Leadership Assessment
Better Data. Better Leaders.
At DDI, we’re all about the science of leadership. And we believe that objective data is the key to great leadership. Our competency-based, award-winning leadership assessments give you the confidence to make informed decisions about developing and selecting leaders.
We’ve poured every ounce of our 50+ years of research into building assessments that are accurate, engaging, and deeply insightful. Our assessments can help you:
- Create personalized development plans.
- Reduce bias in hiring and promotion decisions.
- Accurately predict job performance.
- Gain a holistic view of leaders’ skills and readiness for future roles.
From insights to action
Accelerate Development with Data-Driven Insights
Great leadership requires self-awareness and objective insights to support growth. DDI’s assessments for development help leaders discover their unique strengths, uncover critical skill gaps, and take personalized, actionable insights to fuel their progress. Designed to empower leaders at every level, assessments go beyond measuring performance—they ignite meaningful development and accelerate success.
Prepare Leaders with Immersive Simulations
Just as pilots train in a flight simulator, DDI trains leaders by putting them in the action. With our realistic situations, your leaders can show off their skills in real time. Even better? Your leaders become completely engaged. They want to see how their actions affected the fictional company and team.
Naturally, the most important part is the data you get at the end. Our reports offer powerful insight about who’s ready for certain roles, and who needs more development. And if they already have the role? They’ve got everything they need to get started on a personalized development plan.
Our Immersive Assessments
Explore DDI's Manager Ready®, an immersive experience designed for your frontline leaders.
Frontline Leader Assessment
Learn about Leader3 Ready®, an immersive assessment designed for the pivotal moment as leaders make the transition to early executive roles.
Mid-Level and Early Executive Assessment
DDI's assessment centers for C-suite jobs are the top standard in the industry for your highest risk roles.
Executive Leader Assessment
Check Performance with 360 Degree Feedback
The measure of a leader is the impact they have on the people around them. DDI’s 360 degree feedback tool gathers feedback from a leader’s direct reports, peers, and supervisors. With that knowledge in hand, leaders know how their actions are affecting others—for good or for bad.
Whether you need data on just a few leaders or across the company, DDI’s Leadership Mirror offers complete flexibility. You can design your own custom surveys or use our recommended ones. Best of all, our reports are easy to interpret. So your leaders can quickly apply the feedback to their development plan.
Spot Leadership Potential Sooner
Most companies struggle to know who has early leadership potential. Too often, the decisions are left to managers to make their best guess. But that allows bias to enter the process. And it’s one of the reasons that while diversity is often well-represented among frontline employees, it disappears further up the ladder.
With DDI’s Early Identifier, you can quickly and accurately identify leadership potential across your workforce. So you’ll know who’s been overlooked. And you’ll know if your suspected high-potential leaders really have what it takes.
Fast Data to Select and Develop First-Level Leaders
Need a quick yet accurate way to get data on emerging or first-level leaders? A leadership test can provide fast, objective data to help you select or develop leaders for the frontline.
DDI’s Leadership Snapshot℠ test gives you data on two angles essential for high-performing leaders at the frontline: personality and judgement on leadership competencies. The results can quickly identify needs for individual or group development plans. Or you can use as an additional data point to hire or promote first-level leaders.
Have a Question?
Frequently Asked Questions About Leadership Assessment
-
How do I use leadership assessments to pick better leaders?
Leadership assessments give you the data you need to make fair, accurate talent decisions. These tools show you exactly which skills your leaders have and where they can grow, making it easier to plan for your company's future leadership needs. Through objective insights, you can spot high-potential talent and build a stronger leadership pipeline.
-
What makes DDI’s leadership assessments stand out from other options?
With more than 50 years of research, DDI’s assessments are built on behavioral science to create accurate, engaging, and insightful experiences. We offer a full range of tools, from self-assessments and 360s to realistic simulations and knowledge-based evaluations. Our objective assessments reveal what leaders can actually do, not just what they think or how others perceive them. We tailor each one to your strategy and leaders’ needs to fuel measurable behavior change and support confident talent decisions.
-
How can I use assessments to improve leadership development?
Use leadership assessments to accelerate growth through personalized, targeted development. DDI’s assessments reveal deep insights about a leader’s strengths and gaps, helping focus development where it will have the most impact. With clear, competency-based data, you can fast-track behavior change, boost engagement, and improve performance across your leadership pipeline.
-
How can I connect assessment results to leadership development plans?
Assessments are powerful tools when the results directly inform development plans. For example, DDI’s Leadership Skills Insights℠ assessment helps leaders identify their strengths and growth areas, providing a clear starting point for personalized development plans. Leaders receive private, individual results they can trust, while HR teams get group data that uncovers trends and skill gaps across the organization—helping connect development efforts to real needs.
recommended Resources
-
On-demand Webinar: Learn how Texas Instruments combines assessment and development to build bench strength across the pipeline.
WEBINARHow Texas Instruments Fuels High-Potential Success
60 min
-
AI-based leadership assessments are powerful tools, but can they be trusted to support the decision-making process in the workplace? The answer depends on whether it’s developed and used responsibly.
BLOGCan You Trust AI-Based Leadership Assessments?
13 min
-
Learn which types of executive leadership assessment give you the best data to make the right decisions about executive hiring, promotions, and development.
BLOG3 Types of Executive Leadership Assessment for Making High-Quality Talent Decisions
10 min