What does it take to be a good leader?
It’s an age-old question, which many individuals have attempted to answer. The truth is, however, that there are many different factors and qualities that contribute to effective leadership. It is also a reality that how we think of ourselves as leaders may not necessarily equate to how we come across to others, or how effective we are perceived to be.
At The Change Agent, we aim to offer a leadership assessment that is holistic, impactful, and practical in its application. Among the tools that we use is the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP), one of the most highly regarded frameworks available, which has gone through multiple validation studies and is already used by over 350,000 leaders world-wide.
What is the Leadership Circle 360° Profile?
The Leadership Circle framework is often cited as the most comprehensive tool for measuring leadership in the 21st century. Drawing on the most current psychological research and theory on leadership and personal development, the LCP assessment helps leaders understand the different qualities that contribute to leadership, focusing mainly on ‘Creative Competencies and ‘Reactive Tendencies’.
Creative competencies include: relating, self-awareness, authenticity, systems awareness and achieving. These are broken down further into different qualities, which provide an in-depth view of how leaders use their creativity to achieve results, encourage others to do their best, improve organisational systems, enhance their own development and act with integrity.
Reactive tendencies include complying, protecting, and controlling which may stifle a leader’s effectiveness or potential for results, especially if they overpower the more creative elements.
By collecting information related to these two domains, and then relating these results to a separate scale measuring leadership effectiveness, the assessment brings to the surface key areas which can be developed in order to truly release one’s leadership potential. This helps leaders understand how they think, how they behave, the impact that this has on their leadership effectiveness and crucially, how it can tangibly improve.
How does the Leadership Assessment work?
The 360° assessment is composed of two parts: the self-assessment and the reviewers’ assessment. Once a leader chooses to embark on this process, they fill their own assessment of their own leadership qualities. This same survey is filled by the leader’s peers, subordinates and even senior reference points (for example shareholders) if relevant. The assessment offers both quantitative and qualitative components to finally produce a snapshot of how the leader perceives his or herself, and how they are perceived by others.
These results are also offered as a percentile on how one’s leadership fairs in comparison to a database of over 350,000 leaders who have already taken the assessment. The result is a highly personal, in depth yet holistic insight into one’s strengths, blind spots and opportunities for growth.
What happens after the assessment?
After the assessment is where the work truly begins! This is not a survey one takes to simply glance at the results and use it as a receipt of why one’s leadership is the way it is. This is a profiling tool that is at once an assessment, benchmark, and roadmap to improve oneself.
Once the assessment is complete, the leader receives a detailed report and is offered an in-depth debriefing where an LCP qualified coach offers insight from the results of the assessment, helps the leader reflect on the findings and, most crucially, helps the leader draw up a personal development plan to guide progress. Typically, leaders choose to follow-on with additional 1:1 coaching that helps them remain committed to their own development and work through those areas that hold them back from being the transformational leaders they would like to be.
Anderson & Adams, the pioneers behind the LCP framework, argue that “a business can’t outgrow the effectiveness of its leadership!” For organisations to scale, leaders need to be able to scale their own capabilities as well, and to do this they need validated tools that help them understand where they stand and how best to navigate their own journey of growth.
If you recognise a need to step-up your leadership, whether personally or collectively as an organisation, schedule a free call with The Change Agent today.
Dr Elaine Dutton is a certified LCP Coach who is qualified to administer the LCP 360° assessment and to coach leaders and organisations to understand and enhance their leadership practices. Combined with her expertise in Psychology and years of working alongside business leaders in senior HR roles, she guides leaders to step-up their game using the transformational insight of the LCP, provoking deep self-awareness and a roadmap to maximise one’s leadership potential.
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