Research

The GELI (Global Executive Leadership Inventory, 2005) has been in use for a decade and is one of the most stable and highly used tools in leadership development and coaching (19,000 executives and 152,000 observers).

Given its age, we felt it was time to revisit and update it. Using the GELI as a starting point, the Global Executive Leadership Mirror (GELM™) retains what was great about the GELI and consists of a number of improvements: we opened it up to a broader audience, reorganised the structure across four main levels: Self, Teams, Organisation and Networks, and added new dimensions to reflect developments in leadership development studies in the last decade. It also includes other life and leadership indicators to add further insight into an executive’s behaviour: Task and Relationship Index, Life Stressors, Well-being Resources and Perceived Leadership Performance. The Global Executive Leadership Mirror was developed under the direction of Manfred Kets de Vries, in collaboration with the INSEAD Global Leadership Centre and KDVI.

To reveal and eliminate any differences in what executives do and what they think they do, the questionnaire was designed as a 360° feedback assessment, allowing leaders to compare their perceptions with those of others. Observers range from Supervisors, Co-Workers, Direct Reports and Others (such as clients, Board of Directors and other stakeholders).

Development

The questions were designed to be simple to understand and free from language bias, making the GELM ® appropriate for use in any culture.

Most importantly, the developers of the GELM ® have put real-life applications at the centre of the feedback process. The GELM ® is unique in drawing on the leadership development team’s experience working with tens of thousands of top executives in executive programmes and group coaching sessions.

The GELM ® has gone through several rounds of rigorous psychometric validation to ensure reliability and validity of its final version. The GELM ® incorporates observations of thousands of effective and ineffective leaders by experienced coaches, INSEAD professors and clients from all over the world.

Two rounds of face and content validity testing were conducted. Based on these analysis, the GELM ® has been confirmed to show sound psychometric properties.

Process

The process begins with the selection of the executive/clients who will take the questionnaire(s). In most instances, the programme coordinator provides access to the website where participants and their observers complete the questionnaire. When all the questionnaires have been completed, the coordinator prints out a feedback report for each of the participants. The executive/client then works with a facilitator, coach or counsellor to develop an action plan for change.

Online Administration

1. Approximately four weeks in advance, the programme administrator or coordinator sends participants a welcome letter that explains the purpose of the Global Executive Leadership Mirror. The letter, which should mention the survey deadline, informs them that they will receive an automatically generated email in the next day or two, with a link to the website on which they will find the questionnaire(s).
2. Each participant asks at least seven observers, and no more than 15— including a superior or boss, co-workers, direct reports, and others such as external stakeholders and clients—to provide feedback by completing an “Observer” questionnaire. The more the observers, the more comprehensive and precise the feedback.
3. On the survey website, participants register their observers and complete their “Self” questionnaire. Once they are registered, observers automatically receive an e-mail with a personal web-link. Participants are responsible for ensuring that their observers complete the questionnaires by the deadline.
4. After a participant’s self and observers’ questionnaires have all been completed, the system scores the responses. Ordinarily, the coordinator prints out two reports for each participant: one for the facilitator or executive coach, and another for the participant.