Leadership Assessment Tools

Nathan Baxter is a former Executive Pastor that has a heart for mentoring. One tool that he uses as he helps pastors is the Birkman Leadership Assessment Tools. Here Nathan outlines some of the available assessments, either for evaluating your own performance or for the evaluation of your church team.

The Birkman Report ($$$)

This tool is for the leader that desires to become more effective by learning more about their unique wiring as a person and as a leader.
Includes: Assessment, 75-page report, two months coaching.
You will learn insights about your:
- Usual Behavior—A leader’s effective behavioral style of dealing with relationships and tasks.
- Underlying Needs—A leader’s expectations of how relationships and environments should be arranged to best meet their needs.
- Stress Behaviors—A leader’s ineffective style of dealing with relationships or tasks; behavior observed when underlying needs are not met.
- Interests—A leader’s expressed preference for job titles based on the assumption of equal economic rewards.
- Organizational Focus—The perspective in which a leader views problems and solutions relating to organizational goals.

The Birkman 360 ($$$)

This tool is for the leader who is ready for their leadership effectiveness to be honestly evaluated by those in their leadership orbit.

Includes: Assessment, 55-page report, anonymous evaluation by up to twenty participants of your choosing, 2-3 months coaching.
The tool receives its name (360) because it includes your supervisor(s) (Senior Pastor/Elders/etc.), ministry peers, direct reports, others, and yourself.
Your leadership is evaluated on nine leadership competencies that include:
- Ensuring Long Term Results—Your ability to bring a sound knowledge of the industry, the organization, and its customers to bear on the strategic thinking process.
- Leading Others—Your ability to define, communicate, and inspire others with your vision of the future.
- Building Strong Teams—Your ability to help the members of your work group translate strategic goals and initiatives into specific responsibilities and priorities.
- Managing Outcomes—Your ability to establish measurable outcomes and create systems for monitoring progress toward them.
- Delegating to Others—Your readiness to explain expectations, provide appropriate resources, and assist with regular and unscheduled coaching.
- Developing Others—Your ability to build the underlying strength and continuity of the organization by recognizing potential and developing it through attention to training, coaching and evaluation of performance.
- Making Decisions—Your ability to stay strategic, results-oriented, and productive and still do justice to the complexity of issues and the views of others.
- Dealing with Conflicting Ideas—Your ability to speak out in the face of opposition, acknowledge conflict and work openly toward strategically-aligned solutions.
- Personal and Professional Growth—Your ability to solicit and act on constructive feedback, challenge yourself with tough assignments and demonstrate resilience and courage in the face of setbacks and opposition.

The Birkman Team Building Workshop ($ based on size)

This workshop is designed to help ministry leaders learn how to be more effective as leaders, as well as increase their effectiveness as a team.
Includes: Birkman Assessments on each staff member, 1-2 day workshop with Dr. Baxter, and exercises the Executive Pastor can use for continuing application of the Birkman reports for staff development.
Each workshop is designed based on specific needs identified by the Executive Pastor.