Every dimension is anchored to a Compass discipline, so a finding can be traced back to the part of the architecture that produced it rather than left as a judgement about a person.
Clarity of Direction
Do the people around this leader know what winning is?
Translating enterprise strategy into a specific, current picture of what this part of the business must achieve, and keeping that picture stable enough to plan against.
- —States the few outcomes that matter most this period, and does not quietly change them.The team can name the same three priorities without checking a deck.
- —Connects the work of this team to the enterprise result it serves.People explain why their work matters in business terms, not activity terms.
- —Says plainly what is not a priority right now.Work is stopped, not silently starved.
When it is weak: Everything is important, so sequencing happens by whoever asked most recently.
Decision Discipline
Are decisions made at the right level, with the right evidence, in time?
Holding clear decision rights, deciding at the pace the business requires, and defending where a decision sits the first time it is tested.
- —Makes the calls that belong to this role without escalating for cover.Escalations trend down; the leader's own decisions are visible in the record.
- —Pushes decisions down to the level that holds the facts.Named owners exist below this leader for recurring decisions.
- —Uses evidence rather than volume or seniority to settle disagreement.Contested decisions cite data, not the loudest room.
When it is weak: Decisions drift upward, arrive late, and are reopened after they were made.
Operating Rigour
Does the cadence actually close commitments?
Running a rhythm that converts intent into closed commitments — meetings with named outputs, measures that are looked at, and follow-through that does not depend on chasing.
- —Runs reviews that end with owners, dates and decisions.Commitments from the last cycle are read out and closed in this one.
- —Removes work, meetings and reporting the enterprise no longer needs.Something visible was deleted in the last quarter.
- —Measures the few things that indicate whether the system is working.A small, stable set of measures, reviewed in the same rhythm every time.
When it is weak: Busy calendars, unclosed commitments, and reporting that nobody uses to decide anything.
Candour and Trust
Does disagreement happen inside the room?
Making it safe and normal to raise bad news early, to disagree in the meeting rather than after it, and to be held to account without theatre.
- —Invites and absorbs challenge without cost to the person raising it.Junior people contradict the leader in the meeting, and the meeting continues.
- —Delivers hard messages directly, early and specifically.Nobody is surprised by feedback they should have had months ago.
- —Names their own misses before someone else does.Errors surface from the leader, not from the audit.
When it is weak: Alignment in the room, dissent in the corridor, and surprises that arrive too late to fix.
Capability Building
Is the bench stronger than it was a year ago?
Growing successors and decision-makers deliberately — real domains owned outright, capability attached to live assignments, and development reviewed in the same rhythm as financial results.
- —Gives each direct report a decision domain they own without confirmation.Each report can name the domain, and so can their peers.
- —Attaches the next capability to real work, not to a course.Development targets appear in live assignments and are reviewed there.
- —Moves people on when the role has outgrown them, or they it.Succession is planned rather than triggered by a resignation.
When it is weak: The leader is indispensable, and the organisation quietly agrees that this is fine.
Change and Renewal
Can this leader move a change through to adoption and keep it?
Naming present reality honestly, building adoption deliberately, and institutionalising what works so it survives the people who launched it.
- —States the cost of the current state before proposing the future one.Dissatisfaction is named with evidence, not implied.
- —Works adoption — awareness, ability, reinforcement — not just launch.Barriers are diagnosed and addressed in sequence, per stakeholder group.
- —Embeds change into standard work, measures and governance.The new way survives a change of personnel.
When it is weak: Initiatives launch well, decay quietly, and reappear two years later as a new programme.
