Day-in-the-Life Simulation Executive Assessment
Purpose
- To provide organizations with a leadership selection and development tool that has predictive validity, and accuracy
- To provide a high quality approach to executive Day-in-the-Life Simulation Assessment (DLSA) in order to increase hiring effectiveness and development efficiency.
Day-in-the-Life Simulation Assessment
Overview of DLSA
In most executive selection processes, assessment is typically limited to the candidates experience, behavioral interviews, personality inventories and background/reference checks. The Day-in-the-Life Simulation Executive Assessment (DLSA), which is at the core of The Leadership Edge’s approach to Executive Selection, can significantly augment these traditional methods that have a limited effectiveness. Simulations are now widely recognized as the most predictive, statistically reliable and accurate form of executive assessment available. It provides selection committees with the most powerful information about a candidate’s capability to perform a number of key executive functions including:
Identifying and executing on specific organizational imperatives:
- Driving change
- Building talent readiness
- Setting strategy
- Growing the business
- Integrating a new organization
- Launching a new product or service
- Coaching, mentoring and developing future leaders
- Influencing board members and other stakeholders/partners
- Addressing and resolving complex operational challenges
- Managing customer satisfaction
- And more (depending on the client’s desired measurement data).
Impact and Organizational Benefits
Day-in-the-Life Simulation Executive Assessment is proven to help organizations:
- Reduce risk in critical and difficult hiring and promotion decisions by quantifying individual readiness for specific role challenges.
- Take stock of the available supply of leadership talent when making critical organizational decisions.
- Gauge and test assumptions about the organization’s viability to execute new strategies.
- Ensures that candidates with the right skills, cultural fit, motivational fit and self-knowledge will be leading your organization.
How Day-in-the-Life Simulation Executive Assessment works
Participants engage a fictitious organization as the newly hired leader. The fictitious organization has a full set of financials, a company history, a fully developed market/industry context including competitors, and a press/PR history. The assessment process has the following characteristics
Tailored Job Focus
- The candidate “takes on” a specific organizational role. Depending on the position for which he/she is being assessed, he/she will function as a Vice President, President, or CEO.
Flexibility
- Delivery is designed to be flexible. It is web-enabled and can be globally available. Therefore, candidates can participate remotely or at an assessment center in Northern California.
Expert Assessors
- Participants interact with highly trained and experienced assessors in meetings that simulate the key situations described above such as: coaching, influence, customer management, partnering, strategic planning and more.
- Sessions are either voice recorded or videotaped for later in-depth analysis.
Stress Testing
- Throughout the day participants receive emails that challenge them with pressing and complex operational and strategic decisions.
Behavioral Interviews
- An in-depth behavioral interview is included to test experience relative to DLSA performance.
Integrated Data Analysis
- The candidate’s performance is then scored against a pre-determined leadership model, and their assessment center profile is integrated with information from other tools such as 360 data, behavioral interviewing, personality inventories, etc.
Comparison to High Performance Profile
- A profile is created and compared to the ideal profile of the targeted position or it is used to guide the development of the high potential candidate.
Debriefing
- Each candidate is provided with a full debrief at completion of the Assessment
The distinguishing characteristic of Day-in-the-Life Simulation Executive Assessment is that real-time data regarding critical competencies is generated and added to already available data to improve hiring and promotion accuracy.