Probing leadership competencies online.

LPI Online, online, 2004, Pfeiffer/Wiley (800-274-4434, www.pfeiffer.com), $110 per one-year leader license; quantity discounts available, Facilitator guide, participant workbook, leadership development planner. For a review of the print version of the LPI, see p. 12.

Developing leaders usually involves predefined behavioral competencies, a tool for assessing the leader's current competency level, a development plan that includes learning opportunities, and coaching or mentoring. I also recommend to organizations implementing a leadership development process that they create a link to business results.

The assessment piece of the process is often a 360-degree feedback assessment. This gives the learner an opportunity to gain perspective from others in a confidential manner. Before selecting a 360-development tool, ask yourself two questions:

1. Are the executives in your organization open to feedback?

2. What leadership experts do the executives respect?

Developing leaders, especially if a 360-degree feedback process is involved, requires the support of the executive team. Executives who model their own receptivity to personal change create a needed shift in the culture of the organization. Being resistant to feedback is a common phenomenon for executives who have been taught to "never show weakness" during their ascent to the top of the corporate ranks. If the executive team or an influential member of it is familiar with The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, now considered to be a leadership classic, then LPI Online, an extension of the research done by the authors, is a good choice. It is a product with enough credibility to convince executives to utilize the feedback process themselves before rolling it out to the rest of the management team.

DESCRIPTION

LPI Online is an interactive tool designed to administer the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)--a 360-degree leadership assessment instrument created by Kouzes and Posner. According the publisher, the Leadership Practices Inventory has been used in print form by close to 1 million people worldwide. Now, LPI Online offers simplified, time-saving administration, immediate, streamlined results, and 24/7 web-based access for LPI administrators and participants alike. The LPI Online web application allows a variety of administrative capabilities:

* Leaders and observers are easily tracked and managed.

* Inventory responses are accurately recorded.

* Scoring is automated.

* Feedback reports can be produced immediately and are accessible from any web-enabled computer.

The inventory research base began in the early 1980s and sought to identify the behaviors and ways of thinking of results-oriented people. Kouzes and Posner describe leadership as an observable set of skills and abilities. The assessment is designed around five practices described in The Leadership Challenge:

* Model the way.

* Inspire a shared vision.

* Challenge the process.

* Enable others to act.

* Encourage the heart.

Within these practice areas of leadership, there are a total of 30 leadership behaviors or competencies. The behaviors are rated by "observers" on a scale of one to 10. When leaders receive their report, they are able to look at the results in a variety of ways and compare their response to the average response and the response of different categories of observers. The categories include Self, Manager, Direct Report, Co-Worker, and Other. If you purchase access to the tool, you pay per leader and have access to the assessment for 12 months. In addition to the assessment, there are three documents available in PDF format:

Facilitator's Guide

A substantial guide of nearly 250 pages that provides instructions for the entire LPI process. In addition to explaining the Kouzes and Posner's leadership model, it offers advice and techniques for interpreting the LPI Feedback Report and presenting it.

Participant's Workbook

A short (44 pages) 10-step workbook guides leaders through the process of understanding their LPI Feedback Report.

Leadership Development Planner

A 100-page workbook that includes tips on best learning practices, developmental ideas for each of the five practices, and progress recording and follow-up action guides.

DEMO

An excellent way to consider this product is to visit the demo site. (To run the LPI Online product demo, you will need to install Macromedia Flash.) I used it to become familiar with the product. The publisher strongly recommends an online and phone introduction to the tool. Lisa Shannon gave me an excellent 30-minute briefing. I was then able to easily set up a group with leaders to be observed and send out emails to the observers. Later, after observers had completed the feedback, I returned and produced a report so I could see what it felt like to receive the feedback and to process the feedback with the supporting material.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Your organization will need Internet access to use LPI Online. LPI Online uses sessions to track individual leaders and assign observer designations. Anything that interferes with session integrity including but not limited to cookies turned off, caching on a proxy server or on a client browser, and some server security settings may adversely affect functional and administrative routines and result in the system not being able to properly identify the user. You can check with your organization's system or network administrator to see if security or preference settings on your network will compromise session integrity.

LPI Online should be viewed on Netscape Navigator version 4.7 or later or Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later. Earlier browser versions will not display and process the contents of LPI Online correctly.

To administer LPI Online, you need a valid email account. Each leader and observer must also have a unique email address. Leaders and observers cannot share the same email address. LPI Online depends on email for notifications to leaders and observers. Email spam filters can interfere with the delivery of these notifications. Contact your organization's email administrator to determine if there are any filters in place that may block receipt of mail from the LPI Online system.

EVALUATION

The strengths of the product are the ease of use and the content, which is based on the research of credible experts. The additional materials help achieve the goal of creating a complete leadership development process. Instead of spending time developing your organization's competencies, you can tap into the research done by leadership experts.

The drawback to using this product is the rigidity in the questions that are asked. The instrument is based on the authors' research-based model; allowing administrators to edit or change the questions would compromise the validity of the instrument. Therefore, if you already have a competency model in your organization, you will want to look into other options for the 360-degree feedback aspect of your leadership development process. When taking an organization through a 360-degree process, you want to provide both observers and leaders with information that matches the goals of the organization.

The good news is you may add up to four open-ended essay questions that observers can respond to. The administrator can set this up at the organization level. By using this feature, observers can provide leaders with written comments. You want to provide enough specificity in the feedback so the leaders know what they need to work on to improve. In the 360-degree processes I have implemented in organizations, the written comments were the most helpful for both the leader and their coach.

RECOMMENDATION

I strongly recommend this tool if one or both of the following conditions are true for your organization: (1) The executive leaders are strong believers in the work of Kouzes and Posner, and (2) Your organization has never done a 360-degree process before and your leaders are unsure about feedback. Leaders who respect the expertise behind the tool can be convinced to utilize a 360-degree tool. Keep in mind, any 360-degree process is just one aspect of an effective leadership development process. The process alone will not lead to behavior change unless you follow it with coaching.

LPI Online star rating

CATEGORY

Holds user interest  3
Production quality   3
Ease of navigation   3.5
Interactivity        3
Value of content     3.5
Instructional value  3.5
Value for the money  3.5
Overall rating       4