How do I prepare for the Leadership Test?

When someone is asked to take a leadership test, most, if not all, professionals and aspiring professionals think that it’s a sure-fire pre-employment assessment that they can ace without sweat and land the job easily.

Unfortunately, a majority of them are likely to fail due to that line of thinking or produce less-than-acceptable results.

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If this happens, then it is inevitable for their application to be junked by the hiring manager in preference of another candidate who did better, no matter how small the gap is.

Since you, like every applicant, have only one shot at proving yourself to be the best to be hired for the position, it is very important to prepare for the test as much as you can.

That being said, let’s take a good look at several key points on how one should prepare for the leadership test:

Table of Contents

Know what is expected of you

The leadership test was named as such for a reason: to know the Test-taker’s leadership style or the extent of their leadership skills.

Many applicants these days make the mistake of linking leadership skills with being too lenient, friendly, or forgiving towards a coworker in the hypothetical situation that is presented.

Most of these tests follow a situational judgment test format, where you are presented with a scenario revolving around a conflict of sorts that may or may not be unique to the company prescribing it.

Remember: you are answering the leadership test to give your future employer a small preview of your leadership skills first and foremost, showing how friendly or sociable you are should come second or be done in the interview stage.

Be prepared to select choices that ‘punish’ others.

Based on what we have gathered, many companies state that the majority of failing applicants have an aversion to selecting choices that would make them ‘punish’ a coworker or make them face the consequences of their mistakes or actions, even if justified.

For example, in a scenario where the test-taker caught a subordinate stealing money, most of them chose the option where they would not have the employee be arrested or be punished if said coworker promised to return the money soon or explained and begged that they only have financial troubles and they were only desperate and promise to return it in the future.

This choice is more predominant when the scenario mentions that the employee is a close friend, has an ailing child/relative, or is near retirement.

So, if you choose this option or any version or variation of it in the leadership test, the company will interpret this as you being likely to commit nepotism or do something illegal in the workplace, intentional or not.

Remember: in every company, there are procedures to be followed, rules to obey, and consequences to face if such things are violated.

In other words, these questions are there to test your integrity and loyalty.

Look up the Core Values/Mission/Vision of the company

Apart from testing your leadership skills, the leadership test also aims to determine how well you fit into the company culture.

Although the hiring manager or the classified ad won’t tell you what they are looking for in a leader, know full well that the result or leadership profile that they want is always tailored to follow their Core Values/Mission/Vision in some manner.

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So, if a company puts forth that they are customer-centric, then you must consider the choices where you must accommodate the satisfaction of the customer first over ones that will make you side with the employee.

In some companies, however, their values will be more focused on workplace harmony or siding with the employee.

If available, take full advantage of mock tests.

For those who want to be truly prepared on how to tackle the leadership test, looking up mock practice tests online should be considered.

This is because such tests contain questions that are near or similar to the ones that you can encounter in the actual leadership test. Some of these practice tests are curated as well for specific positions like managerial, supervisory, and administrative, to name a few.

With all of these in mind, we hope that we have helped you become more prepared, or at least know how to become prepared, in tackling the leadership test.

Good luck!