Leadership development diagnostic

Applies to any leader with at least 30 days in role. Produces a one-page brief with a readiness verdict, one headline priority, and a 90-day sprint.

The doctrine: do not fix the leader's lowest score. Find the behavior change that most improves the leader's ability to create results through the system they now lead. Develop one thing at a time, anchored in what the leader wants for themselves, measured by the people around them and by results. The ultimate measure is not how much better the leader performs. It is how much better the system performs because the leader developed everyone around them.

The sequence

1. Set purpose and stage. Development, transition, readiness, or new-leader baseline. Place the leader on the stage ladder and name the transition they face. Read references/stage-and-time.md.
2. Anchor in the leader's goal. Ask "Project forward 18 to 24 months. What is going to be different in your life?" then "What are you doing today to achieve that goal?" Then the learning question: "What is the most important thing you have changed about how you lead in the last year, and what triggered it?"
3. Rule out the system. Check information, resources, and incentives before assessing the person. Read references/evidence-and-analysis.md.
4. Gather four kinds of evidence. Time allocation from 4 to 6 weeks of calendar data, a 360, direct observation in real meetings, and a feedback-and-repeat practice test. Read references/stage-and-time.md.
5. Analyze. Score every competency in situation, behavior, impact form. Read the 360 for blind spots, hidden strengths, overuse, distributions, and derailers under pressure. Compute the gap between actual time allocation and the stage standard. Read references/evidence-and-analysis.md.
6. Type and choose. Answer four questions: what stage does the role require, at what stage is the leader actually operating, what is blocking the transition (skill, mindset, motivation, environment, or opportunity), and what single change would most increase leverage. Separate can they from will they. Choose the headline gap by leverage, not by lowest score, and link it to the leader's own goal. Read references/barriers-and-readiness.md.
7. Deliver it. Open with purpose, evidence, and agency. Let the leader read first. When they disagree, diagnose whether the dispute is about the data, the interpretation, or the priority. Read references/delivery-and-sprint.md.
8. Run the sprint. A sponsor agreement with the leader's manager, 13 weeks of experiments, and activity, leading, and outcome criteria written on day 1. Read references/delivery-and-sprint.md.
9. Decide and re-measure. Issue a readiness verdict on a one-page brief. Re-measure at month 6 against the criteria set on day 1. Read references/barriers-and-readiness.md.

What good looks like

• The expert's tell: the diagnosis comes from the calendar before the survey. "This VP spends half the week in deals" says more than any competency score.
• The common mistake: diagnosing "poor delegation" when the leader is still operating as the job they were promoted from. That is an identity shift, not a skill gap.
• The motivation mistake: labeling someone unmotivated when the environment has stopped challenging them, or teaching someone who has not decided they want the next stage.
• The delivery mistake: opening with scores or a praise sandwich. Open with the headline, the evidence, and an explicit invitation to challenge it.
• The disagreement mistake: defending the diagnostic. Diagnose the disagreement instead. When the leader says the gap is real but not the priority, they are sometimes right.
• How to know it worked: at month 6, time allocation has moved toward the stage standard, most stakeholders report improvement on the headline behavior, and the linked business result has moved.
• Three real field cases, capability without aspiration, motivation waiting for a lever, and a leader who multiplied everyone around him: references/worked-examples.md. Score the diagnostic with references/diagnostic-rubric.md. Ship at 90 or above.

Rules

• MUST check the system before assessing the person.
• MUST measure time allocation from calendar and activity evidence, NEVER from self-report.
• MUST cite situation, behavior, and impact for every score, and read 360 distributions, never averages alone.
• MUST choose exactly one headline gap per sprint, by leverage, linked to the leader's own goal.
• MUST open the debrief with purpose, evidence, and agency; NEVER with scores.
• NEVER demand agreement. Turn unresolved disagreement into a measured experiment.
• MUST write activity, leading, and outcome success criteria on day 1.
• MUST end with a readiness verdict.
• NEVER use the diagnostic as a compensation input, and NEVER record family, health, or other protected details.