With our focus on Leadership Assessment, Development and Coaching, you can believe I was interested in the article in the December 2008 issue of HR Executive magazine entitled Talent Tryout.  The article followed as staff writer, Michael O’Brien, completed a 1-day Assessment Center exercise called “Year in a Day.”  While we don’t do assessment centers such as this steeped on role plays and fictitious problems, it is always interesting to see what others are doing.  Our iAdvance: Leadership Assessment process hinges significantly on the hypotheses formed during the initial assessment interview and on the completion of a ‘Live 360.’  These intense and detailed conversations are held with a great variety of people including leaders to the individual being assessed, subordinates to the indivudal being assessed, and often, most importantly, peers to the individual being assessed. 

This is where the HR Executive article really hit home.   The person going through the assessment center exercise commented on one of the role plays that focused so significantly on peers, and asked, “why a meeting between peers would be included in the assessment.”    The response was exactly right.  The consultant replied that, “People tend to focus on up-and-down relationships more than side-to-side relationships.”  The fact is that employees typically spend more time interacting with peers at work than they do with their immediate supervisor or direct reports.  To miss out the ability to speak with this group of peers as part of an assessment means you are missing out on a tremendous wealth of knowledge and data points waiting to be shared.  We find our best inputs often come from the peers who participate in the Live 360 as part of iAdvance.  We often hear comments that a person is really good at managing up and down, but that their true colors come out when dealing with their peers.   

What would your peers and colleagues say about you?