Using SJTs to Find Great Leaders

By Astrid Wonderley on June 7, 2023

Selecting the right candidate for a leadership position is a critical and difficult decision for any organization. In order to make the right decision, it’s important to use objective and insightful tools. In this blog article, we’ll explain how Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) help inform hiring decisions and identify leadership qualities.

Assess Decision-Making Skills

Employees in leadership roles are faced with complex decisions on a daily basis. Often times, the wrong decision can come with high costs for your organization.

Situational Judgement Tests help identify a candidate’s capability to make informed decisions that align with how your organization views success. These insights help you pick the candidate most likely to cause future success for your organization.

Identify Communication Skills

A leader has to be able to communicate their vision, goals, and expectations clearly in order to succeed. SJTs can be used to identify a candidates’ communication skills by presenting scenarios that require effective communication strategies. Through the candidate’s responses, your team can evaluate if they can clearly articulate themselves and adapt their communication style for different situations.

SJTs help identify candidates who can communicate effectively, fostering collaboration and creating a positive work environment.

Evaluate Problem Solving Skills

According to the U.S Office of Personnel Management,

Integrity and ethical decision-making are fundamental traits for successful leaders. SJTs provide HR professionals with a reliable method to evaluate candidates’ ethical judgment. By presenting ethical dilemmas, SJTs assess how candidates navigate challenging situations while maintaining the organization’s values and ethical standards. HR professionals can gain insights into candidates’ moral compass, their ability to balance competing interests, and their commitment to ethical leadership.

Leaders must navigate through change, uncertainty, and adversity. SJTs can simulate dynamic and unpredictable scenarios, allowing HR professionals to assess candidates’ adaptability and resilience. By evaluating candidates’ responses to these situations, HR professionals can gauge their flexibility, ability to manage stress, and willingness to embrace challenges. Candidates who demonstrate resilience and adaptability are more likely to thrive in leadership positions and guide their teams through periods of change.

SJTs provide HR professionals with valuable predictive indicators of leadership potential. By analyzing the patterns and themes in candidates’ responses, you can identify those who consistently display the qualities necessary for effective leadership. SJTs enable you to go beyond traditional measures of leadership, allowing for a more comprehensive evaluation based on real-world scenarios. This approach helps identify candidates who possess the competencies and behaviors that align with your organization’s leadership requirements.

Conclusion

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) empower HR professionals in evaluating candidates for leadership positions. By assessing decision-making skills, effective communication, ethical decision-making, adaptability, and resilience, SJTs provide valuable insights into candidates’ leadership potential. Incorporating SJTs into your evaluation process enhances objectivity, fairness, and predictive accuracy, enabling you to select leaders who can drive your organization’s success. Embrace the power of SJTs to unlock leadership potential and cultivate a culture of effective and inspiring leadership within your organization.