The most successful organizations understand that effective leadership development is personal. It’s tailored to the individual: how they think, where they need to grow, and what motivates them to lead. That marks the beginning of the leadership assessment process.
Assessments lay the foundation for intentional development plans. They provide the insight needed to understand a leader’s strengths, blind spots, and capacity for growth. But too often, assessments are treated as a one-and-done activity or a checkbox in a broader program. The result? Missed opportunities for growth.
Let’s explore why leadership assessments matter and how you can use them to create a development plan that drives meaningful progress for your people and your organization.
Why Leadership Assessments Matter
Leadership is complex. It is not just about competencies or technical skills. It is about presence, decision-making, self-awareness, adaptability, and the ability to earn trust across the organization.
Leadership assessments give leaders and organizations a clearer view of the person behind the title. They reveal patterns, preferences, and potential. When used strategically, assessments can:
- Reveal what drives behavior and decision-making
- Surface strengths to build on and blind spots to address
- Support alignment between individual growth and organizational needs
- Build self-awareness and a deeper sense of ownership in development
The goal is not to label or limit leaders, but to guide intentional, personalized growth.
Start With the Right Assessments
There is no one-size-fits-all tool. The most effective leadership development plans draw from multiple types of assessments to get a well-rounded view of each leader.
Here are the most common categories:
1. Style-Based Assessments
These tools measure stable characteristics like personality, values, and motives. They help uncover what drives a person’s behavior and where natural tendencies may create either strengths or derailers.
- When to use: Early in the development process, to provide deep self-insight and guide coaching.
- What they reveal: Why a leader behaves the way they do, and how their habits affect others.
Example: DRiV, a proprietary tool developed by LWF, measures an individual’s motives, values, and habits – their unique drivers. Learn more about the DRiV and test the tool for FREE here.
2. Cognitive and Learning Agility Assessments
These tools measure how a leader processes information, adapts to change, and handles complexity, all of which are key factors in future-ready leadership.
- When to use: In succession planning or development for complex, high-stakes roles.
- What they reveal: Capacity for strategic thinking, decision-making, and innovation under pressure.
3. 360-Degree Feedback
Multi-rater feedback gathers input from managers, peers, direct reports, and others to show how a leader is perceived in real-world environments.
- When to use: Most often at the beginning of the development program.
- What it reveals: Gaps between self-perception and others’ insights into leadership behavior and impact.
4. Behavioral or Situational Assessments
These simulate real-world scenarios and evaluate how leaders make decisions, navigate conflict, or respond to ethical dilemmas.
- When to use: As part of executive development or before critical promotions.
- What they reveal: How leaders apply values and judgment in action and when under pressure
Using a combination of tools across these categories provides a fuller, more accurate picture. The goal is to move beyond surface-level traits and into the heart of how someone leads — and why.
Translate Insight into a Clear Development Plan
Assessments are only as valuable as the action in which they lead. Once results are in hand, the next step is to build a personalized development plan.
A strong leadership development plan should include:
- Two to three clear focus areas — based on both assessment insights and business context
- Specific behaviors to strengthen or shift — not just vague goals like “communicate better”
- Real-world application — projects, assignments, or leadership challenges tied to development areas
- Coaching or peer support — to help leaders process insight, reflect, and stay accountable
At LWF, we help leaders build on their strengths while addressing their development areas in a way that feels both challenging and achievable. This is where development becomes both strategic and personal.
Make Development Part of the Work
Leadership growth is most effective when it is woven into the flow of daily work, not set apart from it.
Rather than treating development as something that happens in a training room, look for ways to integrate growth into current roles. Examples include:
- Assigning stretch projects aligned with a leader’s development areas
- Offering regular feedback loops with peers or mentors
- Creating space for reflection in team meetings
- Using assessment insights to guide team composition and collaboration
This approach ensures development is relevant, practical, and sustainable. It also makes learning more visible across the organization.
Revisit the Development Plan Often and Over Time
Development plans should not be rigid. They should evolve with your leaders, grounded in insight and supported with structure. That’s why regular reviews of the development plan are essential.
Review to:
- Track measurable progress — by comparing new results with baseline assessments
- Adjust goals as needed — to reflect shifts in role, strategy, or team dynamics
- Celebrate growth — and reinforce the habits and behaviors that have taken root
- Stay flexible — and keep development aligned with what matters most now
Make It Part of Your Culture
If you want long-term impact, don’t treat leadership assessments as a one-time occurrence. They should be part of how your organization identifies, supports, and develops leaders at every level.
- Build internal capability by training HR partners, senior leaders, and learning and development teams to interpret assessment results, deliver meaningful feedback, and guide the creation and ongoing support of development plans.
- Integrate assessments into career paths and succession planning to ensure growth remains aligned with organizational priorities and individual aspirations.
- Capture and share what works by creating templates, documenting lessons learned, and equipping others to build effective, consistent development plans across the organization.
The more you embed assessments and development plans into everyday leadership practices, the more they shape a culture where growth is expected, supported, and sustained.
A Smarter Way to Invest in Leadership
Leadership assessments are not the finish line. They are the starting point. When used well, they give leaders the clarity they need to grow and give organizations the insight they need to invest wisely.
If your goal is to build a leadership development plan that drives real results, one that is aligned with your strategy, grounded in science, and tailored to your people, assessments are essential.
Do you want to build leadership worth following?
At Leadership Worth Following, we help organizations use assessments to create meaningful change. Through research-backed tools, individual coaching, and practical development strategies, we equip your leaders to grow with purpose and lead with impact.
Contact us today! Click here to schedule your free consultation, submit a contact form through our website, or send us an email at hello@worthyleadership.com