16 Ways Leadership Assessments Strengthen Talent Strategy

77% of firms report ongoing leadership gaps that threaten their ability to meet business goals.¹

Organizations are navigating more talent disruption than ever — more than 3 in 4 organizations report persistent leadership gaps that jeopardize their ability to achieve strategic business objectives.¹ Leadership assessments help fill these gaps by providing a data-driven foundation for:

• Identifying and developing high-potential employees
• Building strong teams
• Selecting the best fit
• Providing competency-based coaching
• Supporting better talent decisions at every level

16 Ways Leadership Assessments Drive Growth

Below are 16 strategic ways to apply leadership assessments across the organization to drive growth, mitigate risk, and align talent strategy with business goals.

1. Strengthen Succession Planning

Use leadership assessments to identify potential successors and guide role-specific talent development.

Leadership assessments form the basis of a successful succession planning strategy. By objectively evaluating internal talent against defined leadership competencies, organizations can identify employees who are ready to step into critical roles immediately and those who require additional training and development. By minimizing bias and internal politics, assessments ensure that advancement is based on demonstrated potential rather than visibility or tenure.

Succession Planning Resources:

• Read the blog: How to Use Leadership Assessments for Effective Succession Planning
• Download the guide: A Practical Guide to Using the LSP-R® for Succession Planning

2. Personalize Leadership Development

Leverage assessments to customize and optimize leadership development efforts.

Leadership development is most effective when it is customized to individual employee needs. Robust, personality-based leadership assessments can be used to highlight those needs. Leadership assessments reveal key strengths, blind spots, and growth opportunities, making it easier to design tailored development plans that resonate with employees. With clear competency-based assessment data in hand, HR teams can align development initiatives with individual needs and business priorities.

Leadership Development Resources:

• Read the blog: Personalized Leadership Development Starts With Assessments
• Download the guide: A Practical Guide to Using the LSP-R® for Leadership Development

3. Identify High-Potential Leaders

Apply leadership assessments to reveal emerging talent and uncover hidden potential.

Not all top performers are future leaders. Leadership assessments distinguish between performance and leadership potential by evaluating traits like learning agility, drive, and interpersonal effectiveness. Organizations can use this data to identify and nurture employees with leadership promise early in their careers.

High-Potential Resources:

• Read the blog: How to Use Leadership Assessments to Identify High-Potential Employees
• Download the guide: A Practical Guide to Using the LSP-R® for Identifying High-Potential Talent

4. Build Stronger Teams

Strengthen team performance with employee assessments that establish a shared language and competency framework for individual and collective growth.

Great teams start with great self-awareness and mutual understanding. Leadership assessments can be used to map team strengths, uncover interpersonal dynamics, and identify potential friction points. Understanding how team members think, communicate, and lead fosters better collaboration and stronger performance. Organizations can use leadership assessments to facilitate team-building workshops and leadership retreats to improve engagement, morale, and productivity.

5. Enhance Performance Management

Integrate assessment results to create an objective and standardized performance review process.

Traditional performance reviews often suffer from subjectivity and bias. Leadership assessments add a layer of behavioral objectivity that supports fair and constructive feedback. They help clarify how leadership behaviors contribute to or detract from performance outcomes and can drive ongoing employee development by identifying competencies tied to performance goals. When integrated into performance management systems, leadership assessments create alignment between talent reviews, business strategy, and employee growth.

Performance Management Resources:

• Read the blog: How to Use Leadership Assessments for Effective Performance Management
• Download the guide: A Practical Guide to Using the LSP-R® for Performance Management

6. Improve Executive Selection

Utilize leadership assessments to inform executive hiring decisions, ensuring they are data-driven, objective, and aligned with organizational goals.

Executive hiring decisions have a significant impact on organizational performance.² Leadership assessments provide critical data for evaluating candidates beyond resumes and interviews, offering insight into leadership style, decision-making, and cultural fit. They provide predictive insights by evaluating competencies, personality, and leadership potential.³ When used early in the selection process, assessments help narrow the candidate pool. Later, they guide structured interviews and inform final hiring decisions. Integrating assessments into executive search reduces risk and increases the likelihood of long-term success.

7. Align Culture and Manage Change

Deploy leadership assessments to select and develop leaders who exemplify critical competencies valued by the organization.

Organizational culture only evolves when it’s reinforced by leadership behavior. Leadership assessments measure alignment between individual leadership styles and desired cultural values. This is critical during transformations like digital adoption, corporate restructuring, or leadership transitions. The right assessments can identify cultural champions as well as those who may resist change, helping human resources (HR) build targeted development or change management strategies.

8. Accelerate Onboarding and Integration

Apply assessment insights to create effective, scalable onboarding and integration programs.

New leaders have a short window to make an impact. Leadership assessments accelerate this process by providing immediate insight into employee strengths, learning preferences, and communication styles. This insight enables tailored onboarding and faster ramp-up times.

9. Support Mergers and Acquisitions

Adopt competency-based assessments to establish a shared leadership framework to support organizations through merger- and acquisition-related change.

Leadership alignment is critical in mergers and acquisitions.⁴ Assessments provide a common language for evaluating leaders across merging organizations. They help identify overlapping strengths, cultural differences, and leadership gaps that could hinder integration. This data supports leadership decisions, such as who to retain, promote, or develop, while also creating transparency and fairness in a complex process.

10. Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Goals

Rely on scientifically validated assessments to ensure equitable, inclusive decision-making that supports diversity in leadership and organizational culture.

Unconscious bias often undermines fair access to leadership development and advancement.⁵ Leadership assessments offer standardized and scientifically validated measures that reduce subjectivity. They help ensure everyone in the organization is evaluated fairly, based on competencies rather than perceptions. Assessments can also be used to promote inclusive leadership traits like Empathy, Openness, and Collaboration, which are increasingly valued in diverse workplaces.

11. Strengthen Strategic Workforce Planning

Leverage assessment data to align organizational human capital with long-term business goals.

Workforce planning is more effective when it includes competency-based data. Assessments allow HR leaders to forecast gaps, build leadership pipelines, and create targeted talent development plans that align people strategies with business goals.

12. Focus Coaching and Executive Development

Use assessment results to guide coaching conversations and create a standardized, scalable development process.

Coaching delivers the greatest impact when grounded in self-awareness. Leadership assessments give executives and their coaches a clear starting point, highlighting areas of focus and enabling measurable growth. They also ensure coaching aligns with organizational priorities, not just personal goals. Assessment results can guide coaching engagements, track improvement, and support post-coaching evaluations.

13. Guide Career Planning and Internal Mobility

Bolster talent development by using competency-based assessments to inform personalized development plans and build strong internal leadership pipelines.

Employees want to know where their careers are headed — and how to get there. Leadership assessments provide data that helps HR and managers recommend suitable roles based on competencies and leadership traits. This ensures internal mobility decisions are based on data, not just ambition or opportunity, helping to improve retention and employee satisfaction.

14. Manage Leadership Risk

Identify high-risk behaviors early with 360-degree feedback and selection assessments to support safer, more effective leadership decisions.

Leadership missteps can be costly. Assessments identify derailers — traits such as impulsivity, arrogance, or resistance to feedback — that may lead to performance issues or cultural damage. These risks often surface when evaluating candidates for promotion, launching leadership development programs, or conducting 360-degree reviews. Proactive identification allows HR to intervene early, offering coaching or role realignment before concerns escalate.

15. Utilize Benchmarking and Talent Analytics

Make informed talent decisions with assessments benchmarked to industry and organizational standards.

Leadership assessments don’t just evaluate individuals; they generate data that can be used to compare leaders across teams, departments, or even industries. This process, known as talent benchmarking, involves comparing assessment scores to internal or external standards to understand how a leader performs relative to their peers.⁶ Talent analytics takes it a step further by identifying patterns across the organization — highlighting teams with strong leadership potential, areas needing targeted development, and the progress of succession pipelines. Together, benchmarking and talent analytics turn assessment data into actionable insight, supporting strategic decisions about development, promotion, and workforce planning.

16. Fuel Startup and Early-Stage Growth

Support fast-paced growth by applying leadership assessments to build resilient teams, identify key contributors, and develop emerging leaders.

In early-stage ventures, hiring and leadership decisions carry outsized impact. Leadership assessments offer data-driven insights into candidate potential, team dynamics, and cultural fit. By identifying leadership strengths and gaps early on, assessments guide targeted development and reduce costly talent missteps. They also foster self-awareness, which is critical during startup and early-stage growth when roles are constantly evolving, and expectations shift quickly.

LSP-R® for Leadership Development

Turn assessment feedback into targeted growth plans. Use the LSP-R to build strong leadership pipelines with competency-based benchmarks and personalized development plans.

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LSP-R® for Identifying High-Potential Talent

Use data to reliably identify high-potential employees and leverage LSP-R results to create development plans that attract and retain top talent.

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LSP-R® for Performance Management

Use assessment data to design feedback and performance management processes that create a culture of growth and continuous improvement.

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LSP-R® for Succession Planning

Learn a proven, data-driven approach to succession planning. Use the LSP-R to assess readiness, uncover gaps, and prepare leaders for key transitions.

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LSP-R® for Team Building

Enhance team effectiveness by understanding leadership dynamics. Use the LSP-R to analyze individual and team strengths, identify gaps, and build complementary teams that perform better together.

LSP-R® for Coaching and Executive Development

Empower coaches and executives to reach new levels of self-awareness and effectiveness. Learn how to use the LSP-R to guide coaching sessions, set meaningful goals, and track progress over time.

Guides include form-fillable templates and step-by-step instructions for leveraging leadership assessment data to build robust talent strategies.

Templates and step-by-step processes were developed in the context of the Leadership Skills Profile-Revised® (LSP-R®), but can be applied with other assessments as well.

What is the LSP-R?

The Leadership Skills Profile – Revised® (LSP-R®) is a personality-based leadership competency assessment. It is scientifically validated and has been trusted by organizations worldwide to support critical talent processes such as high-potential identification, leadership development, succession planning, and more.

The ROI of Leadership Development

Studies have shown that organizations that invest in proactive leadership development are better equipped to:²

• Navigate challenges
• Adapt to change
• Drive long-term business success

In contrast, those that fail to prioritize leadership development risk lower employee engagement, reduced productivity, and widening skill gaps.^3,4,5

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• Access to SIGMA’s online testing platform
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¹ DDI (2023). Global Leadership Forecast 2023. http://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023

² Hurduzeu, R.-E. (2015). The impact of leadership on organizational performance. SEA — Practical Application of Science, III(7), 289–293.

³ Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262–274.

⁴ Bradt, G. B., & Pritchett, J. (2022). The merger & acquisition leader’s playbook: a practical guide to integrating organizations, executing strategy, and driving new growth after M&A or private equity deals. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

⁵ Andrade, M. S. (2024). Addressing unconscious gender bias: strategies for leadership development. Development and Learning in Organizations, 38(1), 31–33.

⁶ Hyland, Paul & Beckett, Ronald. (2002). Learning to compete: The value of internal benchmarking. Benchmarking: An International Journal. 9. 293-304.