What CEOs Should Measure Next: From Assessing People to Assessing Conditions
Summary
Traditional leadership and talent tools — personality tests, engagement surveys, 360 feedback — answer the question: Who are our people? Leo Bottary argues CEOs must add a complementary lens: measure the conditions that shape how people behave at work. Condition-focused assessments examine shared norms, peer dynamics, psychological safety and the informal rules that reward or discourage behaviour.
The piece traces the idea back to Kurt Lewin’s field theory and Amy Edmondson’s work on psychological safety, noting that conditions — not just individual capability — determine whether talent thrives. Bottary highlights Peernovation’s Peer Dynamics Profile as an example of a tool that maps peer-to-peer influences so leaders can redesign systems rather than blame individuals.
Key Points
- Individual assessments reveal preferences, skills and tendencies — useful for coaching and role fit.
- Condition-based assessments reveal the environmental norms and peer dynamics that shape everyday behaviour.
- Psychological safety is a condition, not a trait — when present, teams learn faster and speak up more.
- Relying only on individual data can make feedback feel personal and limit systemic change.
- Peer dynamics often determine what is acceptable or risky long before leaders intervene.
- Condition-focused data shifts conversations from “who needs fixing” to “what needs redesigning.”
- Best practice is integration: use individual and condition assessments together for depth and leverage.
Context and Relevance
CEOs face pressure to lift performance quickly while retaining talent. This article is relevant because it reframes measurement as a tool for system design, not just individual evaluation. That matters for performance management, retention, learning cultures and diversity and inclusion: many barriers are embedded in norms and incentives rather than in people.
As organisations embrace faster change and hybrid working, peer norms and team-level conditions increasingly determine execution. Measuring conditions aligns with trends in organisational science and gives leaders actionable insights to redesign processes, incentives and team interactions.
Author’s take (punchy)
Bottom line: stop only grading people. Start diagnosing the system. Bottary’s piece is a brisk reminder that great talent needs the right stage — and measuring the stage is how you stop wasting star performers and start scaling real, sustainable performance.
Why should I read this?
Because it’s short, smart and immediately useful. If you’re tired of watching high-potential people sputter out in certain teams, this article tells you where to look next — not the person, the pressure, the peer rules and the system. Read it to get a fresh, practical lens for fixing performance problems without finger-pointing.