The Leadership Skills Assessment
An interview, analyzed for the quality and complexity of thinking.
A spoken interview of about an hour, in which an AI interviewer, working from carefully designed instructions, asks you about your work. Then the interview is analyzed for the quality and complexity of thinking and how it is applied in a set of skill domains. You receive a layered report, read and reflect on it, then explore it with a development mentor; customized learning loops can follow.
The assessment describes the quality and structure of thinking as it is evidenced in what was said in the interview: where you are now, not a prediction and not a fixed trait.
The interview
What it asks, in six parts:
- 1
The work itself.
What you do and what your role asks of you.
- 2
An accomplishment.
Something you achieved, and how you went about it.
- 3
Looking outward and ahead.
What you see around and coming toward you.
- 4
A commitment.
Something you could take on if you had a mandate, and how you would think it through.
- 5
One more consideration.
One further thing to weigh, drawn from your account.
- 6
Reflection.
Looking back on the conversation.
How it is conducted
- You are told before it begins that the interviewer is an AI.
- Ordinary language, one thing per question, no jargon.
- The interviewer reacts to nothing and judges nothing: the analysis happens later, separately.
- The spoken answers are turned into text, and only the text is read. Nothing analyzes your voice or face, and nothing tries to read your emotions.
- Interviews are matched to the scope of the role. We are building more versions.
What is analyzed
The quality and complexity of thinking. The structure of thinking: how many considerations you hold and coordinate, and how far ahead and how widely you see.
Five skill domains, how that thinking is applied:
Clarity and argumentation
Framing, making clear arguments, connecting ideas logically, justifying claims.
Working with perspectives
Taking, seeking, aligning and integrating others' perspectives; awareness of the limits of one's own.
Contextual thinking
Causal depth, breadth of scope in space and time, and how culture is treated.
Decision-making process
Deciding how to decide, care in gathering information, weighing trade-offs, learning from outcomes.
The report
You receive a layered report: a summary first, then each domain with examples from your interview, practices to try, and space for reflections. The development mentor reads the report and your reflections to prepare to explore it with you in a debrief.
Development, or a decision about a role
The same assessment can serve a person's development or a manager's need to make a decision about readiness for a role. Which one an engagement serves is agreed in writing at the outset.
Decision-makers and mentors take it themselves first.
Ask to try the assessment →