BLOGPOST
What’s the Best Tool to Support Succession and
Development of Mid-Level Leaders?
Cognitive ability tests. Assessment centers. Situational judgment tests. Nowadays, it seems like
there’s a million different tools to assess and develop leaders. But how can you know which is
really the best solution for mid-level leaders? And when should you use them - should you use a
different tool for hiring, promotion decisions, development, and succession planning. Or is there
a tool that can do it all in one go?
Say you need to a tool to help with succession planning AND leadership development of mid-level
managers. How do you know which tool to use? Let’s start with a checklist of decision criteria. You
need a tool that can:

Inform promotion and AND development decisions. Should we promote Meredith or
Neveah to be mid-level manager? Who can we develop quicker? Wouldn’t it be great if you
had a single tool that works gives you the data to inform both decisions?

Actually predict performance. Because if it doesn’t, then why use it in the first place?

Eliminate bias. Data-driven decision-making is crucial - hunches and gut feelings of
managers and executives just don’t work.

Use different assessment exercises. Think of high school students who get sick on
standardized test day – one number or one data-point from a multiple-choice test hardly
ever tells the whole story.

Put employees in live, real-world situations. If you want to see how an employee will
perform on the new job, the best solution is the simplest one: put them in a real-world
simulation of that new job!

Eliminate cheating. You don’t want to rely on a tool that people can easy cheat –
otherwise, you’re just assessing who can cheat the best.

Be engaging, enjoyable, and even FUN. Why not? If there was a tool that could do all
of these things, and ALSO be engaging and fun for participants, then that’s a true “winwin”.
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On the table below, there’s a few different types of tools you might consider, such as:

Interviews

Personality Tests: For example, popular “Big Five” tests measure employees’ openness,
conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability (Barrick & Mount,
1991).

Cognitive Ability Tests: These tools measure things like reasoning and problem solving.
A hugely popular example is the Wonderlic Personality Test, which the NFL uses at its annual
combine (Chiusano, 2016).

Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs): These are just what the name suggests – employees
select an option describing how they would handle (i.e., their judgment of) a made-up
situation. Nowadays, these are often avatar- or video-based, wherein employees view a
short video and select an option of what they would do in that situation. Think of questions
like, “What would you do if angry customer bob called up screaming and demanded a
refund? Option A, B, C, or D?”

Assessment Centers: These are often described as “work samples for leaders and
managers” (Truxillo et al., 2016). In assessment centers, employees engage in a number
of different simulation exercises that reflect the job.
So, what’s the difference between these different tools?
Inform Hiring,
Promotion, AND
Development
Decisions?
INTERVIEWS
PERSONALITY
TESTS
COGNITIVE
ABILITY TESTS
SITUATIONAL
JUDGMENT
TESTS (SJTS)
ASSESSMENT
CENTERS
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Sometimes
– If
structured
Sometimes
– It
depends on
the trait
and how
the test
was made
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes – such
as role
playing,
emails, and
many more
Actually Predicts
Performance?
Eliminates Bias?
Uses Different
Assessment
Exercises?
No
No
No
Open-Ended?
Yes
Provide Live,
Real-World
Simulations?
No –
multiple
choice
No –
multiple
choice
No –
multiple
choice
Yes –
employees
freely
respond
Yes
No
No
No
Not really –
only
hypothetica
l
Eliminates
Cheating ?
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Engaging,
Enjoyable, and
FUN?
No
No
No
No
Yes
There’s only one tool that meets all of these criteria: assessment centers. Other tools might not
even predict performance, rely on only one form of testing, or bore your employees to tears! Most
tools don’t put employees in real-world simulations, and many might just assess which employees
are the best at cheating the test.
In short, if you’re looking for a tool to support succession and development for mid-level manager
positions, then assessment centers are the tool for you.
Interested in this topic?
Register for a complimentary 30-minute webinar (+15 min for Q&A) on latest leadership
development apps. Date: June 30 @ 9.00 Los Angeles/12.00 New York/17.00 London
Martin Lanik is the CEO at Pinsight and holds a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He
specializes in live virtual simulations (aka virtual assessment centers). With Pinsight’s costeffective simulation technology, Martin helps companies make more accurate succession decisions
and develop stronger leaders faster. Learn more at www.pinsight.biz.
References

Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The big five personality dimensions and job
performance: a meta‐analysis. Personnel psychology, 44, 1-26.

Chiusano, S. (2016, March 4). Can you score higher than NFL QBs on the Wonderlic test?
Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/score-higher-nfl-qbs-wonderlictest-article-1.2553175.

Truxillo, D. M., Bauer, T. N., & Erdogan, B. (2016). Psychology and work: Perspectives on
industrial and organizational psychology. New York, NY: Routledge