Leadership in transformation
Leadership audit
A leadership audit measures the skills of your management team or key individuals against what your company needs and turns the results into development plans.
A leadership audit establishes which leadership skills your company will need in future and how well your leadership team is equipped for them today. It links the organisation’s collective leadership capability with the individual skills of key people. The method is based on our leadership assessment and development approach.
What you come away with
- Leadership requirements derived from the strategy
- Feedback report or assessment report for each leader
- Facilitated feedback conversations and individual development plans
- Analysis of development needs across the leadership group
How we work
- 01
Derive requirements
Define strategic leadership skills and the requirements profile based on the organisation’s challenges.
- 02
Assess
Capture self-image and how others see the leader with 360-degree feedback, or with personality instruments and an interview.
- 03
Give feedback
Explain the report or expert assessment and discuss it in a facilitated conversation.
- 04
Plan development
Draw up individual development plans and analyse needs across the leadership group.
Identifying strategic leadership skills
We start by asking which leadership skills the organisation’s challenges call for. Leadership requirements are derived from the strategy, corporate goals and the particular features of the company. A requirements profile that is as company-specific as possible becomes the benchmark against which current skill levels are measured.
Capturing self-image and how others see the leader
With 360-degree feedback, leaders assess themselves and receive feedback from line managers, peers, direct reports and, where relevant, customers. It is based on standardised descriptions of observable behaviour. For individual key people, the audit can also include personality instruments, a self-assessment of skills and a structured interview.
A leadership audit measures leadership against your own company’s requirements, not against a generic ideal.
Discussing results and planning development
The feedback report is explained first to the leader and then to their line manager. In a facilitated conversation, both agree which strengths and development areas matter for the role. The result is an individual development plan; for a whole leadership group, the analysis also shows which development needs many leaders share.
Book an initial callLooking at the entire leadership group
A leadership audit can concern a single key person or the entire leadership group. Typical occasions are uncertainty about which leadership competencies the company will need in future, the wish to professionalise leadership development with a structured assessment of the current state, complaints from the workforce about leadership behaviour, or an aptitude analysis when recruiting junior managers. In our leadership concept, identifying the strengths and development opportunities of all managers comes after clarifying organisational and personal requirements and before building a learning architecture.
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In one documented project, the entire leadership group of around 120 people went through a leadership audit with facilitated feedback conversations and individual development plans. The feedback data was also evaluated across the board to determine the significant development needs for the global Management Circle. Such an evaluation shows where an organisation should work on shared leadership topics instead of treating each piece of feedback merely as an individual case. Because all participants use the same competence descriptions, a shared language for leadership also emerges.
From feedback to a development plan
We understand leadership competence as the available knowledge, motivation and ability that enable a person to deliver a certain level of performance. The competence model of the 360-degree feedback works with a relative assessment: feedback providers weigh the descriptions against each other instead of rating everything equally well. This makes strengths and development areas distinguishable. So-called career stoppers are also taken into account, i.e. behaviours that can prematurely end a career in the organisation. For development planning, proven plans for 86 common development needs are available.
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In the facilitated conversation, blind spots of the manager and also of their line manager can be discussed. The development plan records goals from the line manager’s perspective, personal measures, challenging assignments, coaching and milestones. We assume that development happens mainly through demanding tasks, partly through timely feedback and to a lesser extent through training and coaching. If a manager takes on a new function, a 100-day programme can follow. The procedure is suitable for periodic repetition.
Arbeitsergebnisse: Aus der Strategie abgeleitete Anforderungen an Führung; Feedbackreport oder Gutachten je Führungskraft; Moderierte Feedbackgespräche und individuelle Entwicklungspläne; Übergreifende Auswertung der Entwicklungsbedarfe im Führungskreis.
Participants, methods, feedback providers and scope are agreed in the brief. Whether a whole leadership group or individual key people take part depends on the question to be answered.
Frequently asked questions
Is a leadership audit the same as a leadership assessment?
The leadership audit uses our leadership assessment and development method (Führungskräfteeinschätzung und -entwicklung in German). The word audit stresses the stocktake: how well is the leadership team equipped for future requirements? The method itself is described in our background paper “Führungskräfteeinschätzung und -entwicklung” under Insights and White papers.
Who is involved?
Leaders, key people and up-and-coming leaders, mostly one to one. Depending on the brief, feedback comes from line managers, peers, direct reports and, where relevant, customers. The whole leadership group can take part, or a single person, for example before a decision on a leadership role.
Which methods does a leadership audit use?
Often 360-degree feedback based on standardised descriptions of observable behaviour. For individual candidates, we have also run audits with personality tests, a self-assessment of skills and a structured interview, resulting in an expert report and feedback to the person and to senior management.
How does a leadership audit differ from aptitude assessment?
Aptitude assessment judges how well a person fits a specific role, usually for an appointment decision. The leadership audit looks at strengths and development areas in the current role and at the development needs of a leadership group. Both start from the requirements profile, and the methods can overlap. If a leadership assessment already exists, we use it for development planning.
Prefer to talk directly?
What decision are you facing? Together, we clarify your situation, the people involved and the right next step.
Your initial call
Let’s talk about your situation and what you want to develop in your organisation.
- Your situation
- What brings you to us
- Possible next steps