Text Box: LEADS Testimonials Text Box: LEADS  Assessment Tool  By Dr. Jack D. Cichy, CM Professor of Management/Corporate Trainer Davenport University, Michigan  “I found the NMA LEADS to be a superbly pragmatic assessment tool!  The connection that the LEADS makes to Dr. Steven Covey's “Seven Habits…” work is most impressive. Kudos to the NMA for building your assessment (in part) on Covey’s timeless principles! I also love the “Recommendation for Improvement”. These recommendations have developmental implications that can produce immediate and practical improvements in my leadership style.”     Text Box: LEADS Enhances Interim Performance Reviews By Mike Peterson, Senior Manager Product Support Boeing Fort Walton Beach, Florida  This is the most impressive, comprehensive leadership assessment I've ever taken. Prior to this assessment, I felt I had the leadership attributes mastered – now I know what I didn't know. You have to schedule time for this assessment and think about the questions. It's not a quick survey or "how do you feel" assessment. It really tests your knowledge. The results...you're going find something out about yourself. The best thing is the development plan it generates for you. You can tailor this plan and document it directly in your Performance Management Plan. As a senior manager, I plan to use this assessment with all my managers to raise the leadership bar in our organization. Thanks for this wonderful tool!   After taking the LEADS assessment, I was so excited and passionate about it that I started thinking about ways to implement it across my organization. It just so happened that interim feedbacks were coming up on the calendar and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to level set my manager's knowledge about the Boeing Leadership Attributes. I asked each of the managers to take the assessment prior to our feedback session so we could discuss their results together. It was an eye opener for them and turned out to be a wonderful tool. It allowed us to focus on strengths and opportunities for improvements. We changed feedback terminology from "I think" or "I feel" to "We know" what areas need more attention. Couple this tool with the Leadership Attributes 360 Assessment Tool, and you can really raise the bar for leadership in your organization.     Text Box: NMA LEADS: A Personal Assessment By Marion Moss Hubbard, Ph. D. Senior Public Information Officer, City of San Diego, California  I admit it. I was skeptical at first about the value of the NMA Leadership Evaluation and Development System (LEADS), which is a new online assessment tool available on NMA National's website at www.nma1.org. The price is certainly right at only $35.00. But, I wondered, with already feeling spread so thin, if the two hours I needed to take the assessment, would really be a good investment of my time.  Until I decided to take the assessment, I also had not fully focused on the NMA leadership competencies to understand their significance to my work. I had only glanced at the colorful competency graphic with the circles that is on NMA National's homepage.  But, when I found out that the LEADS program had been recently changed so it has a restart feature to stop and resume the assessment anytime within 30 days, I committed to take it. The irony is that once I really took the time to read the competencies (which I highly recommend that you review before taking the assessment), I was hooked and I finished the 120 question assessment in one sitting without a break. I found this online tool to be challenging and thought provoking. Even with my background in transformational change, I was stretched to apply what I thought I knew about management theory and leadership best practices.   After I answered the last question in the assessment, I was automatically sent a Leadership Analysis that rated my understanding of the competencies by category. It provided me with an extensive reading list and links to: · Purchase the books from Barnes & Noble · Links to WorldCat library resources to borrow the books from my local library, which I really like · Browse links to getAbstract and other online resources.   Included in the Leadership Analysis were also recommended training courses and work assignments designed to apply what I'm learning in my actual work environment.  Having worked in the private sector on educational software, I am very impressed with this product! According to NMA's website, over 12 months of development and 1,700 hours of volunteer time went into designing and generating the LEADS contents and infrastructure. Although the product is still new and has a few kinks to work out, I highly recommend it. I felt it was well worth my time and a good investment in my future!