SALT leadership circle

Recruitment

SALT is used as an a-priori 360-tool to understand leadership needs for a given role from different perspectives. Any number of stakeholders can be asked to complete the questions in SALT via a web-based app. This takes just 10-15 minutes. Individual leadership preference results are available immediately in a graphic combined with detailed explanations. On request, a report with aggregated results will be generated that allows organizations to efficiently gauge the styles of leadership preferred for a role by a broad range of stakeholders. Moreover, different reports can be generated providing organizations with insight into similarities and differences in preferences across different groups of stakeholders.

SALT leadership circle

Strategic Leadership Planning

SALT is used to help an organization clarify and settle on future leadership needs. Key stakeholders complete SALT based on specific strategic challenges faced by their organization. Aggregated results are shared and discussed in a consultant-lead workshop and in a final report.

SALT leadership circle

Leadership Development

SALT is used as part of a leadership development training to help managers understand how to meet the needs of different stakeholders. The leadership styles at the heart of SALT are combined with scenarios describing different leadership challenges and evaluated by managers taking part in a training. Individual scores are available immediately for discussion.
The challenges presented to managers in the training can be tailored to those relevant to a specific organization. The result is a SALT-based training that meets the specific needs of the organization.

Science-based

SALT has been developed by experts in leadership at the Amsterdam Leadership Lab at the VU Amsterdam, one of the leading universities in the Netherlands.

SALT is rigorously science-based. At the heart of the tool are eight leadership styles, that are systematically varied according to a
validated model. A clever algorithm is used to calculate the style best suited to meet the needs of each stakeholder.

The research in which SALT was developed and validated, found that leadership styles were evaluated differently by different stakeholders. For example, evaluations differed across the hierarchy of organizations (e.g., across more and less senior managers), depending on perspective (e.g., between supervisors and direct reports), and depending on the evaluation criterion (e.g., effectiveness versus promotability).