Leadership

Leadership skills are important to assess during the pre-employment stages of hiring. Use this test to assess a candidate's leadership abilities.

  • What is a leadership skills test?

    When hiring a manager, supervisor, or senior executive, finding a candidate that knows about the job function, technology, or processes used is just part of the equation. Candidates who are going to be leading and managing a team of people need to have certain qualities that make them effective leaders.

    Testing a candidate to find out their level of competency in leadership soft skills is often the only reliable way to tell how successful they will be as a future leader.

    In the leadership skills test, candidates are presented with scenarios based on everyday situations that they might come across in the workplace. They will also be provided with several different courses of action that they can choose to deal with the presented problem.

    The questions are looking at several facets of leadership and the soft skills that are associated with it, such as communication, active listening, empathy, inspiration, dedication, understanding and negotiation.

Jump to a section on this page:

  1. What is a leadership skills test?
  2. Why is a leadership skills test so important when hiring?
  3. How to assess leadership skills using our test
  4. Leadership FAQs

Identify the best candidates and hire faster

Our pre-employment tests let you drill down to the best candidates at the click of a button.

  • Find those candidates who will excel in the role.

    Select the assessments that match the skills or behaviours for the position. You can test for software or coding competency, soft skills like teamwork, or personality traits, to be sure those who pass have high potential.

  • Reduce costs and time.

    No more laborious sifting of resumes or cover letters. Pick your ideal assessment mix, invite your applicants to take them, see the results in your dashboard. Get to the interview stage fast.

  • Eliminate bias.

    All your candidates take the assessments on a level playing field. Only their results determine whether they get shortlisted.

  • Why is a leadership skills test so important when hiring?

    Leading a team is not a position that is suitable for everyone, and finding the right person to manage a team, a department, or even an entire company can be difficult. Assessing the right leadership qualities through more 'traditional' techniques, like reading a resume or asking questions in an interview, might not be the most effective way to assess a potential leader.

    However, the leadership skills test is an easy-to-administer assessment that makes candidates demonstrate their leadership skills in a realistic workplace scenario. They need to use their best judgement to make a decision about how to deal with a problem that they might encounter in the workplace, and put a practical spin on any theoretical knowledge they might have about being a leader.

    For the recruitment team, this means getting quantifiable data about which candidates should be taken further into the application process and put forward for interview, simply reducing a candidate pool down to only those that have the required level of skill as a leader.

    Recruiters find this assessment useful when they are hiring for various roles across almost all industries, but particularly for:

    • Line managers
    • Senior managers
    • Supervisors
    • Shift leaders

    Positions like these need knowledge of the business and the products or services offered, but they also need to be filled with employees who can motivate and inspire, deal with problems, and have the clarity to negotiate and act with integrity.

    Through testing, recruiters can be confident that they are only putting forward candidates who are qualified in skill, ability, and competence to be successful in the future.

More Soft Skills Tests

Sample Leadership question

A member of your team, Lawrence, has a tendency to complain and take a negative standpoint on the team's work. The quality of his work is fine and he's been with the company for almost 10 years. However, he's been disrupting the team's productivity for a long time and morale is suffering. You've clearly communicated this feedback to him more than once in the past and given him time to change his behavior, but he hasn't. How do you deal with this situation?

  • Ask a trusted colleague to sit in on a few team meetings to see if they also pick up on the same issues. Then ask for their advice on how best to deal with Lawrence.

  • Arrange a team building day during which you plan to address morale and get everyone back onboard with the team's objectives.

  • Set up a meeting with Lawrence to repeat your concerns about the effect of his behavior on others and hope that you get through to him better this time.

  • Decide it's time to let Lawrence go. Arrange a meeting with him to break the news, and another with HR to proceed with terminating his contract.

How to assess leadership skills using our test

Our leadership skills test asks a variety of questions that vary in difficulty level. Candidates who demonstrate strong leadership skills should be able to answer most of the questions correctly.

The leadership skills test provides valuable data insight into a candidate's profile as a potential leader. The test is structured using multiple-choice questions: a familiar format for most test-takers, that allows for instant and objective scoring.

As well as the correct answer, there are typically 2–4 distractors, representing common misconceptions and mistakes. This helps make the test more challenging, so a candidate's ability can be measured more accurately.

Test scores are provided to the user and can be compared to other test-takers in your talent pool, to see how they perform relative to each other.

Each test has been thoroughly reviewed to ensure accuracy and validity in line with industry standards. It has been written, examined and edited by I/O psychologists and psychometric professionals. It has also been reviewed by a diverse sample of job seekers to check for any issues including sensitivity, face validity, fairness and accessibility.

This test is continually monitored so our team can optimize performance and regularly assess fairness issues.

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Predictor of job success

Picked provides evidence-based recommendations for tests to use for over 750 jobs. Our recommendation engine leverages data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA).

  • Assessments

    A full suite of assessments

    Our platform comes with 12 tests across both foundation and advanced levels so they’re suitable for everyone. Including aptitude, behavioural and personality tests, you’ll have a full range of tests to help you find the candidates you’re seeking.

  • Analytics

    An array of candidate metrics

    For each of your candidates, you’ll be given a comprehensive report. Included will be all the metrics you need to build a detailed picture of each candidate and ensure you’re making the right hiring decisions.

“The platform is so simple to use. I had used competitor providers for over six years and will never go back. Fast, efficient and friendly!”
Greg Chambers, HR Business Partner, Littlefish Ltd
Greg Chambers, HR Business Partner, Littlefish Ltd

Leadership FAQs

How can you test for leadership skills?

Leadership is a soft skill, and that makes it more difficult to assess through reading a resume or even in an interview. Candidates can say that they have leadership skills, but getting actual data about their level of knowledge and capability to be a good leader is the best way to ensure you are choosing the right applicant moving forward.

Are leadership tests difficult?

Leadership tests are not difficult in themselves; the content and structure of the assessment (multiple-choice questions) make the leadership test quite straightforward.

However, the unfamiliarity of the assessment combined with the usual exam pressure does make it hard for some candidates. The situations that are presented are similar to what the candidate can expect if they get the job, so understanding their response to time and performance pressure will give a good indication of how well they will work in your business.

Who should be given a leadership test?

A leadership test can be used in the recruitment process for any occupation where leading people is an essential skill.

Most recruiters tend to use the leadership test to find the best-qualified managers and supervisors, but you might also come across a leadership test if you are going for promotion too.

Is leadership an important skill?

Effective teams need good leaders, and there is more to leading than delegating. Employees want to be reassured that their manager has a finger on the pulse of the business so that they can solve any potential problems as soon as possible.

Leaders are inspiring and supportive, allowing them to build effective, long-term, and lucrative relationships with other businesses, the public, and employees.

“An unbeatable service, impressive platform and fantastic value for money.”
Laurence Fishman, Partner, NLPCA
Laurence Fishman, Partner, NLPCA

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