360 Leadership & Personal Assessment Tools

SIMLA®

The Succession Institute Managerial Leadership Assessment^® (SIMLA^®) is a unique 360° assessment that clearly identifies the attributes that will help an individual become a more effective leader. It is available only from the Succession Institute.

Adapted from the standard QuadLead instrument, this assessment covers both Leadership Competence and Leadership Character, and it covers it in the context of CPA Firm Leadership Skills needed for the future. This tool was developed based on the insights and lessons learned from the world’s greatest leaders and on our day-to-day work with CPAs and CAs from all sizes of public accounting firms who exhibit best practice management skills and behaviors. Developed utilizing primary and secondary research, SIMLA^® reflects the latest in leadership best practices among CPAs and CAs in public practice. This online assessment has been designed with practical business application in mind. The complete set of reports features a “Leadership Performance Index” which provides the overall leadership effectiveness scores as perceived by Self, Boss, Peers, and Direct Reports. The unique “Report Card” feature clearly indicates the leader’s Capabilities and Constraints as perceived by each of the groups evaluating the leader.

Leadership Competence – What a Leader Does:

• Vision & Strategy
• Job Competence
• Industry Knowledge
• Communication Skills
• Leading Change
• Execution

Leadership Character – Who a Leader Is:

• Leadership Image
• Developing a Following
• Judgment/Decision-Making
• Ethics/Character
• Coaching/Mentoring
• Building Teams

In addition to showing the capabilities and constraints that the leader brings to the table at his or her firm or area of responsibility, it also prioritizes these areas to help the leader understand where to focus first in his or her improvement efforts. The assessment report comes with a QuadLead Resource Guide, a tool that allows leaders to map out a development plan that addresses the competencies by identifying specific behaviors which leaders with either high scores or low scores tend to exhibit under a particular competency.

The SIMLA^® is used in our leadership programs to generate an overall baseline score of leadership effectiveness and help participants identify where they stand at the beginning of the program. At the end of the program, we use it to compare progress achieved against the baseline established at the beginning.

Other uses for this Assessment:

• At the Succession Institute, we use the SIMLA^® to help CPA and CA firms develop leadership effectiveness throughout their organizations, to fill the leadership pipeline and assure smooth and successful transitions in the succession planning process.
• We use the SIMLA^® to coach executive clients—partners and managers—toward improved individual performance as leaders and managers in their firms. The feedback from this instrument, coupled with the results of interviews, provide a valuable database to help improve a leader’s self awareness.
• As a solution to leadership problems identified through our organizational development work when we survey staff and/or interview owners of accounting firms to help them prepare for planning meetings.
• The cornerstone for executive education and continuing professional education for owners, managers and supervisors in CPA and CA firms.
• Management development/leadership development programs, incorporated as part of a formal or informal leadership development program within a CPA or CA firm to accelerate the development of the next layer of leaders.
• Improve organizational effectiveness through improved managerial leadership practices from the top on down through the organization.

You can begin your assessment process now. Just call Succession Institute and ask about our assessment process or use the “Contact Us” form by clicking on the link at the bottom of any page of our website. We are also in the process of automating this function, which will create a self-service model available from this link. We hope to have this functioning by late fall of 2010.  Additionally, we have created a CPA firm competency framework based on the SIMLA which is now available and described under the tab for “Competency Model,” which we hope to have automated soon as well.

DiSC^®

Succession Institute is a distributor of the full suite of DiSC^® profile tools, from the standard Classic 2.0 to the newest Everything DiSC Management and Workplace profiles.  These exceptional tools provide the users with unique insight into themselves and others, creating the opportunity for enhanced effectiveness in leadership and team positions.  We use these profiles as part of our leadership development and executive coaching processes, as well as for team building and general organizational improvement.

Situational Leadership^®

We are proud to be affiliates of the Center for Leadership Studies, the organization founded by Dr. Paul Hersey to administer the Situational Leadership^® assessments he created.  These tools provide a powerful learning experience for leaders who want to be better delegators and developers of their people.  Through a robust model proven in action through its use by over 14 million leaders from over 40 countries, leaders learn a simple and very effective way to improve their methods of dealing with people through the use of their influence and diagnostic abilities.