By Tim Huff
President, TLG
Last month, we introduced you to Maria, the accidental leader. Promoted because she was excellent, then left to figure out a fundamentally different job with none of the tools she actually needed. If that story felt familiar, you’re not alone. And if it made you quietly wonder “do we have a few Marias in our pipeline right now?” That’s exactly the right question to be sitting with.
Most organizations do have Marias in the making. Not because they aren’t paying attention, but because the systems they’re relying on weren’t designed to see what actually matters.
Last month we talked about the difference between performance and readiness. This month, we’re going one level deeper: how do you actually see readiness? How do you move beyond gut feel, tenure, and likability, and get a real, honest picture of whether your leaders are prepared for what’s next?
The answer is assessment. And most organizations are underusing it dramatically.
The Visibility Problem
Many leadership development initiatives in organizations have great intentions and quality components, but they are failing because they’re doing it in the dark; making guesses at what true successful leadership looks like.
Significant investments are made every year on leadership programs, coaching engagements, and development initiatives, and yet only 7% of organizations believe they’re actually developing leaders effectively. That’s not a resources problem, that’s a visibility problem.
And you can’t fix what you can’t see.
First, Define What “Great” Actually Looks Like Here
Before any assessment is worth anything, you need a clear target. That sounds obvious — and yet it’s where most organizations quietly skip a step.
Generic leadership competency frameworks are everywhere and tempting to use because they’re ready-made. But as we talked about last month, the competencies that predict success at your organization, in your culture, navigating your specific strategic challenges, are not the same as someone else’s off-the-shelf model. Leaders developed against contextually relevant skillsets are four times more prepared for change than those built on generic frameworks.
So before you assess anything, answer this: What does great leadership actually look like here, at the next level? Not vague descriptors like “executive presence,” but specific, observable behaviors tied directly to your business strategy. Once you have that, you have something worth measuring.
You Can’t Improve What You Don’t Measure
Here’s the opportunity most development programs are missing: starting with a clear baseline. Coaching, workshops, and development experiences are powerful investments, but they’re exponentially more effective when they’re built on a real, honest picture of where leaders actually stand. Without that foundation, even the best programs are working without a map.
Rigorous assessment changes that entirely. A few tools worth knowing:
- 360-degree feedback gives you multi-rater behavioral insight… what peers, direct reports, and managers actually observe, not what the leader thinks they project. This is where blind spots live, and blind spots are exactly what derail leaders in transition.
- Personality and derailer assessments go a layer deeper. They predict how a leader behaves under real pressure, not in a comfortable setting, but when stakes are high, resources are thin, and things aren’t going according to plan. This is where the “abilities” dimension we discussed last month gets surfaced: influence, adaptability, judgment under ambiguity.
- Simulations and behavioral observation take it further still, letting you observe how someone actually leads, decides, and communicates in realistic scenarios, rather than relying on self-reported intent. And self-reported intent, as we all know, tends to skew optimistic.
None of this is about putting leaders through a gauntlet. It’s about giving them, and you, an honest, nuanced picture to work from. Assessment isn’t punitive. It’s directional. And that direction is what makes every development dollar that follows it worthwhile.
From Assessment to Action
Once you have a clear picture of where your leaders stand against the competencies that actually matter, the development path becomes much less of a guessing game. You’re no longer offering generic programs and hoping something sticks. You’re closing specific, identified gaps with purpose.
That might mean executive coaching tied directly to assessment findings rather than general growth conversations. It might mean individualized development plans built from real data. It often includes stretch assignments designed to build the precise capabilities someone is missing. Because as we said last month, growth happens in action, not in a classroom.
Tailored, structured support like this can double the likelihood of leadership success. That’s not a marginal improvement. That’s a fundamentally different outcome.
The Bottom Line
Maria’s story didn’t have to unfold the way it did. With a clearer picture of what the role required, an honest assessment of where she stood, and targeted investment before the promotion rather than after the struggle, her transition could have looked very different. So could her team’s experience.
The organizations that build strong leadership benches aren’t just working harder at development. They’re working with better information.
Future-ready leaders aren’t found. They’re developed. And development starts with finally being able to see clearly.
Thanks,
