What is the best leadership assessment for executive teams?

For reading an executive team against a plan and keeping the read current, Atlas. For a standalone personality profile of one executive, Hogan, SHL or Saville are long-established choices.

What should I look for in an executive team assessment?

What it measures, what it measures people against, whether it covers the team as well as individuals, and what happens after the first report.

Do leadership assessments need certified practitioners?

Some do: Hogan requires certification to administer and interpret its assessments. With Atlas, leaders read results in the portal themselves, with expert support.

Can Atlas look at the whole organisation, not only the top team?

Yes. Atlas can bring every assessment, survey answer, role and the plan together for one team or for every team in the organisation, on the same model and at the same depth, with experts reviewing the read. You can start with the leadership team and widen from there.

Can't we just ask ChatGPT?

A general AI model has no measured data on your people or your plan. Atlas works from your own assessed data and the plan you upload, and a person makes every decision. You can still connect Atlas to the AI tools you already use.

What does an Execution Forecast tell you?

It is an evidence-based assessment of execution risk: which parts of the plan the current team is best and least placed to deliver, based on the assessment, the Clarity Survey, roles and the plan itself. It shows where risk is highest and what to address first. It is not a prediction of results, and it is updated when the plan, the team or the evidence changes.

What is execution intelligence?

Working out whether a company can do what its plan says, finding where it is most likely to get stuck, and testing what to change, with the evidence behind every conclusion. Atlas People is the execution intelligence company. The full definition is in the Atlas glossary.

How long does Atlas take?

It depends on scope: how many people take part and how much of the plan is shared. Each person spends about 20 to 25 minutes on the assessment and has a one-to-one feedback session, then the team read follows. After that, Atlas updates the read when the plan, the team or the evidence changes.

Can Atlas be used for hiring?

Yes. A Match Report reads a candidate against the role and the team they would join, and Atlas supports high-volume hiring too, with a person making every decision. Atlas is not involved in finding or placing candidates, so its read stays separate from the search.

Atlas is bought through one annual agreement, scoped to the people covered, the leaders using it and the organisational work you need. Pricing is scoped to your organisation; see how Atlas is bought.

Is Atlas designed to align with the EU AI Act?

Atlas is designed to align with the EU AI Act: the human makes the decision, the evidence behind every conclusion is traceable, and people are never ranked.

Where is my data stored?

Customer data is hosted and processed in the EU, and enterprise teams can sign in with SSO / SAML.

Compare · Best-of guide

The best leadership assessment tools for executive teams

Kevin Bjerring · Philip Myrup · Published 30 October 2026 · Checked 30 October 2026

In short

If you are selecting or developing one leader, any established instrument in this list will give you a solid profile. If you need to know whether the executive team can deliver a specific plan, choose a tool that reads the team against the plan and keeps that read current.

Executive teams are assessed for two reasons: to choose or develop individual leaders, and to know whether the team can deliver what the board has approved. Most tools are built for the first. This guide covers both.

We compared the best-known assessment providers on what they measure, what they measure people against, and what happens after the first report.

Quick comparison

The best leadership assessment tools for executive teams: quick comparison
Provider	Team analysis	Collaboration Playbooks	Read against the plan	Context beyond the assessment	AI assistant for leaders	EU data hosting
Atlas People	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
DDI	Yes	No public information	No public information	No public information	No public information	No public information
Gallup CliftonStrengths	Yes	Yes	No public information	No public information	Yes	No public information
Hogan	Yes	No public information	No public information	No public information	No public information	No public information
Korn Ferry	No public information	No public information	No public information	Yes	Yes	No public information
Saville Assessment	Yes	Yes	Yes	No public information	Yes	Yes
SHL	Yes	No public information	No public information	Yes	Yes	Yes
Talogy	Yes	No public information	No public information	No public information	No public information	Yes
The Predictive Index	Yes	Yes	No public information	Yes	Yes	No public information

Competitor details from each provider's own site and public pages, checked 30 October 2026.

1. Atlas People

Atlas is an execution intelligence platform for leadership teams. It runs its own 34-construct assessment of behaviour under pressure, puts the results in context with your plan, roles and teams, and can cover one team or every team in the organisation on the same model. It shows whether your organisation can deliver the plan, what could get in the way and what to address first. The read stays current: Atlas reforecasts when the plan, the team or the evidence changes.

Its own forced-choice assessment, with faking detection built in
Team Reports, Collaboration Playbooks and an Execution Forecast against your plan
Match Reports for hiring, including high-volume hiring
One method from a single team to the whole organisation, at the same depth
An AI assistant in the portal, with expert support
EU data hosting, SSO, Danish and English, designed to align with the EU AI Act

Best for: CEOs, boards, investors and HR leaders who need to know whether a team can deliver a plan, and want that read kept current.

See what Atlas says about your execution risk

Talk to us

2. DDI

DDI is a global leadership consulting firm with more than 50 years of experience, helping organisations hire, promote and develop leaders through assessment, simulation and development programmes. It is built for enterprises building leadership pipelines.

DDI's simulations and development programmes are built for growing leaders over time. Read Atlas vs DDI.

Best for: Simulation-based assessment centres and large leadership development programmes run by a long-established firm.

3. Gallup CliftonStrengths

Gallup CliftonStrengths is Gallup's strengths assessment, formerly StrengthsFinder, which helps individuals and managers name and develop their talents. Gallup Access adds software for leaders and HR to see where performance breaks down. It is built for development across a whole workforce.

CliftonStrengths is widely recognised and easy to roll out for development across a large workforce. Read Atlas vs Gallup CliftonStrengths.

Best for: A widely known strengths language for development across a large workforce, with self-serve access.

4. Hogan

Hogan is a personality assessment company whose assessments cover the bright side of personality, the dark side that emerges under strain, and the values and drivers behind behaviour. Results are interpreted by certified practitioners, and Hogan works in about 50 languages through more than 200 partners.

Hogan's research archive and language coverage are among the broadest in the field. Read Atlas vs Hogan.

Best for: A standalone personality report on one person, read by a certified practitioner, in one of about 50 languages.

5. Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry is a global organisational consulting firm. Korn Ferry Assess evaluates candidates and employees against thousands of success profiles, drawing on what Korn Ferry describes as the world's largest talent dataset. It is built for large enterprises running selection, succession and development at scale, often alongside Korn Ferry's search and consulting work.

Korn Ferry's benchmark data is larger: it compares people against thousands of success profiles across industries. Read Atlas vs Korn Ferry.

Best for: Succession planning against thousands of predefined success profiles, bundled with global search and consulting.

6. Saville Assessment

Saville Assessment builds behavioural and cognitive assessments, including its Wave questionnaires, to help organisations know who will perform before they hire, promote or move people. It is built for talent and HR teams that want predictive assessment science.

Saville's questionnaires and aptitude tests are focused on predicting individual performance, with published security and trust materials for procurement. Read Atlas vs Saville Assessment.

Best for: A well-established behavioural and aptitude questionnaire to predict individual performance in a role, in many languages.

7. SHL

SHL is a large talent assessment company. Its platform covers personality, cognitive, skills and job-simulation assessments, from self-service tests bought online to enterprise programmes. It is built for talent acquisition and HR teams assessing people at scale.

SHL's test catalogue is broader: it covers cognitive ability, skills and job simulations across many roles, not only leadership. Read Atlas vs SHL.

Best for: A broad catalogue of cognitive, skills and personality tests for many job families, at enterprise volume.

8. Talogy

Talogy combines online assessments with in-person services to help organisations build complete hiring and development processes, including leadership solutions such as Talogy InView Leadership and Talogy Spotlight. It is built for enterprise HR and talent teams.

Talogy offers custom assessment design and in-person programmes across the whole talent process. Read Atlas vs Talogy.

Best for: A partner to design a bespoke enterprise assessment and development programme across your talent process.

9. The Predictive Index

The Predictive Index (PI) offers behavioural and cognitive assessments, insights and AI to help managers hire and lead well. Its platform covers hiring, manager development and team performance, with its AI, Obi, built in, sold as one annual subscription priced by headcount. It is built for managers and HR teams in growing companies.

PI is designed for breadth: it puts a behavioural tool in the hands of every manager, which suits companies that want one shared language across all levels. Read Atlas vs The Predictive Index.

Best for: A simple behavioural assessment that every manager in the company can use day to day, with published subscription pricing by headcount.

How Atlas works in practice

What you provide

The plan you want to test: strategy, goals or OKRs
Roles and team structure for the people involved
Who takes part, and when

What participants do

Each person takes the Atlas assessment, about 20 to 25 minutes
A one-to-one feedback session on their own results
A short Clarity Survey, about 10 to 15 minutes, on how well the plan is understood

What you receive

Personal Collaboration Playbook (In the platform)
AI assistant answering questions from your own data (In the platform)
Team Report and Execution Forecast (Reviewed by Atlas experts)
Match Report for a hiring decision (Reviewed by Atlas experts)
Recommendations and follow-up (With Atlas expert support)

The Clarity Survey repeats on an agreed cadence, typically quarterly, and Atlas updates the read when the plan, the team or the evidence changes. A person makes every decision.

Scenario simulation and organisation-wide forecasting are in development and are not part of Atlas today.

See an illustrative sample forecast, how the assessment method works, how data is handled and how Atlas is bought.

How to choose

Want to know whether your leadership team can deliver the plan, where execution risk is highest and what to change, with a platform that keeps the read current, EU-hosted and designed to align with the EU AI Act? Go with Atlas.

Put your plan to the test