Discover Your Leadership Strengths with This 8-Minute Assessment

Have you ever had the experience of someone pointing out one of your strengths?

“You do a really good job at recognizing people.”

“Your ability to respond quickly is amazing.”

“You’re an excellent listener.”

I remember the first time someone told me I was a good storyteller. I never thought of myself in that way. But suddenly, the awareness that others perceived me as a good teller of stories made me want to improve and utilize that skill.

The Importance of 360 Degree Feedback Tools

Assessments can be useful in helping individuals recognize aspects of their personality, how they work with others, their skills, and a reliable way of gathering feedback. That is why at Zenger Folkman, our leadership development programs are built around 360 assessments that we have carefully refined and perfected over the years.

Assessing your leadership qualities and identifying your core strengths is crucial in determining whether you are a good leader or have the potential to be exceptional. Recognizing your strengths and understanding if any weaknesses could significantly impact your career trajectory is essential. To address these common inquiries, our recommendation for a thorough evaluation involves a structured 360-degree feedback evaluation. This method considers your perspective on your strengths and weaknesses and incorporates feedback from your superiors, subordinates, peers, and other relevant parties.

But what are the leadership skills you should be seeking after?

Zenger Folkman’s Extraordinary Leader Assessment evaluates 19 differentiating leadership behaviors that set exceptional leaders apart from the rest. While any one leader may not naturally excel at the latest behavioral trend, our research underscores that even modest strides in enhancing a strength generate a tremendous impact — on the individual, their team, and ultimately, the entire organization.

A Strengths Self-Assessment

As an initial step you can undertake independently, Zenger Folkman offers a concise “strengths assessment” designed to gauge your leadership abilities and how they stack up against others.

You can take this assessment for free and receive a feedback report by visiting our 8-Minute Strength Assessment Page.

This assessment, which takes approximately eight minutes to complete, provides immediate feedback. It compares your self-evaluation with that of 45,000 leaders from our global database, assessing your leadership competencies across 16 critical areas. These areas include strategic thinking, integrity, result orientation, initiative, developing others, leading change, and showcasing expertise, among others.

Achieving a score in the 90th percentile highlights an exceptional strength, while a score in the 10th percentile may reveal a critical weakness that could jeopardize your career. Most scores, however, will likely fall between these extremes.

Surprises often emerge from this kind of assessment. You might discover you lean toward inspiring others rather than driving for results. Or you may find that your leadership style relies heavily on your technical skills rather than your interpersonal skills. The important thing is to recognize your strengths and then find ways to build and utilize them more. From years of research of over 100,000+ leaders across the globe, I can tell you that there is no one right way to lead. But what we do know for certain is that the best leaders are the ones who lean into their strengths. They still have weaknesses. But rather than trying to be mediocre at everything, they find their leadership style by exemplifying what already makes them extraordinary.

Find Your Strengths, And Do the Work

Unfortunately, our findings indicate that less than 10% of leaders proactively develop a personal development plan aimed at improving their leadership capabilities. Without such a plan, your progress depends on chance rather than strategic improvement.

In enhancing your leadership effectiveness, identifying and focusing on improving a single strength has proven to be the most effective strategy. Choose a leadership competency that aligns with your passion and your organization’s needs. This synergy creates the perfect opportunity for targeted development.

Once you’ve pinpointed the competency to develop, consider unconventional methods for improvement. Rather than a linear approach typically applied to addressing weaknesses, enhancing a strength involves leveraging complementary skills. For example, if you possess technical expertise, improving your ability to communicate this knowledge effectively or mentor your team can significantly boost your leadership effectiveness. You can visit Zenger Folkman’s Leadership Insight Library to learn more about complementary leadership skills.

For a detailed exploration of these competencies and associated behaviors, refer to our article “Making Yourself Indispensable” in the October 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.

We encourage you to explore these “assessments for leaders” to identify your top competencies and consider the results as a foundation for your development plan. Engaging in this process enhances your leadership skills and positions you to meet and exceed your organization’s needs effectively.