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The starting point of developing your leadership bench is to count the number of leaders you have. Before you hire expensive consultants and spend money on measurement, here is something to try.

Identify two teams and task each one with measuring your leadership bench. One team will take a set of index cards and write down the name of every employee, one on each card. They will sort the cards into two piles: one they consider “leaders” and the others “not leaders.” For each pile, the team will then list the reasons for inclusion. As they begin to list the reasons, they may question their rationale and assumptions, and move a name from one pile to another. After much deliberation, arguments, and bickering, you will have a pretty good list of names and reasons. Do not share this information with the second team.

Task the second team to benchmark leadership development techniques, select a standard survey and questionnaire to measure leadership. They will need a budget, and time, but they will deliver a quantified, stack ranked list of leaders in your organization. Draw a line in the middle of the list and you will have two lists.

Compare the outputs of the two teams and reconcile the results. Uncover the core values and biases of your organization (sometimes the differences are fuzzy). The end game is to have a solid inventory of your leadership bench. Note that arguments, discussions, and clarification may well be 80% of the effort.

We’ll talk more later about next steps.