined thorugh a talent assessment.

1. Carefulness - a tendency to plan and think before speaking or acting.

2. Cooperation - the ability to be likeable and genial in interpersonal relationships.

3. Creativity - the ability and willingness to think "outside the box"

4. Discipline - a tendency towards being dependable, responsible, and able to follow through in order to complete tasks

5. Goodwill - able to be forgiving and to think of others as having good intentions

6. Influence - ability to impress others by speaking with authority

7. Optimism - tendency toward a positive attitude and having confidence in favorable outcomes

8. Order - naturally neat and has good organizational skills

9. Savvy - ability to read people to know their needs and intentions

10. Sociability - enjoys being with other people at work and at social gatherings

11. Stability - ability to remain calm and rational during stressful situations

12. Striving - abiity to keep pushing and working hard to obtain goals

There are hundreds of assessments to choose from if the organization wishes to use the talent portion of the overall assessment process. It is advised that the company compares several different assessments and their benefits before making a final choice. The talent assessment can help an organization save time and money by helping the company find leadership potential among job applicants. If a company's senior leaders are retiring within a few years, this assessment can be given every time there is a job opening in the company so that new potential leaders can be trained and transitioned smoothly into the vacated positions.

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