The Successful Leadership Development Program: How to Build It and How to Keep It Going

4

Designing a Diagnostic Inventory for Leadership Competencies

Any tool we built would be scrutinized from every angle. If it were too complicated to use, too time-consuming, had little perceived value, or was just plain confusing, it wasn't going to be received well. We needed an instrument that was meaningful, that when completed gave clear direction and definition to the participant, and that had the flexibility to address each competency at varying levels of performance. It was important to us that when a program participant filled out the inventory that it “speak” to him or her. We wanted the tool to have competency definitions in it that were relevant and measurable at each level—kind of like being all things to all people. Now here was ...