Korn Ferry Leadership Assessment Guide & Practice [KFALP, KF4D, viaEDGE]

Eldar,  Korn Ferry Tests Expert at JobTestPrep.

Have a question? Contact me at: ask_the_team@jobtestprep.co.uk

 

Korn Ferry Assessment of Leadership Potential - KFALP 

The Korn Ferry Assessment of Leadership Potential (KFALP) is the most famous Korn Ferry assessment. KFALP is an unsupervised internet test you can take from any place you like. The test is not time-limited, although according to official information, it takes around 45 minutes for most of the candidates. 

The Korn Ferry Leadership Assessment aims to assess whether you've got the personality traits that fit leadership positions. The KFALP is designed to identify candidates with the highest potential for success.

This test highlights cognitive and learning agility as the most significant predictors of leadership performance. Other factors highly rated as important in successful leaders include personality motivators, self-awareness, leadership traits and skills, problem-solving skills, the propensity to avoid project derailment, and more. Here's an official Korn Ferry KFALP figure explaining their KFALP Leadership Model:

 

The Korn Ferry Leadership Assessment is often taken together with an adapted version of the Talent Q Elements test. Together, they can provide your potential employers with a full image of the managerial candidate's cognitive abilities, personality traits, and behavioural attitude. If there's a possibility you may need to face them both, be sure to check our all-inclusive Korn Ferry/Talent Q PrepPack. 

This part of the test aims to assess your cognitive and learning skills and includes questions like Raven's Progressive Matrices, and it often contains 23 questions within a 40 minutes time limit.

The trickiest part about it is that it progressively becomes more difficult - if you choose the right answer, the next question will be more difficult; if you choose the wrong answer, the next question will remain at the same difficulty.

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Leadership, Personality, and Behavioral Questions

• Job Profile Questions:

In this section of the KFALP and KF4D tests, the provider aims to gather information about your current or most recent job, work experience, and career development.

The Job Profile section consists of three parts involving the selection, sorting, and ranking of cards that display personality characteristics. 

Let's take a look at a sample question (All of the sample questions here are taken directly from our PrepPack):

 

Step 1 - Selection: Sort the cards above into one of the 3 categories based on your experience at your current or previous job roles.

How to Solve This Part?

In the Job Profile section, the first section is the most difficult to navigate since it is the first time you will be exposed to the tabs that describe the features you need to sort (In the real test, and in our PrepPack, there will be 30 and not 8). As such, it is recommended that you approach this section with concentration and focus and notice the following tips:  

1. Read each tab carefully and attempt to characterise the value it refers to.
2. When comparing similar statements, differentiate between personal, social, and professional skills and their importance to your position.
3. Using the Korn Ferry guide, try matching the answers with the top values.
4. At this stage, there is no instruction to keep an equal number of tabs between the categories, but it is recommended that you keep an even number of tabs between them.

Therefore, it is important to note that you are sorting into all categories and not just one, since you will have to balance the tabs between the categories in the next step of the test. 

Step 2 - Sorting & Balancing: Balance the columns so that each has an equal amount of cards.

How to Solve This Part?

An organisation's management qualities depend on its context, industry, and workplace. There are, however, a number of qualities that are generally regarded as essential for effective management from the cards below:

Influence: Having the ability to inspire and motivate your team toward the achievement of a common goal is one of the most critical skills a manager can possess.

Effective communication: The ability to communicate effectively between managers and their teams is essential for effectively conveying ideas, giving feedback, and providing guidance.

Assures accountability: Managers need to organise multiple tasks, deadlines, and priorities.

Step 3 - Ranking: Inside each category, reorder the cards by their rank, from the most to the least.

How to Solve This Part?

After you balance the tabs between the categories, you must rank them.

In this section, the ranking depends entirely on your past experiences, business experience, and who you are. Consequently, there are no unambiguous recommendations with regard to the rating of character traits within a category.

A major aim of this stage is to test your level of decisiveness, judgment, and observation of your character traits.

We recommend replacing 2-4 tabs within each category at this stage.

• Job Analysis Questions:

This section is designed to examine your work experience and the character traits, values, and behaviours you have encountered during your current and past roles. To answer each question, you will have to rate, on 1-9 scale, the extent to which your current job involves each one of the characteristics. 

How to Solve This Questions?

Statement 1:

On this scale, the recommended range is 7–9.

Scale Values:

Need for achievement: Motivation by work or activities that allow testing of skills and abilities against an external standard. High scorers appreciate working hard, judge achievement according to the goal, and strive to meet and exceed standards. Low scorers are not motivated externally and tend not to work energetically to exceed expectations.

Persistence: A tendency toward the passionate and steadfast pursuit of personally valued long-term or lifetime goals, despite obstacles, discouragement, or distraction. High scorers are seen to push through obstacles and not give up on complex tasks. Low scorers are more likely to pull back from barriers or lower expectations for their attainment.

The left option presents a person not used to accomplishing and meeting workplace goals and whose motivation and drive could be higher.

The correct option emphasises the value of persistence and the need for achievements central to their values.

Statement 2:

On this scale, the recommended range is 7–9.

Scale Values:

Composure: How people are prone to react in stressful situations. High scorers tend to be calm, poised, and take pressure well. Low scorers are often seen as anxious, unsettled, and reacting negatively to stressful situations.

Focus: Preference for organisation, procedure, and exactitude. High scorers demand structure and tend to be seen as systematic, detail-oriented, and in control. Low scorers dislike detail and design and may be perceived as spontaneous and disorganised.

The left option presents a person who is not used to working under time constraints and who usually performs tasks that do not have to meet a specific deadline.

The correct option emphasises working through stressful situations and paying attention to details central to their values.

• Individual Exercices:

This section is designed to get to know you better as a person and potential employee. It includes 4 different tasks.

Where Do You Excel?

Who Are You?

Each question will include 4 tabs. Rank them in the following order:

1. Most like me
2. Somewhat like me
3. Slightly like me
4. Nothing like me

Answer

Since "'who are you" is an individual question, the rating in the explanation is just a recommendation based on the values of Korn Ferry and the leading values associated with leadership.

Therefore, even if your rating differs, you should read the explanation of the question to determine what are the important values that should be considered.

Our recommended rating:

1. Under pressure, I remain calm and collected: In challenging and high-pressure situations, effective leaders often have to make decisions and lead their teams. The highest ranking indicates that the candidate is capable of maintaining composure and making rational decisions in stressful circumstances, which is strongly aligned with leadership values.

2. Despite the risk of criticism, I can make tough decisions: A leader must make difficult choices, even if they face criticism or resistance. This statement demonstrates a willingness to take risks and make tough decisions despite the potential backlash, demonstrating a key leadership quality and ranking second highest.

3. It is not a priority for me to make my work perfect: While it important to pay attention to details, but effective leaders prioritize results, progress, and prioritizing tasks strategically. The third option suggests a focus on practicality and progress rather than perfection, which aligns with leadership values.

4. I find it difficult to admit that I don't know everything: As a leader, you must be aware of yourself, humble yourself, and be willing to seek other people's advice. It suggests a challenge in embracing one's limitations and seeking assistance or knowledge, making it the least aligned with leadership values.

What Drives you?

 What's Your Background?

As you can see, Korn Ferry Leadership assessments can be highly demanding. At times, it may feel as if you are being strongarmed into choosing between statements that appear equal in importance. The key is to understand how Korn Ferry sees the difference in importance and act on that knowledge. The best method to achieve such comprehension is by solving questions mimicking the actual test you will face and with a similar number of statements. Find personality and behavioural questions, along with the variety of Korn Ferry/Talent Q cognitive tests in our all-inclusive Korn Ferry/Talent Q PrepPack. 

• Raven's Metrics Questions:

In these types of questions, you will be presented with a patterned background that has a portion of it cut out. Your task is to identify the missing cutout from a series of six possible options. It is important to note that there is only one missing piece that matches the given background.

Here are sample questions so you can see what it is all about:

Choose the image that completes the pattern (1= most left, 5= most right)

A. 1

B. 2

C. 3

D. 4

E. 5

Correct Answer

Incorrect Answer

The correct answer is 2 (second from the left). Each square contains three shapes. The black circle is the only shape that constantly appears. It “travels” along the column, up and down, one step at a time. The other shapes appear in two consecutive squares and then do not appear in the next square. The shape that remains in the frame (in regard to the last step from the left) maintains its relative position to the other shape (not the circle).

You can see more Raven's Questions here.

Korn Ferry Leadership Assessment Free Practice Test

It is well known that proper practice and familiarity with the test questions can significantly reduce stress and anxiety on test day and raise your chance for success. That's precisely why our experts at JobTestPrep have made a dedicated free sample test for you.

The sample questions you have seen don't include all the types you may face in the Korn Ferry Leadership Assessment. If you want to practice more types of questions, you can check out our Korn Ferry Leadership Assessment PrepPack.

Korn Ferry Four-Dimensional (KF4D) Executive Assessment

Korn Ferry Four Dimensions of Leadership (KF4D) is a leadership assessment tool that measures an individual's ability to lead in four dimensions: Drivers and Traits, which aims to measure who you are in terms of your personality traits, what drives you to actions, etc; Competencies and Experiences, which measures your skills and expertise based on your past experience. 

Korn Ferry provides companies with the ability to customize their requirements for each position and use the test to assess these specific requirements. For instance, a Marketing Manager might need to demonstrate creativity and analytical skills, while a Customer Success Manager is more focused on having strong interpersonal skills and the ability to prioritize. The KF4D allows companies to evaluate candidates based on the skills and traits they deem most important for each role.

According to Korn Ferry, The Four Dimensions of Leadership interact and influence one another within an individual. When assessed together, they create a comprehensive picture of an executive's talent, providing a deeper understanding of which individuals are likely to succeed in senior leadership positions.

Here is a diagram of Korn Ferry's Four Dimensions of Leadership and Talent (Taken from Korn Ferry's website):

Korn Ferry viaEdge

The viaEDGE assessment is a personality test with a time limit of 30 minutes, that evaluates an individual's and organization's ability to learn and lead through the measurement of the factor of Learning Agility. This is achieved by examining five key aspects: self-awareness, results agility, change agility, people agility, and mental agility.

• Self-awareness pertains to one's understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses.
• Results agility refers to the ability to produce results in new and challenging situations.
• Change agility involves a willingness to experiment and adapt to change.
• People agility entails the ability to communicate effectively with a diverse range of individuals.
• Mental agility refers to the ability to think creatively and unconventionally when solving problems.

Here is a diagram of Korn Ferry's Learning Agilities 5 Factors Model (Taken from Korn Ferry's website):

Other Korn Ferry Assessments and Information

• Korn Ferry Free Practice Test
• Korn Ferry / Talent Q Tests
• Talent Q Elements Tests
• Talent Q Elements
• Talent Q Dimentions
• Talent Q Logical Test
• Talent Q Verbal Test
• Korn Ferry General Page

FAQ