Thursday, February 23, 2012

Developmental Needs Inventory

The Development Needs InventoryTM is a 360-degree instrument that is administered over the internet and designed to allow managers, supervisors and others in leadership positions to better understand their strengths and development needs.  The information provided by the DNITM will help facilitate the individual(s) growth and progress and as a result increase their effectiveness in the organization.  Designed for customization to the client's needs, it consists of 10 Standard scales and up to 13 Optional scales.

The Standard scales are: The Optional scales are:
Communication
Delegation
Empowerment
Goal Directedness
Decision Making
Interpersonal Relations
Motivating Skills
Adaptability
Concern for Productivity
Leadership.

Team Building
Assertiveness
Disciplinary Action
Planning
Time Organization
Commitment to Growth
Innovation
Participative Leadership Style
Persuasiveness
Initiative
Control
Motivation Level
Development of
   Direct Reports

The results of the DNI, along with the Interpretation and Feedback Session, provide participants with a sound basis for setting development goals and tracking their development over a period of time.

The Development Needs Inventory (DNI) was designed with one primary objective in mind: To help leaders lead more effectively.  Other objectives which support this primary objective are:

  1. To help leaders identify their strengths and most pressing development needs.
  2. To guide leaders in planning for their own leadership development and in moving from understanding to action.
  3. To provide information that will allow leaders to make intelligent choices among alternative leadership practices.
  4. To call attention to critical relationship between a company's structure, culture, and typical leadership practices and the success and failure of a given leadership style.
  5. To provide a framework within which companies can (1) make orderly transitions from traditional bureaucracies to flexible, rapid response organizations with team leadership or (2) make an informed decision not to make that transition.
  6. To help leaders lead in ways that get results, that are personally satisfying and morally sound, and that empower rather than overpower subordinates.

The DNI serves three purposes:

  1. To help you better understand your own managerial practices.  This understanding will provide a basis for increasing your effectiveness as a leader and for planning your own career more realistically.
  2. To help you understand how other persons in the organization view your leadership practices - that is, to help you understand whether you see yourself as others see you.  Armed with these insights, you can test the validity of your own self-perceptions, improve your human relations, lead and manage more effectively, and plan your career more realistically.
  3. To serve as a basis for setting personal development goals and for tracking your development over a period of time.

It is improbable that all of the descriptions in the DNI are objectively correct.  The scores, are based on perceptions and perceptions differ.  The scores and verbal descriptions do not have to be correct in every way to be useful.  Keep in mind that the observable leadership practices - an individual's actions, rather than self-image - determine how one individual will see and react to another.  A person' may be a great leader but if the people around them think otherwise their ability to get results is impaired.

About the Creator Dr. J. Clifton Williams.


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