Assessment-Driven Leadership Development
Start with an objective, psychologist-led assessment of the individual leader. Sharpen the picture with 360-feedback on how others experience them. Then work with coaches who know how to use both, so development starts with a clear target rather than a lengthy discovery period.
You'll speak with an organizational psychologist.
What Effective Leadership Development Looks Like
Leadership development is the process of building self-awareness, changing behavior, and strengthening leadership effectiveness over time. It is not the same as leadership training. Effective development focuses on the individual leader’s strengths, gaps, and behavioral patterns, using data to prioritize the changes that will have the greatest impact. At PCI, leadership development begins with an objective assessment, is targeted through feedback, and is accelerated through coaching.
Core Solutions That Power Effective Leadership Development
Leadership development is most effective when supported by integrated, customized solutions that diagnose needs, target development goals, and activate change. PCI delivers three core leadership development solutions that can be tailored to your organization and embedded into existing development efforts.
Psychometric Assessments
Use scientific, psychologist-led, data-driven assessments to diagnose natural strengths and areas for growth. Learn more.
360-Feedback
Pinpoint behaviors that your leaders need to start, stop, and continue doing to elevate their performance. Learn more.
Coaching for Growth
Accelerate development with coaches who know how to use assessment and 360 data to activate change. Learn more.
Leadership Development Begins with Psychometric Assessments
Leadership development is a lot more than training. Training programs typically assume that everyone has the same level of knowledge and skill development needs. However, in reality, everyone's personality, leadership style preferences, and cognitive abilities are different. And, all of these things are strong predictors of leadership effectiveness. Our assessment-first approach ensures leadership development efforts are focused, individualized, and aligned with performance expectations.
At PCI, we use validated psychometric tools and a structured interview as the starting point for leadership development. Then, our psychologists write a report that describes the individual's strengths and growth opportunities, which can be mapped to the organization's values and competencies. This foundation ensures every development plan is tailored to the individual, not built on generic assumptions.
Our CF Values are core to everything we do. The PCI team have been incredible partners in aligning insights and reports to reinforce our Values Behaviours that support our OneCF Culture and enable business performance.
SVP, Human Resources & Change Management Cadillac Fairview
Talk with an Organizational Psychologist
The Participant Experience
We understand that some people are hesitant to take an assessment and speak with an organizational psychologist. That's why we take extra steps to ensure that participants understand the purpose, feel at ease during the process, and are inspired to engage in self-development after reading their report. Here's an overview of what the participant experiences and receives:
Psychometric Assessment Deliverables
To ensure alignment and follow-through, we provide deliverables designed for the participant, their manager, and HR/L&D leaders.Â
Prioritize Leadership Development Goals with 360 Feedback
360 feedback plays a critical role in leadership development by supplementing assessment insights with observable behaviors. When implemented poorly, 360 feedback can demotivate the leader and waste time and money due to the lack of actionable next steps. When done right, it uncovers rich insights that pinpoint critical gaps and accelerate growth.
- Interview-based 360 for senior executives.
- Customized online tool that measures your leadership competencies.
- Off-the-shelf 360s for ease of set up and quick results.
Every 360 process is followed by a debrief with the leader to ensure they understand their results, see patterns, and feel motivated to act on the feedback. Our leadership development consultants are trained psychologists who know how to help the person interpret the information objectively, focus on themes, and feel motivated to use the information productively.
Integrating Psychometric Assessment and 360 Results
When two independent sources point to the same thing, a leader stops debating the finding and starts working on it. When they disagree, that gap is usually the most useful thing in the room.
Reviewing two very different assessment reports and deciding what matters most is difficult, even for experienced leaders. So our psychologists write a one-page summary that reads the psychometric results against the 360 results, explains where they agree and where they diverge, and identifies the one or two growth areas that will have the greatest impact on performance.
One page is deliberate. It's short enough that a leader will reread it, and clear enough to anchor the conversation with their manager.
Coaching That Accelerates Leadership Development
Coaching moves faster when the coach starts with data rather than building a picture from scratch. Before the first session, your coach reviews the assessment and 360 results, then debriefs them with the leader. The early conversations are about what the findings mean and which ones to act on, rather than several sessions spent getting acquainted.
From there, coaches work on specific behaviors using real situations from the leader's job, build habits between sessions, and hold leaders accountable to goals they helped set rather than goals assigned to them.
Two ways to work with us:
- Coaching Provider. We conduct the assessments, debrief results, and provide the coaches.
- Coaching Partner. We provide assessments for firms who specialize in executive coaching.
The PCI team has served as a great partner in my executive advising and coaching work. Their objective and holistic assessment approach allows my clients and me to focus on their most impactful strengths to leverage and their development needs that require the most attention. The executive report is personalized and actionable and serves as a critical component in creating a development plan.
Marty Gervasi, Senior Advisor MyNextSeason (executive coaching and advisory); Former CHRO, The Hartford
What Participants Said About the Experience
After a recent succession planning engagement, the client's Chief Human Resources Officer gathered feedback from the leaders who participated in coaching and shared it with us anonymously. Four themes came up.
An outside ear is helpful.
Participants valued working with someone who sits outside their organization, doesn't know their colleagues, and knows them only through their assessment and 360 results. Neutral, unbiased, and unfamiliar with the internal politics let them say what they actually thought.
The data made the coaching land.
Participants specifically credited the combination of assessment, 360-feedback, and coaching. The coach already understood how they were wired and how others experienced them, so sessions started with substance instead of introductions.
Goals built with the leader, not for them.
Participants developed their goals jointly with their coach and their manager, then chose what to work on session by session. Setting the goals together means the leader owns them, the manager is invested in them, and no one is guessing at what the coaching is for.
Practice, not just conversation.
Leaders described working on specific skills with real examples, building habits between sessions, and learning to pause and temper their reactions rather than responding emotionally. Several framed the biggest shift as learning to separate what they control from what they don't.
The most telling feedback was what they asked for next. Participants wanted coaching to continue longer, wished they'd had it earlier in their careers, and thought others in the organization would benefit from it.
Leaders We Typically Work With
Leadership Development - FAQs
What differentiates PCI's approach?
Why should organizations invest in leadership development?
How long does a leadership assessment take?
How does 360 feedback help?
What role does coaching play in leadership development?
Are leaders born or made?
Talk with an Organizational Psychologist
Tell us about the leaders you're developing and we'll tell you what the data would show, and whether we're the right fit for your needs.
More on Leadership Development
Certain traits predict who steps forward as a leader, but effective leadership is built through training, coaching, and feedback.
Traits are stable, but not fixed. Research shows meaningful change is possible over months of sustained effort.
Leadership development is often one piece of a larger succession plan. See how the two fit together.