Anand's Leadership Assessment

ProSpective Assessment

Anand Kumar Rajana's Assessment Results

These are your Top 5 Leadership Characteristics:
Caring About Others
People matter to you. You take a personal interest in their well-being. You care about others,
and you’re willing to help them when they are in trouble. You may be focused on getting
results, but you make time for people. You take time to check in and see how they are doing.
You are not afraid to show kindness and compassion. You recognize that you can be both a
strong, respected leader and a caring, compassionate person. It is not a paradox for you. You
balance caring and confidence as complementary leadership qualities.

Managing Up
You relate well with higher management. You manage your career well. You know what you
want in your career. You are proactive in positioning yourself—your career aspirations and
interests—to leaders who will influence your career trajectory. You do not hesitate to take
advantage of opportunities that showcase your skills to higher management. This requires
confidence, but gaining support of your boss and senior leaders makes the risk worth it to you.

Relating Skills
Most people would say that you are a likable person. You relate well to all kinds of people. You
make other people feel at ease. You are genuinely interested in other people. And you
naturally build relationships by inquiring about people’s interests, priorities, and perspectives.
After spending time with you, people feel like they matter. Your positive, affirming nature
makes others feel important and valued. People are quick to offer the same respect and
consideration back to you.

Communicating Effectively
You are clear and credible when you communicate. You are knowledgeable about the topic.

Korn/Ferry’s ProSpective Assessment is an online assessment tool created by Korn/Ferry International to assist LinkedIn users with their career
development. Leadership characteristics are based on research by Lominger International, a Korn/Ferry company. linkedin.kornferry.com

Copyright © 2011 Lominger International, a Korn/Ferry company. All Rights Reserved. Page 1 of 14


Communicating Effectively: Top 5 Characteristics (Cont'd)

You have an interest and a passion in the message. And you are in tune with your audience.
You adjust your message and delivery appropriately for the audience. You are an articulate,
engaging speaker and a strong writer. Your use of stories, visuals, descriptions, and tone
captivate the reader or the listener. You effectively inform, persuade, coach, and inspire.

Understanding the Business
You have earned a seat at the table. You have regular interaction with senior executives, and
they see you as a credible partner. You speak the language of business. With your high level
of acumen, you are able to analyze and speak intelligently about customers, competitors, and
business strategy. You have a clear point of view. The payoff is that many leaders seek you
out to ask your opinion about the potential impact of business decisions.





Potential Blind Spots
Blind spots are characteristics that you overestimate. You are likely to see yourself as stronger in these skills than
others see you. A self assessment can give you insight on potential areas for self improvement, however, asking
others for their input by doing a network assessment will give you far greater insight on your blind spots. Here are
your potential blind spots and some ideas for next steps:

Balancing Work/Life
Does your boss care if you have a life outside the office? Probably not. But most bosses know
that a happy employee is an employee who spends time with friends, writes an occasional
limerick, and reads stories to his or her kids.
• Just say no – You are the only one on earth who can push back on work when its time to
eat a healthy lunch, exercise, attend your child’s recital, or have a relaxed dinner with your
partner. In the long run, forgoing these things will likely decrease, not increase, your overall
productivity.
• Reset your standards – If you’re striving for perfection at work and at home, you’re in for
a tough ride. Take a cue from the world’s most productive, successful people and give
yourself room to be pretty darn good most of the time. This means you’ll get almost
everything done by the end of the day and still have time for a quick round of Ping-Pong®.
• Team up – Try teaming up with coworkers to create a backup system. Everyone needs to
take a day off, sometimes unexpectedly. Serving as backup for one another can take the
pressure off when you really need a break.

Demonstrating Personal Flexibility
Clearly, our world is in constant flux. And as the pace of change accelerates on all of us,
organizations have become keenly aware of their need for people who can tuck and roll and
keep their balance in a context of continuous change.




Demonstrating Personal Flexibility: Blind Spots (Cont'd)

• Keep learning – Getting better and better at something you’re already good at does not
grow you as fast as pushing past your comfort zone and entering unfamiliar terrain. Seek
out classes, opportunities to cross-team, or even lateral moves that will allow you to
exercise new muscles and break up your routine.
• Start again, and again – Resilience used to be a term used mostly in psychology and
sports, but it’s creeping into the business lexicon. It refers to one’s ability to bounce back
from setbacks, losses, or simple failure. Your grace in the face of such challenges and your
ability to get back on the horse will communicate your resilience.
• Think solutions – Where there’s a problem, there’s always a solution (or at least a brave
attempt at one). Identifying problems is an important part of any job, but looking deep into
the heart of a problem and coming up with a recommended course of action is what
separates the truly nimble from the rest of us.

Focusing on the Bottom Line
Regardless of your level, and no matter how strategic your role, the mandate to deliver results,
hit deadlines, and work within a budget never ceases. Part of being an effective leader is
learning how to maintain efficiency in the face of complexity, ambiguity, and change.
• Keep others informed – Make sure you’re providing both formal and informal updates to
colleagues, stakeholders, and your boss. Accurate, up-to-date information will help others
rest easy and trust you. Plus, when others know what you’re up to, they may offer ideas or
flag barriers that could help you be more effective.
• Take action – Analysis is important, but too much analysis can slow you down and
interfere with the flow of your work. Don’t be afraid to pull the trigger, exit a situation of
diminishing returns, or make a best-guess decision when information is limited or
ambiguous.
• Emphasize accountability – Setting and communicating clear goals is essential to




Focusing on the Bottom Line: Blind Spots (Cont'd)

keeping a team effort on track and closely coordinated. Enforce deadlines and rise to those
standards yourself. Being a member of a fast-moving, challenged, high-performing team is
intrinsically rewarding and keeps everyone focused on the goal.





Potential Hidden Strengths
Hidden strengths are characteristics that you underestimate. You are likely to see yourself as weaker in these
skills than others see you. A self assessment can give you insight on potential areas for self improvement,
however, asking others for their input by doing a network assessment will give you far greater insight on your
hidden strengths. Here are your potential hidden strengths:

Keeping on Point
You have discipline. Despite all of the tasks and challenges vying for your attention, you sort
through competing priorities and stay focused. You have your favorite tricks for doing
this—setting aside blocks of time, finding ways to minimize interruptions, making decisions
quickly. You know that it’s not enough to be busy. Your concentrated focus produces
meaningful accomplishments.

Getting Organized
You are steady and calm in situations that others find overwhelming. When you are faced with
ever-increasing demands, when you are under pressure to keep up the pace, you approach
your work with focused attention and careful planning. You manage your time well. You have
the ability to call upon the appropriate resources at a moment’s notice in order to advance the
project or deliverable. You are constantly monitoring, thinking ahead, and making timely
adjustments in order to avoid obstacles and keep things moving on track.





Problem Areas
Problem areas can be hard to talk about. However, we want to arm you with as much information as possible
about the roots of success as well as known causes of derailment. Through studying the career trajectories of
thousands of individual contributors, managers, and executives, we’ve identified the five most common barriers
to career success. If you suspect one or more of these areas is a problem for you, the section below will provide
initial steps toward improvement.

Self-Centered
Who can argue with ambitiousness and self-esteem? No one. You have to believe in yourself
and promote yourself to get ahead in this world. But in the absence of real self-awareness,
your efforts at self-promotion could be backfiring on you. Bringing self-awareness into the mix
means paying close attention to your strengths and your weaknesses, opening yourself up to
lessons and insights from others, and sharing wins with everyone who contributed along the
way. A little humility can help you tone down the potential negative effects of healthy self-
confidence. Letting go of your need to impress others will have the paradoxical effect of
increasing your overall likability. Holding on to a self-centered approach with others can tax
your relationships and ultimately slow or stall your career progress.
• Trace the source of your success – It’s easy, in the wake of a big success, to recall the
ingenious contributions you brought to the table. But the simple reality is that practically
nothing gets accomplished in a vacuum. Think back on all the doors that were opened,
thoughts shared, and even extra grunt work done that helped push that ball toward the
goal. Then hand out the thank-yous.
• Work on your brand – Who are you to the people around you? Who are you in your
organization? You might be charismatic and bright and talented and assertive, but unless
you have the real support of others, your personal brand may be suffering. Try adding




Self-Centered: Problem Areas (Cont'd)

“good listener, facilitator, collaborator, and encourager” to your repertoire.
• Team build – Teams form around a sense of shared vision, effort, risk, and reward. People
connect to efforts they feel personally invested and involved in. When someone on the
team is overdriving or dominating the effort, the fabric of the team begins to fray. Hang
back, draw people out, and let the synergy begin.

Too Narrow
It was probably your deep level of expertise that got you noticed in school and later at work.
People relied on your insights and technical prowess, your patience with complex ideas, and
your ability to get to the root of a problem or see a hidden solution. These skills won you so
much admiration and respect that they eventually got you promoted. Congratulations! Now for
the hard part: in this new role, you’re expected to do things that make little or no use of your
specialized skills—managing people and projects, collaborating with other departments,
hustling for resources, making strategic decisions, and solving operational problems. Now
what? Challenge yourself to break away from your comfort zone and focus on broadening your
skill set. Finding ways to continuously learn about things outside your field will give you fresh
insights and augment your contribution at work. Holding on too tightly to what you know can
make you seem narrow and rigid and will likely slow or stall your career progress.
• Deploy yourself – One of the most marketable experiences you can put on your resume is
having worked in another country. What this communicates is your ability to function
effectively in an entirely novel context. If moving out of the country isn’t on your list of
things to do, reaching across departments or cross-teaming with experts from other
functional areas can also stretch and grow you in ways that will pay off across the board.
• Trust your instincts – If analysis is your game, you may not be making the most of your
instincts. One of the rewards for developing true expertise in a particular area is that you’ve
likely developed a sixth sense for when things feel right, wrong, or where an interesting




Too Narrow: Problem Areas (Cont'd)

solution might be hiding just out of sight. Don’t be afraid to break from the data occasionally
and let your intuition be your guide.
• Broaden your horizons – Being a good forecaster and strategic thinker requires keeping
an eye out for patterns and trends across multiple fronts—science, business, and the arts.
Challenge yourself to read journals from outside your area of expertise and watch for
interconnections across systems (culture, demographics, economics, etc.). This will lead to
unexpected insights in your own field and help you anticipate what’s coming around the
corner.

Doesn't Deliver Results
One of the most fundamental insights we’ve gleaned from years of researching career success
and failure is that no one is immune to the age-old pressure of getting stuff done. The most
successful individual contributors all the way up to the most successful CEOs share one
important trait in common: they deliver quality results on time. Do they deliver perfect results?
Nope. But they are mindful of their commitments, keep their word, and follow through. Their
secret to success is knowing how to separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves,
recognizing when a solution is “good enough,” and getting the ball over the goal line on time. If
you find yourself offering long-winded excuses as to why you missed a deadline, or choosing
to do something perfectly rather than promptly, you likely need to improve in your ability to
deliver results. If you take responsibility for your work, communicate your commitments, and
follow through, you will be on your way to rebuilding trust and credibility. Not doing so is likely
to slow or stall your career progress.
• Show perfection the door – One of the primary reasons people fail to deliver results on
time is that they’re overly invested in delivering a perfect product. Fear of failure, obsessing
over the details, and fixating on doing things “right” are other signs of perfectionism. The
irony is that perfectionism will cost you much more in the long run than delivering a less-




Doesn't Deliver Results: Problem Areas (Cont'd)

than-stellar but good enough product. Take a breath, go for the B+, and turn it in on time.
• Take it frame by frame – Large projects can be daunting, and their distant deadlines can
interfere with motivation. Break projects down into smaller parts and set weekly goals for
yourself. Then, team with others to bring fresh energy and ideas to the table throughout the
project. Having your project on other people’s radar can help keep you and your team
accountable to the goals you set.
• Internalize your locus of control – Owning your ability to influence outcomes
communicates confidence. Others are naturally drawn to people who take ownership of
their successes and failures, avoid a passive stance, and believe in their ability to affect
change. The difference between “I influence the situation” and “The situation influences
me” is subtle but significant and will help you gain a sense of power and effectiveness in
your job.





Korn/Ferry Insights
Here’s how you compare to others:

Caring About Others
Most people are moderately skilled in Caring About Others, and it is moderately difficult to
develop. Leaders who are skilled in Caring About Others also tend to be skilled in Managing
Diverse Relationships and Being Open and Receptive. Taking an interest in others and
showing kindness and concern demonstrate how much you value others and can impact your
ability to lead and influence others.

Managing Up
Managing Up is a strong skill for most people across all leadership levels. However, it may not
be surprising that the skill improves as leaders move up to the manager and executive levels.
Your ability to garner support from senior leaders gives you the opportunity to position your
ideas and influence your career trajectory.

Relating Skills
Relating Skills are particularly important at the individual contributor level. Most people’s skill in
this area is high, and it is moderately difficult to develop. Leaders who are skilled in this area
are also likely to be skilled in Managing Diverse Relationships and Being Open and Receptive.
While the presence of these interpersonal skills may not be enough to get you promoted, the
absence of these skills can stymie your progression up the leadership ladder.

Communicating Effectively
Communicating Effectively is particularly important at the individual contributor level. The
number of people who are good communicators tends to be lower at the individual contributor




Communicating Effectively: Korn/Ferry Insights (Cont'd)

level but steadily increases among managers and executives. With a little effort, this skill is not
hard to develop. The ability to tailor your delivery and clearly articulate your points builds
credibility for both you and your message.

Understanding the Business
Understanding the Business is moderately important at all levels of leadership and is linked to
success early in your career. The skill level for most people in Understanding the Business is
very high, so you will need to combine it with other skills to pull ahead of the pack. One of the
reasons most people have this skill is that it’s easier to learn, compared to other skills. Your
knowledge of how businesses operate and your expertise in your functional area are likely to
be considered price-of-admission qualities.

Keeping on Point
Keeping on Point is very important across all leadership levels, particularly at the manager
level where it is highly correlated with strong performance. However, the skill level for most
people in Keeping on Point is moderate when compared to other leadership skills. Fortunately,
it is easier to develop than most leadership skills. The ability to set priorities and stay focused
is not common—it will differentiate you from your peers.

Getting Organized
Getting Organized is important at all leadership levels, particularly at the individual contributor
and manager levels where it is highly correlated with strong performance. Most people are
moderately skilled at Getting Organized, and for those who need to improve, it is easier to
develop than most leadership skills. Planning, marshalling resources, and multi-tasking are
key, especially for leaders who are charged with efficient execution.

Balancing Work/Life
Balancing Work/Life ranks among the lowest skills for leaders at all levels, and it is harder to



Balancing Work/Life: Korn/Ferry Insights (Cont'd)

develop than most leadership skills. Ultimately, the way you balance between work and life is
a personal choice. The ability to consciously make trade-offs and get what you want out of
your career and personal life will help you balance career achievement with other things you
value.

Demonstrating Personal Flexibility
Demonstrating Personal Flexibility is a very low skill for most people. It is also harder for
people to develop because it involves the willingness to respond to feedback and to change.
Change can be hard for people, and personal change can be even more challenging. People
often overestimate their ability in this area; it is a common blind spot across all levels of
leadership. Enhancing your ability to adjust, adapt, and flex in response to feedback or
changing conditions will make you a resilient and nimble leader.

Focusing on the Bottom Line
Focusing on the Bottom Line is critically important. It is highly correlated with performance and
promotion at the individual contributor and manager levels. Most people tend to be good at
this, partially because organizations clearly communicate their desire for people who get
results, and it’s easy to identify and measure this skill in others. Focusing on the Bottom Line
is a non-negotiable for anyone who wants to succeed at work.

Self-Centered
Self-Centered is a staller that can slow your career progress. Compared to other stallers, it is
less likely to be a problem for most people. It is somewhat harmful to success, and it is a
known derailer, particularly at the manager level. Being too ambitious, arrogant, or
untrustworthy will be perceived negatively and can derail your career or cause it to
prematurely plateau.

Too Narrow



Too Narrow: Korn/Ferry Insights (Cont'd)

Too Narrow is a staller that can slow your career progress. Compared to other stallers, Too
Narrow is more likely to be a problem but tends to be least harmful to success. Many leaders,
particularly at the individual contributor and executive levels, underestimate this problem to
some degree. This area is a known derailer, especially at the executive level. Over-reliance on
a single skill set or area of expertise can brand you as someone who lacks perspective or is
stuck in the past.

Doesn't Deliver Results
Doesn’t Deliver Results is a staller that can slow your career progress. Compared to other
stallers, Doesn’t Deliver Results is least likely to be a problem, but it is most harmful to
success. It is a known derailer, especially at the individual contributor and executive levels.
Being disorganized, wasting resources, and being unproductive will result in a work product
that does not meet expectations or exceeds budgets and deadlines.



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