LEADERSHIP APPRAISAL MODULE (LAM) is a Dermody Consulting leadership appraisal process designed to improve leadership at senior and middle management levels.

Successful enterprises recognise that leaders in the 21^st century not only need to exhibit specific managerial and organisational competencies but also to demonstrate team-building attributes.

LAM recognises that most busy leaders do not personally have the time to develop and implement comprehensive internal processes to assess and improve the leadership capacity of their key staff. Experience indicates that an experienced external consultant can facilitate an appraisal process with objectivity and confidentiality.

LAM endeavours to address the following need that confronts leaders at all levels. Enhanced performance is rarely achieved until a realistic and objective appraisal process has clarified the leader’s perceptions included in the following graphic:

Saul Gellerman in Motivating Designated Leader Performance uses a formula that proclaims

The challenge to senior executives is to not only assist their key subordinates to improve their knowledge and skills but to also ensure they are motivated to do so.

LAM seeks to identify new or enhanced affirmations that are significant motivators towards improvement. Experience confirms that, for many, such positive feedback is rare and very much valued.

The program asserts that many leadership attributes are generic and not specific to the particular organisation but it also invites assessment in the performance of actual and perceived duties.

The following steps explain the way the LAM works but changes can be negotiated to meet the expressed needs of the school.

The consultant from Dermody Consulting meets with the Employer to negotiate the specific details of the LAM. Though the following process refers largely to formative appraisal and is designed to affirm both leadership strengths and areas of challenge, a summative appraisal is available that assesses the appraisee in relation to job descriptors, career opportunities or changes.

Data is gathered in the program utilising the following processes:

The Appraisee completes the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ).

The Designated Leader completes the Designated Leaders Questionnaire (DLQ).

The Consultant issues the Colleagues Perception Questionnaires (CPQ) to between 6-10 workplace colleagues as negotiated. Many of these colleagues will be subordinates of the appraisee. The documents are pre-coded by the Consultant to protect the anonymity of the respondents.

The documents are returned to the Consultant for collation and analysis.

 

 

After the data is entered into a Leadership Profile program it is assessed by the Consultant for consistency of responses. Where inconsistencies are noted in the CPQs they form the basis for interviews with the colleagues whose data is either inconclusive or uncorroborated. It is expected that a number of interviews may be required to ensure that a clear picture of perceived leadership evolves.

The Designated Leader will be interviewed as a matter of course.

The Consultant collates and assesses all data and prepares a Leadership Profile that identifies strengths and areas of challenge.

The Consultant presents the Leadership Profile as a framework for discussion with both the Appraisee and the Employer. This may be conducted either separately or together.

In formative appraisals the Consultant facilitates the preparation of an Action Plan, which establishes leadership goals and identifies the necessary support strategies designed to facilitate achievement of those goals. The goals are clearly defined to provide benchmarks for future appraisal.

To ensure that the process is professionally credible to both the Employer and the Appraisee the following steps are included in the processes.

LAM asserts that ineffective leadership or leaders working below potential can result in significant operational dysfunction. Gellerman assessed typical company managers as operating as follows-

Gellerman suggests that the challenge is to move each of the three lower performing groups one place to the right.

A LAM can be expected to cost 2.0% of the appraisee’s gross annual salary and as it would normally only be conducted every second or third year it can be seen to be an inexpensive way of promoting leadership effectiveness.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of utilising the program please phone Peter Dermody on 08 83771699