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People Leverage Assessment
Assess where your firm may not be getting the full value from its people
For founders and leadership teams in professional services firms
Inside this guide
How this guide is organized
Score the 18 statements first, then use the rest of the guide to read what your scores add up to and what to do about them.
Start here
Why this matters
Many founder-led firms grow their team expecting the business to become easier to run. But if roles, decisions, accountability and management systems are not clear, adding people can also add complexity.
This assessment helps leadership identify where the firm may not be getting the full value from its people, and where the people side of the business may need clearer evidence before making further decisions about hiring, structure or leadership.
What this assessment measures
People Leverage describes how effectively a firm turns its investment in people into contribution, capacity and business performance. A growing team does not automatically create greater leverage. The way work, decisions, accountability and leadership are designed determines how much value that investment produces.
This assessment helps you identify where your firm may have strong foundations and where constraints may be limiting performance. It is a leadership reflection tool, not a formal diagnosis. Complete it based on how the firm operates today, rather than how you intend it to operate.
How to complete it
Score each statement from 1 to 5. Choose the response that best reflects what happens consistently across the firm.
You can complete this assessment individually, or ask each member of the leadership team to complete it before comparing results.
The six areas
The six areas
For a stronger discussion, ask each member of the leadership team to complete the assessment independently before comparing scores.
PX Baseline™
A self-assessment can show where leadership perception may need testing. PX Baseline™ goes further by using business data, leadership input and employee feedback to determine what is actually happening and what should be prioritized next.
Score your assessment
Score your assessment
Your subtotals fill in as you score each area. The total adds all six subtotals to give your overall People Leverage score.
| Area | Your subtotal | Maximum |
|---|
People Leverage score ranges
Interpret your total score
Interpret your total score
Interpret your category scores
Interpret your category scores
Each category has a maximum score of 15. Your lowest score is often more useful than the overall total because it points to the part of the system most likely to be limiting the others.
Discuss the result
Discuss the result as a leadership team
- 1Where did leadership scores differ most, and what might explain those different views?
- 2Which low-scoring area is creating consequences in other parts of the firm?
- 3What are we assuming about our people that we have not validated with evidence?
- 4What should we understand before adding headcount or redesigning roles?
- 5Which measure would tell us whether People Leverage is improving over the next 12 months?
Team conversation
A self-assessment captures leadership perception. It cannot confirm what employees experience, explain why a score is low or determine which issue has the greatest commercial significance. Those questions require evidence from across the firm. If this is the point your leadership team has reached, PX Baseline™ is the next step.
PX Baseline™
wattsnext pxMove from leadership perception to evidence
The People Leverage Assessment helps you identify where a constraint may exist. PX Baseline™ determines what is actually happening, why it is happening and what leadership should prioritize next.
Over five weeks, PX Baseline™ brings together:
- A small number of key business and payroll measures.
- Leadership perspective.
- Confidential employee feedback.
- Selected employee conversations.
- Professional interpretation of what the combined evidence means for the firm.
You receive
- Your Return on Person™ baseline.
- Your People Leverage findings.
- Prioritized risks and opportunities.
- A focused 6–12 month People Leverage Plan.
- A leadership working session to interpret the findings and agree the priorities in your People Leverage Plan.
If your score shows uneven leverage, meaningful constraints or founder dependency, the next step is to establish the evidence.
PX Baseline™ helps determine what is actually happening, why it is happening and what leadership should prioritize next.