Abstract

Currently, there is great interest in leadership at the top leadership of the board and of the company. This paper describes a new instrument to assess top leaders and the research findings that support it, including those relating to Emotional Intelligence. The author contends that the assessment of leadership should be context-specific. The Leadership Dimensions Questionnaire (LDQ) was designed to measure 15 leadership constructs and the organisational context in terms of the degree of change faced by the leader. Three new styles of Leadership, Engaging (Transformational), Goal Oriented (Transactional) and Involving (Participative) styles are proposed. LDQ has been widely used for identifying and developing top managers. Research findings will be presented from the Private Sector, a UK Retail Company (Managing Directors and Senior Managers) and from the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. The majority of leadership dimensions from the LDQ predicted actual performance of senior managers and officers.