Transforming leadership selection with assessments

An organization partnered with BTS to assess both its leaders’ leadership capabilities and business acumen.

June 1, 2023

min read

Background

A multinational, multibillion-dollar manufacturing company with 30+ subsidiaries was facing several imminent retirements at the C-level. Each case required a decision: promote, move, or hire. The organization had a strong “promote from within” culture and talent strategy and sought to accommodate the retirements by either elevating current employees to new roles or moving people laterally.

In some cases, the retirements and necessary placement decisions were several months out, while others required immediate decisions cases. This posed a problem for the organization. Although the executive leadership team (ELT) had ideas about which moves to make, they lacked sufficient data on the larger bench of senior leaders across the enterprise to make these decisions confidently. In addition to the lack of data, any decisions would also have ripple effects throughout the organization, creating new vacancies.

The ELT recognized that this lack of sufficient data on senior leaders was a significant issue that they urgently had to do something about. The organization engaged BTS to assess both its leaders’ leadership capabilities and business acumen, which they saw as vital to the organization’s future success. In short, the organization wanted to ensure that the leadership moves they made were supported by objective data.

What we did

BTS partnered with the client organization to create a series of assessment experiences for both executive and non-executive levels across the organization, leveraging a blend of psychometric tools, interviews, role plays, and business simulations.

Executive-level roles

Critical to gathering data on internal candidates’ suitability for executive-level roles was providing the opportunity for them to experience and practice the roles themselves—or at least simulated versions of the roles. To provide such an experience for candidates, BTS created a multi-day business leadership simulation, conducted entirely in a virtual environment, consisting of several elements:

Psychometric assessments to gain insight into candidates’ behavioral styles and default tendencies. A BTS leadership assessment expert trained in the use of such tools interpreted each candidate’s results and aligned them against a profile of a successful executive at the organization.
Career accomplishments and experiences survey for candidates to document their key accomplishments and experiences to date. By leveraging the data provided in survey format, each candidate was interviewed by a leadership assessment expert and a business acumen expert to dig in and learn more.
Multi-round simulation during which candidates worked in teams to run a fictitious business over the course of multiple “years.” To serve as the backdrop, the fictitious business was designed to resemble (but not mirror) the actual business, complete with financial statements, competitors, products and services, etc. Creating a fictitious business in this manner provided the fidelity needed to make the simulation feel “real” for candidates while affording the flexibility and space for creative freedom to make the business digestible for all to ensure a level playing field, regardless of background or current role.

In running the business, teams of candidates made decisions and investments across different areas of the business (e.g., product areas, distribution, operations, and investment management). They tackled real strategic trade-offs in the business, including unexpected challenges that mirrored the reality of executive-level roles at the organization. As candidates made decisions and tradeoffs, they could monitor a real-time dashboard displaying key metrics important to the business (e.g., revenue, operating profit, employee satisfaction, and customer satisfaction).

Throughout the simulation, leadership assessment experts used detailed behavioral checklists to observe each candidate individually—their interactions with the team, contributions to the discussion, rationale for decisions, etc. This information provided valuable insights into candidates’ behaviors under stress, decision-making styles, and other important capabilities.

Behavioral role plays with leadership assessment and business acumen experts provided additional insights on each candidate individually. Role plays were based on the same fictitious business described previously and coincided with the business simulation.

During the first role play, which took place before the team began working together to run the business, candidates developed and presented their own strategy—as President—for running the business over the next 3-5 years. In this scenario, leadership assessment and business acumen experts played the role of board members, asking specific questions about the candidate’s business strategy to gain insight into their thinking and priorities.

In the second role play, which took place after the second “year” of running the business as a team, candidates also played the role of President and conducted a town hall meeting with the entire company. Leadership assessment experts played the role of moderator, asking questions of candidates to dig into their description of the state of the business, their vision for the future, the implications of both to the broader team, etc. In both role plays, assessors followed detailed scripts and used behavioral checklists to ensure consistency across candidates.

Following the experience, BTS assessment experts looked across all sources of data on each candidate, triangulated patterns in results—patterns of behavior, decisions, etc.—and provided the following:

Detailed reporting and debriefs with the executive team. For each candidate, the leadership assessment experts prepared a report summarizing their strengths, development opportunities, and likely support needed if placed into roles of greater scale, scope, and complexity. These reports were shared and debriefed with the executive team, allowing them to ask the leadership assessment experts specific questions regarding each candidate.
Debrief discussion with each candidate, during which the leadership assessment experts walked through their findings and helped candidates make sense of the information considering their own career journey. Candidates were also able to access six-month 1:1 coaching journeys with a BTS coach.

Non-executive leadership roles

In the case of non-executive leadership roles where both internal and external candidates were being considered, the client organization did not have the luxury of utilizing a multi-day assessment experience akin to what was used for executive-level roles—such an experience would not have been practical, particularly for external candidates. Therefore, a modified approach was defined for each role, leveraging some or all of the following elements to ensure internal and external candidates could be evaluated consistently for a given role:

Psychometric assessments, including BTS’s Panorama (a measure of reasoning and critical thinking) and a personality assessment, to gain insight into candidates’ behavioral styles, default tendencies, and cognitive capabilities. Like their use in executive assessments, a BTS leadership assessment expert trained in the use of these tools interpreted each candidate’s results and aligned them against the success profile for the target role.
Career accomplishments and experiences interview with a BTS leadership assessment expert to gain insight into the candidate’s career, interests, accomplishments, etc.
Virtual assessment center consisting of the following:
1. Business case requiring candidates to learn about a fictitious business, their situation, challenges, etc., and to make decisions regarding the case.
2. Simulated in-box consisting of new information for the candidates, and, in some cases, decisions they need to make.
3. Role plays with simulated direct reports, peers, and leaders based on the case, challenges, and characters within.

This 3-hour experience, administered entirely virtually, was designed to give candidates, and hiring leaders the information they need to make great employment decisions. For candidates, the assessment allowed them to see what it feels like to perform the job, giving them insights into the alignment between the demands of the job and their own capabilities and interests. For hiring leaders, the assessment yielded deep insights into the candidates’ capabilities and demonstrated behaviors.Then, BTS leadership assessment experts looked across all sources of data on each candidate, triangulated patterns in results—patterns of behavior, of decisions, etc.—and provided the following:

Detailed reporting and debriefs with hiring leaders to discuss candidates’ strengths, development opportunities, and likely support needed if selected for target roles. This information was then leveraged by hiring leaders in final interviews with candidates to make hiring decisions.
Debrief discussions with internal candidates (and external candidates who were hired), during which leadership assessment experts walked through their findings and helped candidates make sense of the information considering their own career journey.

Outcomes

First and foremost, the insights generated by the assessments provided the information necessary for candidates, hiring leaders, and the ELT to make the best decisions possible. When making employment decisions, both candidates and hiring leaders alike must make these decisions with eyes wide open.

On multiple occasions, for example, the process prompted candidates to inquire about the realities of target roles, which led to deeper discussions between candidates and hiring leaders about expectations, requirements, etc. This information was crucial for candidates to self-evaluate the alignment between the role available and their own capabilities, interests, and needs.

For hiring leaders and the ELT, the assessments provided deep insights into candidates’ capabilities and capacity to take on new roles—sometimes of greater scale, scope, and complexity than current roles. Leaders then leveraged this information in subsequent conversations with candidates as well as internal talent and succession planning discussions to make the most informed decisions possible.

In the case of executives, for example, the assessment process provided deep readiness insights on the organization’s most senior leaders, which has already led to the selection and placement of multiple leaders into new executive-level roles. Furthermore, additional leaders were identified for succession into future vacancies at the highest levels of the organization. The executive assessment process and the insights it revealed led to two fundamental shifts in the ELT’s perception of and reliance on assessments and, ultimately, led to utilizing assessments for hiring non-executive leadership.

Context matters

One of the roles for which a new executive needed to be identified and placed was president for the company’s largest business unit, accountable for more than 20 percent of the company’s revenue across 30+ business units. Two frontrunners being considered, both of whom were strong contenders with track records of great success. However, the key difference between the candidates was that one sought independence from the ELT, seeing them as stakeholders who should be brought in only at critical milestones for input and oversight. The other candidate sought to partner very closely with the ELT, looking to them for detailed guidance on the future direction and strategy of the business unit.

Without knowing anything about the context of the situation, it may seem that the former candidate—the “independent” one—might have been better aligned with the role of president. The reality, however, was that the ELT expected to play an active role in the business unit—they wanted to be closely involved in major decisions impacting the business. Business analysts may debate whether this was the right approach for them, but it was the reality of the context in which the new president would operate.

BTS helped to paint two pictures for the ELT based on results from the assessment – what the future would look like if each of the two candidates were selected for the role. The decision for the ELT was easy. The phrase “must run all major decisions affecting the business past the ELT for approval” was nowhere in the role description, but in reality, this was critically important.

Assessments provide insights, not just confirmation

The most impactful outcome for the organization was the fundamental shift in the ELT’s collective mindset from “assess to confirm” to “assess for insights.” Prior to partnering with BTS, the ELT thought they knew the leadership moves they needed to make to accommodate the imminent C-level retirements. They sought objective assessment data to confirm these moves. After the executive leadership business simulation and the resulting insights, one member of the ELT noted, “If you can open our eyes by providing these kinds of insights on people we already know, imagine what kind of insights you can give us on people we do not already know.”

Ultimately, this collective shift in mindset has led to an ongoing partnership between BTS and the organization. In partnership with BTS, the organization continues to successfully evaluate and hire both internal and external candidates for executive-level and senior leadership roles across the enterprise.

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About the company

Client need

In the fast-paced world of oil and gas, robust executive bench strength is essential for sustained success. Anticipating a CEO transition within the next five to ten years, a leading industry player recognized an urgent need to diversify and enhance their leadership capabilities. To tackle this, they enlisted BTS to assess their executives for future key roles and equip them with the skills and insights needed to thrive in a complex market environment.

Solution

BTS designed custom, forward-looking CEO and senior leader profiles that reflected turbulent market conditions and energy transition challenges within the oil and gas industry. These profiles were deeply rooted in the client’s values to ensure the assessments were grounded in the company’s culture. The BTS team then developed a customized business and strategy simulation that was used in a "Leader Lab” to translate these profiles into an engaging learning and development experience and observable behaviors. The Leader Lab was delivered for 25 executives divided into teams of five, each with an embedded assessor. This structure allowed for a comprehensive evaluation of participants as individual leaders, team members, and strategic executives leading the enterprise.

Results

To date, BTS has assessed the top 100 executives and provided the client with a detailed heat map that highlights strengths and development areas to strengthen their succession planning. This data has also been instrumental in shaping development plans and retention strategies. Key outcomes include:

Identification of high-potential leaders: One standout participant from the supply chain function demonstrated exceptional capabilities, leading them to step into a new global role to leverage their leadership potential.

Targeted development for future CEOs: After the assessments, the client’s anticipated successor for the CEO role did not initially rank in the top five executives. With the help of an executive coach, this individual showed significant improvement evidenced by positive feedback from direct reports.

Addressing leadership gaps: The assessments revealed a lack of a shared leadership language and foundational business acumen beyond functional expertise. BTS now partners with the client to address these gaps through ongoing Leader Labs, aimed at enhancing the depth and breadth of organizational leadership.

By uncovering hidden leadership potential and addressing critical gaps, the company identified high-potential leaders ready to step into key roles. As a result, the company now boasts a robust and cohesive leadership team, well-prepared for the CEO transition and future industry challenges. This investment in leadership development has poised the company for sustained success and innovation in a turbulent market.

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May 14, 2026

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Building enterprise leadership in medical affairs

Learn how BTS helped a global life sciences company strengthen enterprise leadership in critical medical affairs roles through simulations, leadership assessment, coaching, and cross-functional leader development.

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Client need

A leading global life sciences company was operating at the forefront of scientific innovation, delivering therapies to millions of patients around the world.

The organization's strategy called for Medical to play an increasingly visible and influential role across the enterprise, not as a scientific function operating in parallel with the business, but as a core contributor to strategic decisions spanning pipeline priorities, governance forums, and commercial direction. The ability of medical leaders to operate at that level had become a strategic imperative.

These leaders were not generalists. Many had built careers in academic and research settings, developing deep expertise in science and medicine. In their roles, they operated at the intersection of R&D and commercial, translating scientific insights into strategy, influencing governance forums, and shaping both pipeline and brand decisions. These were among the most complex and high-stakes leadership roles in the organization.

As these leaders took on broader, enterprise-facing responsibilities, the nature of their work shifted. They were expected to work across functions, influence diverse stakeholders, and contribute to decisions that balanced patient, scientific, and commercial priorities in increasingly complex, cross-functional environments.

While highly capable, many had not yet had the opportunity to develop these enterprise leadership skills. With strong competition for talent, the organization recognized the need to accelerate development from within and ensure its leaders could operate as true enterprise contributors.

Solution

BTS partnered with the organization to design and deliver a four-month immersive leadership journey focused on building enterprise leadership capability in some of its most critical roles.

The program engaged 165 leaders across six cohorts, primarily senior leaders in medical affairs, market access, and health economics. Designing an experience that would genuinely resonate with this audience required more than adapting a traditional leadership curriculum. These leaders operated in highly specialized roles, navigating governance forums, balancing scientific and commercial trade-offs, and influencing cross-functional stakeholders without formal authority.

To reflect that complexity, BTS co-created the experience with senior stakeholders across the business, grounding the journey in the actual decisions, stakeholder dynamics, and enterprise challenges participants faced in their day-to-day work. That specificity was essential to making the experience credible, relevant, and immediately applicable.

The program focused on strengthening three capabilities critical to enterprise leadership:

Enterprise mindset
Influencing across the organization
Communication and storytelling

To build these capabilities, the journey combined assessment, practice, and application through a set of integrated experiences:

Enterprise simulation and assessment (in-person)

The journey began with a simulation based on real governance forums and asset-level decisions. Leaders worked through role-based scenarios with assessor-coaches, navigating trade-offs and stakeholder dynamics in a realistic enterprise setting.

Each session included immediate feedback supported by:

Simulation observations
360 executive presence assessment
Personality insights assessment

This established clear, evidence-based development priorities tied directly to each leader's role and business context.

Experiential workshops (2 x 1.5 days)

Leaders then participated in two immersive workshops focused on decision-making and influence in cross-functional environments.

Using real business scenarios, participants practiced aligning stakeholders, navigating ambiguity, and communicating complex scientific insights with clarity and impact. The workshops emphasized active practice and real-time feedback.

Individual coaching (throughout the journey)

Each participant worked with a dedicated assessor-coach to translate insight into action.

Coaching centered on upcoming business decisions and stakeholder interactions, with manager involvement helping reinforce alignment with enterprise priorities and day-to-day application.

Peer learning and application (ongoing)

Leaders participated in small peer groups that met throughout the journey to reinforce learning and accountability.

These sessions created space to reflect, share experiences, and apply new approaches in real time, helping build consistency across the organization.

Across every element of the journey, the work remained grounded in real business challenges. Leaders built capability by practicing the same decisions, conversations, and trade-offs they faced every day.

Results

The program's success led to continued investment, with new cohorts of more than 200 critical role leaders now underway. Overall, the program strengthened how leaders think, decide, and influence, improving both decision quality and cross-functional execution.

Impact was assessed through:

Post-program surveys
End-of-journey evaluations
49 structured interviews with participants and their managers

Every manager interviewed reported sustained positive behavior change. The most significant shift was in how leaders approached decision-making. Participants engaged stakeholders earlier, clarified trade-offs more effectively, and showed up with greater confidence in governance discussions. As a result, decisions moved faster and with less friction.

The impact extended beyond the Medical function itself. Colleagues across commercial, R&D, and other functions began noticing a tangible difference. Medical leaders showed up differently in joint forums, communicating complex scientific trade-offs more clearly and building alignment more effectively across competing priorities. Conversations that once required multiple rounds of clarification increasingly moved to alignment more quickly.

Leaders consistently improved in several key areas:

Earlier alignment before formal decision forums
Greater confidence navigating ambiguity and enterprise trade-offs
Stronger influence across cross-functional groups
Clearer, more concise communication of complex scientific insights

Collectively, these shifts improved cross-functional decision-making and execution across the organization. Leaders were better able to prioritize enterprise value, align diverse perspectives, and ensure medical insights were clearly understood and acted upon.

The impact extended beyond individual participants. Leaders applied these approaches within their own teams, reinforcing more consistent ways of working across the organization and helping position Medical as a strategic enterprise partner rather than solely a scientific function.

Client Stories

May 13, 2026

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Driving engagement and retention with scaled coaching

Discover how Wellstar Health System scaled leadership coaching to boost engagement, retention, and measurable business impact with Sounding Board, BTS’ scaled coaching solution.

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Client challenge

Wellstar Health System, one of Georgia’s largest healthcare systems, had already invested heavily in leadership development for senior leaders. But as the organization navigated rapid growth, a major acquisition, and the demands of a shifting healthcare landscape, it became clear that the greatest leadership challenges were happening at the front and midline.

“Some of the greatest leader challenges are really at the front and midline levels… we’ve invested heavily in leadership development, putting more emphasis on our front line and mid-level leadership in terms of outcomes, said Laura Dannels, Chief Talent Officer at the time.

We’re not an organization who believes in just investing in high performers… you’ve got to invest in your entire workforce.”

Wellstar partnered with Sounding Board to bring a more scalable, flexible coaching solution to leaders across the organization.

The solution

Partnering with Sounding Board, Wellstar designed a scalable, personalized coaching program to extend leadership development across the organization while maintaining the quality of one-on-one coaching.

A proprietary 360 assessment, aligned to Wellstar’s leadership behaviors, served as the foundation for each coaching engagement. This ensured development was directly tied to how leaders show up and lead in practice.

“We really wanted to ground the coaching to a framework that matters to our organization,” said Garry Gross, Executive Director of Leadership Development. ‍

“Helping our leaders create an environment where our mission, vision, and values come to life was paramount.”

Program goals:

Develop leadership capabilities aligned to Wellstar’s mission, vision, and values
Deliver personalized, relevant development for leaders at all levels
Strengthen the leadership bench and support succession planning
Foster a culture of innovation, learning, and engagement

Program overview:

Personalized, one-on-one coaching for leaders at all levels
Capability development aligned to Wellstar’s values
- Serve with Compassion → Builds relationships
- Pursue Excellence → Drives results, leads teams, and plans strategically
- Honor Every Voice → Fosters inclusion and respect for differences
Scalable delivery across frontline, mid-level, and clinical leaders
Digital tools to track goals, capture insights, and measure progress

This approach made it possible to deliver consistent, high-quality coaching across roles and locations while keeping development relevant to each leader’s day-to-day work.

Results

As the program unfolded, Wellstar began to see a shift in how frontline and mid-level leaders showed up across the organization. Leaders in these critical roles had more consistent support navigating day-to-day challenges, and managers gained better visibility into how their teams were developing. Coaching became a more practical, embedded part of how Wellstar supports leaders in a complex healthcare environment.

Higher engagement and satisfaction

96% of participants said the coaching experience was worth the investment
99% said they could immediately apply what they learned to their day-to-day work

Measurable leadership growth

Participants reported double-digit growth across leadership capabilities including:

Executive presence (+16%)
Organizational collaboration (+14%)
Strategic thinking (+13%)
Time management and prioritization (+13%)
Communication (+11%)

Stronger retention and mobility

Coached leaders achieved a 90% one-year retention rate
Retention for coached leaders was 31% higher than non-coached peers
3% of participants were promoted into new roles, exceeding organizational goals and industry benchmarks

Learn more about Wellstar’s leadership coaching journey with Sounding Board in this feature in Becker’s Hospital Review.

Client Stories

May 1, 2026

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Reimagining frontline leadership at scale in global manufacturing

How a manufacturing leader scaled frontline leadership development to 1,600+ leaders, driving measurable quality improvements and business impact through behavior-based coaching programs.

Learn more

Client need

For a 175-year-old technology company, competitive advantage isn’t just built on technical innovation: it’s built on leaders who know how to get the best thinking from every person around them. That culture of drawing out ideas, developing people, and driving innovation through engaged teams had been a defining feature of the organization for generations. And it depended on having the right infrastructure to keep developing frontline leaders at scale.

In 2020, that infrastructure was disrupted. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the organization to pivot its in-person development to virtual almost overnight, risking the erosion of frontline leadership capability while simultaneously needing to navigate the broader shocks of the pandemic: supply chain volatility, shifting materials costs, and a workforce managing profound uncertainty.

Stalling frontline leadership development meant risking productivity, employee engagement, talent retention, job performance, and downstream impacts on quality and operating margin, at a moment when the organization could least afford it.

The question now was how to reimagine frontline leader development to equip thousands of global leaders to continue supporting their teams through disruption, and to ensure the next generation of managers could help their people do their best work under any conditions.

Solution

The client partnered with BTS to reimagine frontline leader development from the ground up, equipping leaders globally with the practical skills, tools, and mindset shifts needed to support their teams in doing great, innovative work.

The partnership began in 2019, and over five years has reached over 1,600 frontline leaders capturing 700+ documented behavior change actions. In 2022, BTS collaborated with the organization to refresh the program to reflect their evolving strategy and develop a sharper focus on supporting a culture of continuous improvement and innovation with coaching and feedback.

The blended program experience combined the following elements:

Immersive leadership simulations: Scenario-based experiences placing leaders in realistic situations, surfacing Multiplier and Diminisher tendencies in real time and making the learning immediately personal and actionable

Multipliers and Diminishers framework: A structured exploration of how leaders either amplify or diminish the intelligence of those around them, including specific “experiments” leaders could use to better understand their own leadership approaches

Custom leadership frameworks: Including a structured, step-by-step process for having significant feedback conversations, a tool to understand and flex to communication preferences, and a coaching approach designed to help leaders guide team members toward their own solutions, building capability and long-term ownership.

Structured application sessions — on-the-job practice components designed to bridge the gap between the program experience and day-to-day behavior, giving participants specific frameworks to apply immediately with their teams

Peer networking and breakout groups — cohort-based learning that participants identified as a standout feature, both for deepening the learning and for building cross-functional relationships that extended beyond the program

A commitment-capture platform integrated into the program to log participant actions and reinforce behavior change after the program ended; over 670 participant actions were captured across the program’s delivery

Throughout the program, leaders examined the impact of their own behaviors, recognizing where they were unintentionally diminishing their teams, and built new habits around challenging, creating space for mistakes and learning, listening, questioning, giving developmental feedback, and creating ownership. The feedback model gave participants a practical process for the positive and constructive conversations that actually change performance.

Results

More than 1,600 frontline leaders and individual contributors have participated in the program—the population closest to daily execution, quality, and operations. A recent impact study told a clear story about the effects of the program across participants:

100% of participants reported actively applying what they learned. 59% reported producing significant, measurable business impact, with concrete evidence to describe it.

The results weren’t theoretical. One engineering leader restructured how his team developed project plans, creating space for debate and ownership instead of coming in with the answer. His team exceeded their quality target by 10 percentage points and accelerated the project timeline by +4 months.

One production leader used the feedback model to coach a struggling supervisor and cascade the process across his entire leadership layer. His unit reached #1 performance in its division, improving a key quality KPI by more than 18% year-over-year. A department head with over a decade in leadership set new production records after learning to flex his communication style and draw out quieter team members. And a development lab supervisor used the program to clarify her leadership identity, earn a promotion, and coach her direct report to one as well.

The study also confirmed that when managers actively supported participants post-program, the likelihood of significant business impact increased substantially, shaping the organization’s next phase of reinforcement and cohort follow-up.

For an organization whose competitive advantage rests on the innovation and intelligence of its people, the program gave its leaders something technical training rarely delivers: the confidence, the tools, and the self-awareness to make everyone around them better.

Testimonials

“The program gave me greater confidence to try new things as a leader. It helped me realize what I do and what I don’t do.” - HR Leader

“The skills I learned in the training helped me be more efficient. It helped me do the right thing, right away.” - Production Manager

“Feedback is very important to create a positive environment; and how to [give] feedback is a specific skill I learned from this training and how to share constructive feedback.” - Production Leader

executive assessment, leadership simulations, succession planning, talent evaluation, senior leader readiness, psychometric assessment, virtual assessment center, leadership capability insights, objective talent data, case study