NMA LEADS FAQs



NMA LEADS… a complete online Leadership Evaluation and Development System

 Looking to assess your leadership skills?  Not too hard to do.  Looking for an online leadership assessment tool?  A bit more complicated to find, but they’re out there.  But, looking for a complete personal leadership assessment SYSTEM?  Look no further... NMA LEADS is for you!
 


Q. Can you give me a Quick Overview of LEADS?

For only $35, NMA’s new Leadership Evaluation and Development System (LEADS) provides you with a unique opportunity to experience Leadership Your Way!

LEADS can be accessed at any time… by anyone… from any computer with internet capability… to pursue the areas of greatest interest to you as you explore LEADERSHIP YOUR WAY!

LEADS begins with a personalized assessment of your understanding of the NMA leadership attributes and competencies as developed in the NMA Leadership Model.

Your responses to this assessment are used to identify competencies and attributes where industry best practices could help you improve your leadership and performance.

LEADS provides associated reading, training, and work assignments to let you learn more about these best practices and try them in your work environment.

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Q.    What all is involved in your system… and how can I get the most from the LEADS program?

ASSESS – use the multiple choice LEADS questionnaire to evaluate your  understanding of industry best practices related to the NMA leadership competencies and attributes NMA Leadership Model.   The  Leadership Analysis will identify areas of strength and potential areas for improvement.
 

ASSIGN – complete the suggested key reading, training, and work assignments found in the Leadership Analysis.  They allow you to learn more about related industry best practices and are tailored to your needs.
 

ACHIEVE – once completed, the lessons derived from these assignments must be successfully applied in your work environment to fully realize the LEADS effectiveness and YOUR potential.

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Q.  If I want to get started, how do I get to the assessment?

1.  Click on the URL: https://www.nmaleads.org.

2.  Fill out the application portion and submit; you will be connected to a credit card payment page that you must complete and submit.

3.  Watch your e-mail. In just a couple of minutes you will get a return e-mail with a user I.D. and a password. Write them down.

4.  Return to the NMA LEADS site https://www.nmaleads.org, then go to the assessment link and begin your Leadership Evaluation. The assessment typically takes about an hour and has a two-hour time limit.

5.  LEADS has a restart capability, so if you are interrupted you can log back on to resume your assessment anytime in the next 30 days by reentering your user name and password.

6.  When you have submitted your answer to the last question, your Leadership Analysis will come to you immediately... IMPORTANT... SAVE YOUR REPORT TO YOUR COMPUTER!

7.  Please take a moment and click on the link at the top of your Leadership Analysis to give us your feedback.

8.  If you have any difficulties and most especially, if you have comments you’d like to share, please e-mail us at karen@nma1.org.

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Q.  Tell me about the Assessment Application.

Your assessment fee payment opens the door. Enter your credit card information in our secure payment page to get access to the LEADS Application page. How can you make the most of that? Start by providing the information requested in the LEADS application. Make sure that you include your name, organization (typically your company name), email address, education, experience, and any NMA affiliation if applicable. After you receive your signup email, check out the description of and references for the leadership competencies which can better prepare you for your LEADS assessment.

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Q.  Can you tell me a little more about the actual Assessment itself?

You begin by clicking on the LEADS assessment link and entering your one-time user name and password. Once you submit these, you will be entered into the actual LEADS assessment which provides you with 120 questions designed to test your understanding of best industry practices associated with specific leadership attributes and competencies. See NMA Leadership Model.  Each question will display the attribute and competency it addresses, so you can use that to put the question in context. The assessment is timed for two-hours, but you can pause as many times as you wish. You must complete the assessment within 30 days from the date you start the assessment.
 

Address each question by making sure that you understand what it calls for, then eliminate all answers that you believe to be incorrect. Once you’ve done that, pick what you believe to be the best answer. Guessing is OK if you don’t know the answer. This is not a Pass/Fail exam, it’s an evaluation of your understanding of the best industry practices for a specific leadership attribute and competency.
 

After you’ve answered all questions, LEADS will automatically provide an Leadership Analysis which scores your understanding of leadership competencies and attributes and provides recommendations on reading, training and work assignments that can help you be more effective in the future. Make sure that you save your Leadership Analysis to your desktop before you do anything else. Once saved, it will always be there to help you learn more about leadership.

Before you exit your assessment, please provide us your evaluation of LEADS as a learning tool by clicking on the feedback link. Your inputs will be used to drive future LEADS improvements.

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Q.  What is the Leadership Analysis all about?

One of the pluses of NMA LEADS is that we put the “instant” in “instant gratification”!  Your assessment is immediately scored and within minutes you receive a complete report identifying areas of strength and potential areas for improvement.
 

Don’t be alarmed if your initial LEADS assessment results present you with many pages of improvement recommendations… that’s normal. Address these by first looking for competencies where you scored below average (2-1), and then start with the associated competency that’s most relevant to your work environment. Begin with the BROWSE hyperlink (if available). That will give you a summary of related best practices, and will allow you to decide if you want to BORROW or BUY the associated reading reference.

Note that the BORROW hyperlink will steer you to the nearest library where you can check out the recommended book. Simply enter the book title and then select the appropriate book from the search results. If you type your zip code into the location box and hit the search key again, WorldCat will bring up all libraries in your area, along with contact information and hours. The BUY hyperlink (where available) will similarly take you to Barnes and Noble or other online sources where you can buy new or used copies of the recommended book.
 

After you’ve completed your reading homework, reinforce your new skills by taking the recommended training, which will be either an online podcast or a suggested course. The TAKE hyperlink (where available) will take you to a site where you can either sign up for the recommended course, or review an online webcast or video. You will need to enter the webcast name in the online search function to go directly to the webcast. If there is no search function, simply scroll down the list of webcasts until you come to the one you want. This next step in leadership learning will prepare you for application of your learning.


The LEADS work assignments are intended as a first step in this process. After you complete these, you should then implement what you have learned in your work environment… the last step of LEADS learning.
 

That result is, of course, the ultimate goal of LEADS, and, until you get there, your LEADS education is incomplete. Only by demonstrating the lessons you’ve learned in your work environment can you gain the true benefits of LEADS.

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Q.  Are these assessment results anonymous and confidential?

Absolutely.  Individual participant information and results are kept confidential and not released to any other parties, whatsover.   LEADS is a learning tool, not a grading tool.  Read the privacy policy.

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Q.  What is the background of NMA LEADS?  How did this get started and who all was engaged in its development?
 

After the “need for LEADS” was established by a group of senior level advisors to NMA, the Association set out to meet that need.

LEADS represents a major effort that drew on volunteers and teaming arrangements from across the United States to provide: 

    Over 1,700 hours of volunteer time to generate the LEADS contents and infrastructure
     

     $10,000 Grant from the NMA Boeing Aerospace Leadership Chapter for seed money which supported LEADS technical programming
     

    Teaming with Dale Carnegie, Inc. to develop the LEADS contents and to build LEADS competency descriptions
     

    Teaming with getAbstract to provide all LEADS volunteers access to the book summaries recommended by LEADS
     

    Teaming with OCLC WorldCat to provide LEADS users with a free library search routine which locates the closest library where they can check out books recommended by LEADS

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    Q.      Is LEADS available for group purchases or can it be customized?

    Yes… and yes.

    Contact karen@nma1.org or Karen Tobias at 937/294-0421.  The NMA staff will eagerly work with you to provide multiple assessments or customize the questions to link directly to your own leadership model or in-house leadership development program.

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    Q.      Are there brochures available for download?

    If you would like to print a brochure with more information, click here: 

    http://nma1.us/lrc/LEADSexecutive.pdf
    http://nma1.us/lrc/LEADSindividual.pdf
    http://nma1.us/lrc/LEADSuserguide.pdf

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