Diagnosis before prescription - edition 24

Breakthrough Leadership - Edition 24 - Diagnosis before Prescription

Most leadership development starts with the solution. A course, an away day, a new framework. Very little of it starts with an honest diagnosis of what actually needs fixing.

Medicine would never work that way. I know that better than most. Just over a year ago, after two weeks of itchy skin, I went to my GP. Within days I was in hospital having scans, and a month later I had a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. It was caught early, which is rare: around 8 in 10 people are diagnosed at a late stage. That early, accurate diagnosis is the reason everything that followed was possible. 

Business is no different. A proper diagnosis lets you understand your "As Is" position: your people, your capabilities, your culture, your direction. Without it, you are prescribing in the dark.

The self-awareness gap

The difficulty is that leaders are poor at diagnosing themselves. Organisational psychologist Tasha Eurich's research found that around 95% of people believe they are self-aware, yet only 10 to 15% actually meet the criteria (Eurich, Harvard Business Review, 2018). The peer-reviewed evidence points the same way. A meta-analysis by Angela Lee and Nichelle Carpenter (The Leadership Quarterly, 2018) found that leaders' self-ratings only moderately match how others see them, and that leaders consistently overrate the people side of leadership: coaching, communicating, supporting. That isn't a character flaw. It is how we are wired. We judge ourselves by our intentions. Everyone else judges us by our impact.

And the gap compounds as you go up. Gallup attributes at least 70% of the variance in team engagement to the manager (Gallup, State of the American Manager, 2015). In the UK, 82% of people who become managers receive no formal management or leadership training (CMI, 2023). Then last month a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology, reported by Michigan State University, found that the traits that get people promoted, such as confidence and visibility, are not reliably the traits that make them effective once they are in the role. We promote on presence and hope for judgement.

Why I built the Leadership Diagnostic

In four years of designing leadership programmes, the most valuable hour is usually the first one. The conversation before anyone agrees what to fix. So I have turned that conversation into a tool anyone can use.

The Heads Up & Freer Leadership Diagnostic is 16 questions and takes around five minutes. It follows the same structure I use to build every bespoke programme. Leading Self. Leading Teams. Leading Organisations.

Leading Self covers (1) your stress reaction (2) when you are at your energetic best (3) your thinking preferences (4) your behavioural preferences and (5) your personal brand. Leading Teams covers commercial acumen, team performance, coaching culture, organisation culture and how well you prepare first-time leaders. Leading Organisations covers leading change, conflict and candour, strategic thinking, sustainability, inclusivity and, as a bonus question, how well you are leading on AI.

You get a radar chart across all 16 competencies, an overall score, and the part I find most useful: your +2 Boost. The areas where a two-point lift would make the biggest difference, and practical ideas for what it would take to get there.

To be clear about what it is and what it isn't. It is a structured self-assessment, not a psychometric. When a client needs that depth, I use validated tools I am accredited to deliver: the Energy Leadership Index for how you operate at your best and under stress, and Emergenetics for thinking and behavioural preferences. The diagnostic is the triage. It tells you where to look.

Your Leadership Radar

How to get the most from it

Here's the part most people miss. Don't take it alone.

Take it yourself first. Then ask two or three of your leadership team to complete it independently. Lay the radar charts side by side. Where you agree, you have a shared picture to build on. Where you differ by three points or more, you have found the conversation your team most needs to have. That gap between how you see it and how they see it is Eurich's research playing out in your own organisation.

In Edition 20, I wrote that you cannot widen your range if you cannot name your default. Awareness comes first in the 10 Leadership Disciplines for a reason. This is Awareness made practical.

What now?

Block ten minutes this week. Take the Leadership Diagnostic at headsupandfreer.com/leadership-diagnostic and pick one competency where you would honestly like to be two points higher by Christmas. Then ask one colleague whether they would score you the same. If your radar raises more questions than it answers, there's an option at the end to book a 30-minute conversation with me.

Awareness. Acceptance. Choice.

So, which would you score lowest: leading yourself, leading your team, or leading your organisation?

Heads Up & Freer: boosting commercial leaders' confidence, skills and performance.

Leadership Frameworks in focus: 
· 3-Stage Leadership Framework (Leading Self → Teams → Organisations) 
· 10 Leadership Disciplines (Awareness, Acceptance, Conscious Choice) 
· Energy Leadership Index 
· Emergenetics