This month we’re looking at the tools on the market that help leaders understand who they are, and how they work with others.

The leadership development market is worth $14 billion dollars in the US alone. A good chunk of that goes on off the shelf and bespoke diagnostic and development tools.

But do they really work?

Phil McCredden talks us through 360 degree feedback. What can a leader learn from asking everyone around them what they think? What are the risks? And how do you take the download of feedback and weave it into a development plan that takes the individual and the company on to bigger and better things?

Then we talk to Dr Ben Palmer, one of the brains behind a suite of Emotional Intelligence tools developed in Australia 15 years ago that have been embraced worldwide. He unbundles why emotional intelligence matters and what its like to take a room full of leaders and tell them it’s time to talk about feelings.

Finally a new field of leadership development that’s gaining traction: personal excellence. Alex Crossley of the Institute of Customer excellence has built a unique international data set on a range of behaviours and habits of the highly successful. It’s time he says, to measure our excellence and if we want to compete with robots, learn how to boost it.