How to Measure Leadership Skills

On Becoming a Leader is a biweekly advice column in which Allison Fine, an author, consultant, and expert on nonprofit leadership and strategy, answers your questions about nonprofit careers and leadership. Have a question? Ask Ms. Fine using this form.

Q: Are leadership skills quantifiable? If so, how should nonprofits measure and acknowledge them? If leadership skills are not quantifiable, what should nonprofits to do? --Isti

This is a really interesting question, Isti. The first step to measuring anything is to define it.

There are newer leadership skills that are identifiable and easy to measure. There was a set of leadership skills that we now identify with the 20th century. We expected leaders then to be decisive and strong, sure of themselves and their positions, in control of strategy, messages, and messengers.

But that was before the Internet and social media changed the world. Organizations and their leaders can no longer act unilaterally inside and outside. Great leaders now work conversationally with people, exchanging and developing ideas and approaches with them, rather than dictating marching orders. Nonprofit leaders are managing networks of people inside and outside of their walls. Today’s leaders should be:

• Great listeners
• Excellent at collaborating
• Trustworthy
• Transparent

And leaders should be humble, too!

Although there is a large debate happening right now on the effectiveness of periodic performance reviews versus ongoing coaching, all organizations need to have a set of performance measures on how leaders are stewarding their organizations. These skills can be measured as part of a performance review, either by asking colleagues whether and how these characteristics are exhibited regularly (like listening) or by identifying instances in which they appeared in action (like collaboration).

The Kipp School uses a Leadership Competency Model that incorporates these kinds of attributes into its overall assessment process. The process includes the traditional measures of managing people and driving results, but it also includes a significant emphasis on building relationships.

Here is one more important issue that your question touches on, Isti. By incorporating these measures into performance reviews, organizations are recognizing that leadership is about more than producing a lot of stuff. How we work is as important as what we produce, and both what and how we work can be measured.