How to measure your managers' skills: making smart decisions about who will lead your company - Folio: Special Source Book Issue 1993

If you are to get maximum benefit from your managers' talents--and by extension strengthen your magazine's position in the marketplace--you need more formal assessments of your managers' skills. And it isn't just the top management positions that need to be assigned carefully. The money you have saved by eliminating the middle-management layer and flattening the organizational chart has also pushed far more responsibilities to lower-level managers.

It is more important than ever that you know their strengths and where they fall short. How do they manage others? What is their leadership style? How do they make decisions? How adaptable are they to change? How flexible and innovative are they?

Assessments meet many needs

Skills assessments satisfy several important needs. If you use the right one, you will get a good idea of an individual's ability to set priorities, to negotiate, delegate, solve problems, communicate verbally and in writing, manage conflict, meet goals and assume a leadership position--all qualities critical to one's performance as a manager.

Tests that measure integrity, personality, managerial style and brain dominance are all available. The Center for Creative Leadership, in Greensboro, North Carolina; Blessing/White, in Princeton, New Jersey; Human Synergistics, in Plymouth, Michigan; and First Management Services, in Stamford, Connecticut, are just a few of the many companies that produce, administer and interpret these assessments.

Prices range from as little as $50 to $15,000 per person. Some are quickies--you can complete the questionnaire and score it yourself in the time it takes to view three television commercials. Others are more involved and are considered diagnostic tools, designed to be completed by the manager, his or her boss, subordinates and perhaps co-workers. They are intended to develop awareness of managerial behavior patterns that either enhance an individual's effectiveness on the job or detract from it. They are also of value to the person undergoing the evaluation because they provide feedback that will help him or her succeed.

Cooperation enhances assessments

However, assessments alone are not enough. Your managers need to be willing--even eager--to cooperate because they themselves are already aware of a problem or shortfall. Awareness does not guarantee change, but it is the first step toward accepting the need for change. By acknowledging the existence of a problem, individuals become ready to take appropriate action, or see the importance of doing so. They also become more receptive to other investments the company makes on their behalf: management development, training programs, psychological assessments, counseling, coaching, videotaping and so on.

Provide impetus to improve productivity

In today's publishing world, where the emphasis is on flexibility, adaptability, change management and creating more productive magazine teams, there is much to fuel the demand for management assessments. In theory, teams take advantage of the various skills, strengths, styles, talents and perspectives of their members in order to gain the edge in productivity and competitiveness. In reality, the team often has a few rough edges that need smoothing before communication and cooperation flow.

Because assessments are often used to foster more effective teamwork, they are most effective when they are used simply as a way to sensitize team members and do not become part of the individuals' personnel records.

The most effective assessment process provides feedback along with individual development plans, provided by the company and the individual. These plans are carefully constructed to encourage individuals to see the value of the different perspectives they bring to a team. Business-related experiences that demonstrate in concrete ways that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts will eliminate the guesswork and create more productive and participate management styles.

Katherine E. Smith is president of first Management Services, a human resource consulting and training company based in Stamford, Connecticut.

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