15Five's Private Manager Assessment and Manager Effectiveness Assessment

15Five offers both a default Private Manager Assessment and Manager Effectiveness Assessment that can be used in Best-Self Review® cycles. The questions included in these sections are rooted in science and allow review writers to reflect on the performance and impact of their direct reports or managers, respectively. This article walks through which questions are included in these assessments by default.

In this article, you will learn...

• What is the Private Manager Assessment, and what questions are included?
• What is the Manager Effectiveness Assessment, and what questions are included?

What is the Private Manager Assessment?

The Private Manager Assessment is a set of questions that appears in the manager reviews of Best-Self Review® cycles. In this section of the manager review, managers answer future-focused questions to help make career decisions about a direct report.

By default, the Private Manager Assessment contains 5 future-focused questions inspired by research from Deloitte and highlighted in the Harvard Business Review article, Reinventing Performance Management. These questions help reduce bias and can help managers more objectively assess performance and promotion readiness over time.

You can choose to use 15Five's default Private Manager Assessment questions, or create your own.

The questions included in 15Five's default Private Manager Assessment are:

• [Name] is ready for a promotion today. [Strongly disagree - Strongly agree]
• [Name] is at risk for low performance. [Strongly disagree - Strongly agree]
• Given what I know of [Name]’s current performance, and if it were my money, I would award them the highest possible increase and bonus. [Strongly disagree - Strongly agree]
• Given how well I know [Name] works with others, I would always want them on my team. [Strongly disagree - Strongly agree]
• Given what I know of [Name]’s performance, if [Name] got a job offer somewhere else, I would feel [Relieved > Accepting > Neutral > Anxious > Distressed]

Humans are naturally biased and poor at developing accurate and objective assessments of performance. Most assessments of performance, especially in the form of ratings, reveal more about the rater than the actual performance of the person being rated – this is known as idiosyncratic rater bias. Although managers rate other people’s skills inconsistently, they’re highly consistent when rating their own feelings and intentions. To reduce the idiosyncratic rater bias, the Deloitte-inspired questions ask managers what they would do with each team member rather than what they think of that individual. 

With The Private Manager Assessment, managers are able to ground their answers in as many objective measures of behaviors and results as possible to ensure a more objective and fair assessment of performance over time.

What is the Manager Effectiveness Assessment

The Manager Effectiveness Assessment is an assessment in which managers are reviewed by either their direct reports, themselves, and/or their managers on how they live out 15Five's Manager Effectiveness competencies. This assessment can be pulled into Manager Effectiveness Indicator configuration to measure manager effectiveness in your organization. Data can be collected through a stand-alone manager effectiveness review cycle, or added to a larger review cycle. The Manager Effectiveness Assessment is included in 15Five's default Self & manager, Upward questions, and Manager Effectiveness question templates.

Manager Effectiveness competencies

There are eight competency questions that can be included in a self, manager, or upward review. These questions cannot be altered, as they're used for benchmarking. Each manager effectiveness question asks participants to reflect on how often a manager demonstrates the following competencies on a five-point Likert scale from never demonstrates to always demonstrates:

1. Demonstrating Business Acumen: Analyze complex situations, anticipate future trends and possibilities, and develop plans that take into account various factors and contingencies across a business environment.
2. Setting Goals: Prioritize work and define measurable objectives that an individual or organization wants to achieve. Identify the desired outcome or results and develop a plan to reach that goal.
3. Enabling Productivity: Create an environment or provide resources and tools that allow individuals to work efficiently and effectively toward achieving their goals. Identify the factors that may hinder productivity and find ways to eliminate or mitigate them.
4. Giving and Receiving Feedback: Provide or get information about performance, behavior, or actions with the intention of improvement or the continuation of doing something well.
5. Influencing Others: Affects people's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Have an awareness of people, their values, and needs, and use this knowledge as a means to drive organizational impact.
6. Supporting Career Growth: Help individuals to develop the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to achieve their career goals. Mentor, train, coach, and provide opportunities for learning and growth.
7. Building Strong Teams: Foster their team to work well together, be committed to a common purpose, and achieve their goals efficiently and effectively together.
8. Developing Yourself: Stay organized, focused, and productive while also managing their teams effectively.