How Leadership Assessment Transforms Good Managers into Multipliers
He hit every target.
He doubled revenue in two quarters.
He was the golden boy…
Until half the team resigned.
It was one of Nigeria’s most respected financial institutions, a Tier 1 bank aggressively chasing growth and shareholder returns. In its high-stakes Commercial Banking division, one name kept dominating the dashboards. The Regional Business Manager for the South-Central Axis had not only smashed his sales goals — he had obliterated them. Twice. In a single year.
He was the performer every executive craved. Tireless. Precise. Brilliant. His deals were clean. His recoveries, surgical. His client base, sticky. Within the bank, there was little debate: he was destined for bigger things.
So, when the Divisional Head role became vacant, he was promoted almost immediately.
No leadership assessment.
No behavioural profiling.
No feedback.
Just a unanimous decision driven by numbers.
But numbers don’t lead people.
Three months into his promotion, the shine began to fade. The team culture soured. Senior relationship managers (once proud of their tenure) began resigning. Performance stagnated. Innovation stalled. Internal collaboration fell apart.
The golden boy had become the storm no one saw coming.
When Performance Isn’t Enough
What happened?
The same thing that happens far too often in corporate Africa: we confuse high performance with leadership readiness. We elevate doers into people leadership roles, assuming they’ll figure it out as they go. We reward personal brilliance without checking if it can be replicated in others.
But leadership is not about doing more. It’s about multiplying others.
And when we fail to apply a robust leadership assessment as part of succession planning in African businesses, the results can be devastating.
We were eventually brought in to conduct a leadership assessment audit. Through 360-degree evaluations, structured interviews, and cultural pulse checks, the story became clear. He wasn’t a bad person. But he was the wrong kind of leader for the role. He lacked empathy. He managed through fear. He hadn’t developed a single successor in his previous position. His belief? “If you want it done well, do it yourself.”
The bank had promoted output. But they didn’t promote impact.
And they paid the price.
The Leaders Who Last Are the Ones Who Lift Others
Now contrast that with another story from the same industry, one that rarely makes headlines.
He never sought attention.
He didn’t have the loudest voice in the room.
But his division consistently outperformed, not because of him, but because of his people.
When he stepped down after 15 years of service, half of the bank’s current executive committee could trace their development back to him. He was a builder. A coach. A multiplier. He believed that leadership wasn’t what you did but what others could do because of you.
His philosophy was simple: “If you’re not building leaders, you’re not leading.”
He held monthly coaching check-ins with his direct reports, not to analyse numbers, but to discuss talent development. He ran leadership shadowing initiatives, gave mid-level managers stretch roles, and insisted that every senior team member take on a mentee.
The result?
His division became the single most successful leadership pipeline in the organisation. Promotions were filled internally. Retention soared. The culture deepened. When disruption came, his leaders adapted. When change hit, they responded — not with panic, but with confidence.
High-Performing Organisations Bet on Leadership
In over 30 years of working with financial institutions and corporates across Africa, a consistent truth has emerged:
High-performing organisations have one thing in common they bet on leadership.
They don’t just look at results. They look at replication.
They don’t celebrate only star performers. They reward those who raise others.
They don’t view leadership as positional. They see it as generational.
Why? Because they understand a simple truth:
Leadership assessment is the most sustainable source of competitive advantage.
Technology can be acquired.
Processes can be replicated.
Capital can be raised.
But people who build other people? That’s rare. That’s culture. That’s legacy.
In Africa’s dynamic business landscape, where industries are evolving faster than ever, succession planning in African businesses is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s a survival strategy. Companies that fail to plan for leadership transitions often lose momentum, while those that invest in structured talent development pipelines keep thriving even in volatile markets.
The Real KPI: Who Are You Raising?
If you are a senior leader reading this, pause for a moment and ask yourself:
- Who have I developed in the past 12 months?
- How many of my direct reports are ready to take on my role — or a bigger one?
- Do I delegate only for efficiency, or also for exposure?
- Am I growing successors, or hoarding competence?
- What will my leadership legacy be when I leave this chair?
If the answers are uncomfortable, you’re not alone. Many leaders, especially in high-pressure environments like financial services are trapped in the now. Quarterly targets. Board reviews. Regulatory audits.
But what separates great leaders from good ones is perspective.
Good leaders deliver results.
Great leaders develop people who deliver results again and again.
Multipliers Win in the Long Game
We now work with organisations that are building cultures of multiplication. They’re shifting away from rewarding only performance, to recognising leadership legacy. They ask:
- Who raised the next generation of leaders?
- Who sponsors others in rooms where decisions are made?
- Who’s building talent development capacity as deliberately as business strategy?
Some of our clients have gone as far as embedding “Leader Development KPIs” into their performance scorecards, and it’s working. Engagement is up. Career mobility is fluid. Leadership bench strength is deeper. And most importantly, their culture has shifted from performance by pressure to performance by empowerment.
This is where leadership assessment becomes the cornerstone — giving clarity on strengths, revealing blind spots, and guiding succession planning in African businesses so that leadership capacity is not left to chance.
A Final Word to Every Leader
If you’ve read this far, remember this:
Your job is not just to lead.
Your job is to make others capable of leading without you.
That’s your legacy.
Not your numbers.
Not your projects.
Not your title.
Your legacy is the leaders you leave behind.
And in a world of constant disruption, that’s what your organisation will rely on; not the brilliance of one person, but the compounded capability of many.
So ask yourself:
Are you a star, or are you building a constellation?
