What is the ABLE?

The ABLE family of 360° assessments gives you all the tools you need to:  

• Accurately measure leadership effectiveness in your organization
• Provide your leaders with meaningful feedback
• Design training, coaching and other development opportunities that target specific leadership needs
• Evaluate and track the Impact of development initiatives
• Create a Training Needs Profile of your organization or department
• Choose the right report for your leaders based on Role

The ABLE (Assessment of Basic Leader Effectiveness) is a customized 360° assessment that accurately measures how well a leader uses the nine core leader competencies (see below) that are essential for leaders at all levels. The ABLE measures competencies that can be learned and improved, rather than personality traits or innate talents. The leader, the leader’s boss, direct reports and/or peers can complete the ABLE online in as few as 10 minutes. Results are presented in clear, easy-to-read graphs with customized paragraphs that explain the meaning of the score and a Leader Effectiveness Action Plan (Action Plan) for future development.

ABLE results make it easy for you to establish a benchmark and design leader development initiatives, such as training and coaching, that focus on specific and immediate needs.

The ABLE is the first 360° assessment designed with a post-assessment (ABLE-P) that is specifically keyed to each question on the initial instrument—you can actually compare apples to apples! This enables you to evaluate the effectiveness of your development initiatives to establish meaningful Impact Data. The ABLE allows you to Measure, Develop and Measure again.

How Does the ABLE Work?

The ABLE is easy to administer. The leader, leader’s boss, direct reports and peers complete 45 questions about their perceptions of the leader’s performance on nine core competencies. The results produce a comprehensive, 360° view of the leader’s effectiveness and form the basis of a Leader Effectiveness Action Plan for future development. Individual responses of direct reports and peers remain anonymous and are shown as averages only. Confidential feedback is provided to the leader in a non-threatening, easy-to-understand format using simple graphs and rich narratives.

What Does the ABLE Assess?

The ABLE measures the nine core leader competencies validated by years of research as the most critical competencies for high performing leaders at all levels. To see ABLE-S dimensions for employees who do not have direct reports, click here.

Motivation

• Impact of management practices on people
• Creating a motivational culture
• Creating motivated employees

Decision Making

• Using techniques that lead to effective decisions
• Using techniques that effectively solve problems
• Leading problem solving teams

Stress Management

• Identifying sources of stress in self and others
• Using techniques to reduce stress and increase productivity
• Implementing actions for reducing stress in self and others

Performance Counseling

• Clarifying roles and expectations
• Setting performance goals and metrics
• Coaching and counseling employees

Goal Setting

• Setting goals that link to company strategies
• Knowing own and others’ strengths and weaknesses
• Helping employees set work and career goals

Delegation

• Knowing what and when to delegate
• Training employees to complete higher-level tasks successfully  
• Demonstrating confidence in employees’ ability to complete the tasks

Communication

• Using active listening techniques
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Removing barriers to communication

Team Development

• Recognizing and using stages of team development
• Maximizing team performance
• Establishing plans for moving a team into the high performance zone

Conflict Resolution

• Identifying positive and negative conflict
• Using effective conflict resolution strategies
• Reaching win-win agreements 

Report Features

The ABLE family of reports offers scientifically valid and robust results that include an ABLE-S for peers and an ABLE-P, our powerful post-development assessment. You choose which report is right for your organization!

ABLE reports provide the following easy-to-read features:

• Bar graphs that allow the leader to comprehend the most important information in seconds
• Computer-generated comments based on raters’ responses that help leaders understand their results more completely
• Comments written by raters that can be given to the leader or used by the feedback specialist to guide feedback discussions
• Narrative paragraphs explaining in detail what each bar (self, boss, etc.) of the graph indicates about the participant’s performance in the nine competencies
• Leader Effectiveness Action Plans

Functionality

• Fast and easy for raters to use (10  minutes to complete questionnaire)
• Easy-to-read graphs: self/boss, self/direct reports, self/peers
• Composite graphs highlighting patterns and differences
• Computer-generated, question-by-question comments that allow participants to drill deeply into their results
• Open-ended rater comments (available to the feedback specialist) can be given to leaders or used by the feedback specialist to guide the feedback sessions
• Detailed descriptive paragraphs that explain each graph
• Leader Effectiveness Action Plan for development
• ABLE-P (post-assessment) to measure results of Leader Effectiveness Action Plan
• The ABLE can be normed to your company’s leaders