Beat the Leadership Assessment: Guide, Sample Test & Top Tips - 2024
The Leadership Assessment is designed to identify natural leaders to help employers make the right hiring decisions and select the right candidates for internal progression to leadership positions. To pass your Leadership Assessment and secure your job/promotion, you need to know exactly how to present your competencies correctly.
The competencies you’ll be assessed on are shown in the table below:
| Leadership Assessment Competencies | |
| Supervisory | Managerial |
| Organizational skills | Organizational skills |
| Planning | Decision-making skills |
| Delegation | Leadership skills |
| Monitoring skills | Delegation |
| Discipline | Team-Building |
The Leadership Assessment is designed to be deceptively simple: the unprepared are likely to believe there’s no “right or wrong” answer, but this is absolutely not the case. Employers are looking for certain traits when administering the Leadership Assessment that directly correspond to specific answers on the test. Prepterminal’s Leadership Assessment Prep Course is the best solution to Leadership Assessment prep on the market, with an easy 8-step route to mastering the Leadership Assessment.
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What to Expect in the Leadership Assessment Test?
Various leadership assessments have been created and published to help companies with their pre-employment screening process. These psychometric assessments are used to assess characteristics that are believed to be essential to a leader. The aim of the leadership assessment is to identify the candidate that is most suitable for a given leadership or managerial job position.
The leadership assessment typically includes two types of exams; the Personality Assessment and the Situational Judgement Test (SJT). The personality assessment is administrated to determine a candidate’s internal character traits and specifically those traits that have an effect on the way they conduct themselves at work. The leadership SJTs are used to assess how well candidates who are applying for high-end jobs arrive at decisions and handle work-related situations.
What is the Leadership Personality Test?
Personality tests are commonly used throughout the recruitment process to assess a candidate’s core character traits, in order to see if they have what is needed to carry out the job they are applying for. These characteristics include the candidate’s goals, motives, feelings, attitudes, and behavioral tendencies.
When you take a leadership personality test you will be assessed on your leadership skills and behavioral patterns, to see if you are able to take on a managerial position.
The following are 3 examples of popular personality tests often used to identify leaders:
#1. CEB SHL Occupational personality questionnaire
The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) is a trait-based personality measure that measures a candidate’s personality preferences in a place of work. The results of the OPQ are interpreted by the hiring manager to see if the candidate’s key behavioral characteristics are potentially suited to a given job. The OPQ measures 32 distinct personality traits that are applicable to job settings.
Employers use the OPQ to:
- Identify potential leaders
- Discover the best candidate for a role
- Create and develop future teams
#2. Saville consulting’s wave professional styles
Wave Professional Styles personality questionnaire is used in selection, talent management, development, leadership programs, succession planning, career planning, and coaching. It is designed for use with experienced directors, managers, and professionals. The questionnaire assesses talent, motivation, and favored business culture. It was created to be an important addition both to the recruitment and development process.
#3. Cubiks in-depth personality questionnaire
Cubiks in-depth personality questionnaire CIPQ is an in-depth personality self-report questionnaire created to measure the facets of a candidate’s personality. It is founded on the big 5 personality traits.
Leadership Personality Test Sample Questions
- 1:Strongly Agree
- 2:Agree
- 3:Unsure
- 4:Disagree
- 5:Strongly Disagree
- 1:Strongly Agree
- 2:Agree
- 3:Unsure
- 4:Disagree
- 5:Strongly Disagree
- 1:Strongly Agree
- 2:Agree
- 3:Unsure
- 4:Disagree
- 5:Strongly Disagree
Leadership Personality Test Report
Now, let’s take a look at an example of a leadership personality test report. This example features the SHL Occupational personality questionnaire (OPQ) leadership report.
The SHL Leadership Model covers four leadership functions explained in the table below:
| Competencies | |||
| Leadership Function | Definition | Management Focus (Transactional) | Leadership Focus (Transformational) |
| Developing the Vision | This involves the critical analysis of the current situation, and the generation of ideas to move forward (Strategy). | Analyzing & Interpreting Analyzing complex information and applying expertise. | Creating & Conceptualising Producing innovative ideas and thinking strategically |
| Sharing the Goals | This involves persuasively communicating the vision to others, as well as personally adapting to the changes that the new strategy brings (Communication). | Adapting & Coping Responding and adapting well to change and pressure. | Interacting & Presenting Communicating with, persuading, and influencing others. |
| Gaining Support | This involves gaining other people`s support by motivating and empowering them to implement the actions needed to deliver the strategy (People). | Supporting & Co-operating Supporting others and working effectively with people. | Leading & Deciding Initiating action, giving direction, and taking responsibility. |
| Delivering Success | This involves using operational efficiency and commercial acumen to effectively implement the strategy (operations). | Organising & Executing Planning, working in an organized manner and focusing on delivery. | Enterprising & Performing Focusing on results and on achieving goals. |
1. The Executive Summary
This provides the employer with a top-level view of the individual’s style overall in each of the four leadership functions (mentioned above). This is summarised in the table featured below:
| Leadership Function | Transactional
Less
More
|
Transformational
Less
More
|
Preferred Leadership Style |
| OVERALL | MANAGEMENT Delivering Dependable Performance and reaching operative objectives. | LEADERSHIP Inspiring both people and the organization to become proactive and to achieve beyond expectations. | Contributor/Manager |
| Developing the Vision | Analyzing & Interpreting
Analyzing complex information and applying expertise.
|
Creating & Conceptualising
Producing innovative ideas and thinking strategically.
|
Balanced Mix of Creating and Analysing |
| Sharing the Goals | Adapting & Interpreting
Responding and adapting well to change and pressure.
|
Interacting & Presenting
Communicating with, persuading, and influencing others.
|
Stability Seeker |
| Gaining Support | Supporting & Co-operating
Supporting others and working effectively with people.
|
Leading & Deciding
Initiating action, giving direction, and taking responsibility.
|
Individualist |
| Delivering Success | Organising & Executing
Planning, working in an organized manner and focusing on delivery.
|
Enterprising & Performing
Focusing on results and on achieving goals.
|
Business Driver/Implementer |
2. The Leadership Potential Detail section
This section is created for use by OPQ-trained users and offers a more detailed explanation of the individual’s preferred leadership style overall and against each of the four leadership functions.
3. The Leadership Potential Summary
This summary is found at the back of the report and is designed to be given to the candidate.
Preferably as part of their feedback session. See the table below:
Leadership Potential Summary
| Leadership Function | Your Preferred Style: |
| Overall: Management vs. Leadership Focus | Contributor/Manager |
| Developing the Vision | Balanced Mix of Creating and Analysing |
| Sharing the Goals | Stability Seeker |
| Gaining Support | Individualist |
| Delivering Success | Business Driver/Implementer |
The Situational Judgement Test
The Situational Judgement Test (SJT) is used during the recruitment process particularly when an employer is hiring for managerial and supervisory positions. It is used to measure a candidate’s behavioral inclinations and ability to manage demanding work-related scenarios.
Generally, situation judgment tests feature between 30-50 questions, and will not have a definite time limit. Candidates will be given a workplace situation and a list of typically four possible answers. Candidates may be asked to choose the most appropriate answer for the scenario, or they will be told to rank them in order of how suitable they are for the given scenario.
In other words, a number of situations will be presented to you and you will have to envisage yourself present in that given situation. You will then have to respond or react to the situation in the way you believe is most appropriate.
Let’s take a look at three examples of popular situational judgment tests generally used to identify leaders.
#1. CEB SHL situation judgment test
The SHL situational judgment test primarily measures a candidate’s ability to make appropriate and correct decisions in a workplace setting. The scenarios in these tests can include organization issues, sales scenarios, or disputes with co-workers, to simulate a realistic work issue.
Some of the skills assessed in the SHL situational judgment test include:
- Diplomacy
- Influencing and negotiating skills
- Drive and motivation to achieve
- Analytical ability
- Interpersonal skills
#2. Saville situational judgment test
The Saville assessment situation judgment test is created to assess a candidate’s ability to select the action that is most fitting in a workplace situation. A company uses the results of the test to see how a candidate would handle certain situations that they may encounter in the job that they are seeking.
In a Saville SJT the candidate is given a certain problem that relates to the job they are applying for, and a few possible courses of action. The candidate then needs to rate the various possible actions from highly undesirable to highly desirable.
#3. Cubiks situation judgment test
The Cubiks situation judgment test measures a candidate’s skill level and suitability for a specific role according to their responses in a decision-making scenario, which generally relates to the working conditions.
Leadership Assessment SJT Tips
Top Tip #1. Switch up the phrasing
If you have difficulty with the phrase, “How would you act?” Change it, in your mind, to “How should you act?” This small modification in the way you approach each question could help you decide which answers are more positive and advantageous in the eyes of the employer. However, don’t forget to remain genuine when you are answering, so that your results come through as honest.
Top Tip #2. Read through the scenarios slowly
Carefully read through the scenarios so that you understand the scenario well and don’t answer impulsively. The better you understand the work scenario given to you the more deliberately you can consider each possible response and decide which answer is the most appropriate.
Top Tip #3. Distinguish between personal and professional trait questions
There will be questions assessing both your personal and professional characteristics, so make sure you can spot the difference between these two question types. Knowing if it is a personal or professional trait question will help you decide how to answer. If you are not sure which group a question falls under, attempt to summarize the question in one line. For example, “this question is about my interests” or this question is about leading difficult peers” This may help you notice the distinction.
Top Tip #4. Isolate the key point within a question
There may be details that are not so relevant to the scenario. Try to identify the key point within a question so you don’t get distracted by these other details. Pay attention to the central point of the question as this may help you better understand the context, subject, and attributes being addressed.
Top Tip #5. Think about a balanced response
Think about responses that are balanced, in that they take into account the needs of the different players in a given scenario (including your own needs). When you consider the responses assume that any suggestion is credible.
Why Do Employers Use Leadership Assessment Tests?
Managers who show excellent leadership abilities can increase a company’s overall productivity, reduce turnover by creating loyalty, and improve the overall morale of the employees. Managers who don’t have strong leadership skills are likely to do the exact opposite.
Thus, a manager who possesses good leadership qualities is a key asset for an organization or business. This is why many employers today are turning to leadership assessment tests to help them identify candidates with solid leadership skills.
Once more, leadership roles are typically directly linked to the future success or failure of an organization. Leaders are meant to be capable of influencing their team to give their best and assist in the development of the company. Due to this, businesses that want knowledge of a candidate’s aptitude for leadership and conduct leadership tests to help with the recruitment process.
How Prepterminal Can Help With Your Leadership Assessment Test
Leadership assessment tests are widely utilized by companies seeking to identify candidates with the ideal traits for a specific leadership position, as well as to identify future potential in employees. While a wide variety of companies use their own form of the test, they tend to be variations of the same theme.
At PrepTerminal we are here to provide you with the techniques and processes you need to enable your success in your leadership assessment test. We will give you the tools and tactics that will help you develop an effective mindset and attitude towards the two parts of this test; the personality questionnaire and the situation and judgment test.
