The Highlands Ability Battery
At The Concord Leadership Group, we value data and research. So we’ve partnered with the Highlands Company, the makers of The Highlands Ability Battery. The Highlands Ability Battery (THAB) is the most comprehensive, objective assessment of natural abilities available. Most assessments are “self reporting” – you are asked to subjectively answer questions about how you perceive yourself. These can be helpful, but THAB actually measures your performance on a series of more than a dozen exercises.
You’ll get an objective report pointing out what comes naturally to you. We call these your “hard-wiring” or your natural abilities. And, as a Concord Leadership Group executive coaching client, you’ll get the Highlands included with your coaching agreement. That’s how helpful we think this test is.
How Does the Highlands Help Leaders?
Why would you want that information? Too often, leaders force themselves into work styles they think they’re supposed to do because they’ve seen other successful leaders do them or they’ve read a book with a specific formula. This leads to tremendous stress that makes no sense. The leader is doing what should work but it isn’t. So they try harder and harder but seem to only succeed in creating strife or wearing themselves out.
With results from THAB, leaders are freed up to structure their work around their abilities. Abilities are the things they do with ease. The things they are hard-wired to do. When leaders work in conjunction with our abilities, work seems to flow, leaders lead with increased confidence, and their staff and board start can see the change. When leaders work against their abilities, they are unintentionally sabotaging themselves. Work takes incredible amounts of effort and is very stressful.
Knowing our natural abilities also helps us detect abilities in others. Leaders learn to communicate information to others and to understand how others may see the world differently. This knowledge is invaluable on teams. People report that this information helps their boss become much easier to work with.
You’re Not Alone
The Highlands Ability Battery can be a bit overwhelming on its own. But with CLG, you’re not on your own. We’ll walk you through the results, helping you capitalize on your strengths, and creating strategies for tasks that you have to do, even if they’re not in line with your hard-wiring.
We use the Ability Battery in all of our executive coaching – one-on-one and group. Teams can also request the Ability Battery to be included as a part of their team training.
