Simple Assessments: What Does Success Look Like?

An assessment is a tool used to gather and evaluate information. In psychology, a battery of tests is used to determine personality type and whether someone suffers from mental illness. Financial professionals have complex models they use to assess the values of investments. Risk assessment is done across professions, from public health to project management. As leaders, we need to do assessments too. We need to gather and evaluate information in a way that clearly reveals the state of the environment and experience our leadership creates.

Too often, leaders overcomplicate the way we gather information about people. Too many organizations rely on score-cards and algorithms to measure everything from performance to happiness. As leaders, we need to hear what our people are thinking and feeling on a consistent basis in their words. Simple assessments that we ask meeting after meeting show that we care about each teammate’s experience and give us consistent data to motivate the actual efforts that move toward the results we want.