Looks Good on Paper? Using In-Depth Personality Assessment to Predict Leadership Performance

In her noteworthy first book, psychologist Pratch shares insights from decades of research and hiring assessments of executive candidates for major corporations. Pratch has developed and tested in-depth personality assessments to predict candidates’ potential for effectiveness in high-level roles, including C-level positions, on behalf of boards of directors. Much of her work centers on “active coping,” which she describes as “the healthiest response to stressful situations and the one most likely to lead to a successful resolution.” Active coping is an attribute of a healthy personality structure, and includes such traits as awareness, courage, resiliency, energy and fortitude, resourcefulness, decisiveness, and ability to execute a plan. Through case studies of job candidates, as well as historical figures (Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill), she illustrates how those who are hiring can look beyond the résumé or interview. Pratch shares success stories of candidates she’s recommended, as well as misses. Any reader who has made a bad hiring decision will be intrigued by the methodologies employed, such as a storytelling technique that distinguished between CEOs “who were psychologically organized in a secure, resilient and self-satisfied way,” and “those who revealed underlying areas of defensiveness and vulnerability.” While this is an academic work, the author’s findings will be appreciated by a general business audience. (July)