How to Use Leadership Assessments to Drive Personalized Leadership Development

By identifying employees’ unique strengths, growth areas, and goals, organizations can design tailored leadership development programs that drive meaningful progress. The most effective development initiatives are grounded in data, informed by accurate insights, and aligned with organizational needs. The Leadership Skills Profile – Revised® (LSP-R®) provides a valid, evidence-based foundation for these initiatives — one that is objective, defensible, and practical.

7 Steps to Using Leadership Assessments for Strategic Growth

The following seven-step process outlines how to use leadership assessments to inform development strategy, guide goal setting, and scale success across teams and levels.

Step 1: Define What Leadership Means in Context

Effective leadership development begins with a clear, competency-based definition of leadership that reflects the organization’s goals, values, and future needs.

How Leadership Assessments Help:

• Provide a research-based leadership competency framework for selecting competencies that matter to your organization
• Align talent development efforts with strategy and performance expectations

Practical Tip:

Use a leadership competency framework to identify 20–25 leadership competencies aligned with strategic business priorities.

To learn more about competency frameworks, read SIGMA’s blog, Competency Frameworks 101, and explore our Leadership Competency Framework, which includes 50 top leadership competencies that can be applied in any industry.

Step 2: Establish a Baseline for Development

Before development can begin, a clear understanding of current capabilities is essential.

How Leadership Assessments Help:

• Evaluate baseline leadership competencies across individuals or teams
• Highlight development strengths and opportunities at scale

Practical Tip:

Begin with a pilot group of 25–50 leaders from your organization. Use a standardized process to administer a leadership assessment, such as the LSP-R, and clearly communicate the initiative to participants and managers.

For more information on what to look for when selecting a leadership assessment, download SIGMA’s checklist: 5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Talent Assessment.

Are you new to the LSP-R? Try it for free and experience the power of data-driven, personality-based insights. Take the LSP-R Free Trial.

Step 3: Create Individual Development Plans (IDPs)

Assessment results should guide structured, actionable talent development planning.

How Leadership Assessments Help:

• Identify high-impact growth areas and personalized development needs
• Support measurable goal setting and accountability

Practical Tip:

Facilitate a group debrief session to review leadership assessment results, then support participants in drafting IDPs with their managers to define goals and track development activities.

For help structuring leadership development plans, use SIGMA’s Development Actions Form template.

Step 4: Equip Leaders to Coach Their Teams

Sustainable leadership development relies on ongoing coaching and support from direct managers.

How Leadership Assessments Help:

• Provide a shared framework and language for coaching discussions
• Improve alignment between development goals and daily performance

Practical Tip:

Offer coaching guides or training sessions to help managers initiate one-on-one employee development conversations and provide meaningful feedback over time. The Stop, Start, Continue template can be helpful for structuring coaching conversations.

Step 5: Reinforce Learning with Group Training

Group-based training fosters peer learning and reinforces key leadership competencies across the organization.

How Leadership Assessments Help:

• Identify shared competency gaps across teams or leadership tiers
• Inform the design of focused training sessions tied to organizational priorities

Practical Tip:

Use leadership assessment results to identify recurring development needs and plan training sessions that address strategically important competencies. To provide group training based on SIGMA’s 50 leadership competencies, explore our Leadership Development Workshops.

Step 6: Scale the Program Across Roles and Levels

To maximize return on investment, leadership development programs should be scalable across the entire organization.

How Leadership Assessments Help:

• Provide a consistent model for delivering development across business units
• Maintain alignment and quality while expanding the program’s reach

Practical Tip:

Expand the leadership development program incrementally by division, department, or leadership tier. Share early success stories to generate buy-in and maintain momentum.

Step 7: Measure Progress and Demonstrate Impact

Effective leadership development is measurable. Progress must be tracked and shared with key stakeholders to maintain engagement and justify continued investment.

How Leadership Assessments Help:

• Enable progress tracking through reassessment and structured feedback
• Provide data to demonstrate the impact of development initiatives

Practical Tip:

Track metrics such as promotion rates, internal mobility, and reassessment results. Use a leadership scorecard to communicate progress and refine the program over time.

Sustaining Impact Through Personalized Development

Leadership development initiatives are most effective when tailored to individual needs, aligned with organizational strategy, and grounded in data. With tools like the LSP-R, programs can be scaled across teams and levels, delivering measurable impact and long-term growth.