Leadership Assessment has a long tradition and produced an overwhelming amount of tools in the market. A market view listed some 150 individual and collective assessment tools only on German speaking markets.

While MBTI, Belbin, 16PF, Human Synergistics might be among the most accepted and widely used instruments for most managers , there is a remarkable entry in the top leadership domain getting as popular as the Hogan test, called The Leadership Circle. It is grounded on the (classical) split of task and relationship focus, and also includes the axes of reactivity and creativity. Bill Adams and his team have designed an effective 360 tool for top leaders, which also got the academic proof of validity and reliability.

Yet what happened on the internet? In 2013, IBM researcher Michelle Zhou has developed System U, which derives personality traits out of only 200 tweets, based on some of the above mentioned approaches. Only one year later now, the work is publicly available as a quiz called FriendMe, where you get the matching result of two persons’ top 5 traits – based on their twitter activity.

(Update Apr 27, 2015: Michelle Zhou has founded JüJi Inc. which is now offering the matching service as part of several personal or organizational ‘DNS’ views.)

While IBM is using big data, LeaderAmp combines the experience of serial CLO Matt Barney with latest scientific findings into an app, which not only assesses leadership potential, but then helps you to grow by coaching on a daily basis.

So how will this affect the assessment industry?