Tools to boost your leadership skills

Getting to know yourself as a leader and mentor could trigger the same reaction that many of us have when thinking about a physical exam:  dread, fear, and right out avoidance.

What if, instead, we were to approach assessing your tendencies, preferences, and world views as a strategy to become a stronger, more effective leader and mentor?

If you believe that information and knowledge are power, then you can see how self-assessment tools to know yourself can act as leadership and mentoring vitamins.

Here are three different types of assessments to consider:

• The Myers-Briggs Type Inventory – This assessment helps you understand inherent personality traits that evaluate how you take in information, organize your world, make decisions, and prefer to focus and put your energy.
• The Implicit Bias Assessment – This assessment will help you understand your unconscious–or implicit–attitudes and beliefs about certain topics such as race, gender roles, religion, among others.
• Intercultural Development Inventory– If you have ever been curious about learning how culturally competent you are, this is the assessment for you. The test is based on five different developmental orientations that go from monocultural to intercultural.

There are dozens of assessments and an equal amount of articles debunking their validity. The main benefit of taking an assessment is gaining clarity about certain behaviors or perceptions. In the end, deciding if and when to use assessment tools is a personal decision that every leader should consider carefully.