Leadership Versatility Index 360

The Leadership Versatility Index (LVI) is the thinking manager’s 360° survey. Whilst measuring deficiencies in management, the LVI’s 360 framework also highlights a manager’s strengths that can become weaknesses – overdoing it, be it talking too much, pushing too hard, delegating too much and so on. The new rating scale (shown below) captures what manager’s do too little of (underdoing it), what they do too much of (overdoing it) and also optimal performance (the right amount). Uniquely, the LVI identifies lopsidedness in management through the most basic pairs of opposing dimensions in leadership, for example takes charge versus empowers. Combine this with the Hogan instruments to gain powerful insights into leadership and performance. After all, ‘Who you are, is how you lead’.

Towards Better Assessment of Leaders

Rob Kaiser, Co-developer of the Leadership Versatility Index “The standard approach to providing leaders with developmental feedback could be greatly enhanced by making better use of what we know about leadership. For instance, since the study of derailment and what gets successful leaders in trouble, we have known that “strengths can become weaknesses.” However, 360 surveys usually rely on the five-point scale, where “more is better”—and they fail to distinguish when leaders do a lot of something, versus when they overdo it.

Further, we all know that modern leadership is a balancing act riddled with paradox: how to maximize short-term profit while also building long -term viability? Further, the need to produce often clashes with concern for people and human limits. However, our competency models are simply lists of desirable leadership qualities. These lists fail to point out the dynamic and often complicated relationship among competencies. For instance, the tension between a drive for results and support for people, or global mindset and local culture, or encouraging innovation while also maintaining order. A much better way to provide leaders with developmental feedback allows coworkers to indicating what the manager does too much, as well as too little or just right. And the leadership model ought to represent the tensions and trade-offs that make leadership a balancing act, for instance, by pairing the opposing but complementary behaviours leaders need the versatility to draw from as business demands and people situations change.”