Recognizing the importance of visionary and principled leadership across the UN system to meet the challenges of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and UN reform, UNSSC has partnered with McKinsey & Company to offer a UN Leadership Culture Assessment to support the UN to better deliver results.

Aligned with the United Nations System Leadership Framework (UNSLF), the UN Leadership Culture Assessment Tool is designed to measure how participating teams, department and entities demonstrate the key competencies of the UNSLF, while providing an important platform through which to drive behavioural change and assess leadership culture across the UN system.

At a time when international organizations are becoming larger in size, operate in complex environments, and are part of wide networks with multiple stakeholders, the Assessment Tool is extremely relevant. It supports the UN in narrowing the gap between current leadership culture and the desired leadership culture, revealing key opportunities for leadership development, effectiveness and efficiency at all levels.

A comparative advantage that distinguishes the UN Leadership Culture Assessment Tool from other assessment tools is its UN-focus and action-oriented approach. The Tool is composed of multiple questions aimed at analysing the leadership of individual teams. Based on the questionnaire results, teams will understand: How their leadership culture supports or impedes efficiency and performance, which priorities to focus their leadership efforts, what challenges exist, and benchmarks. These will ultimately enable teams to measure the efficacy and impact of previous measures put into place to strengthen leadership practices and meet the UNSLF.

After identifying gaps in leadership culture with the UN Leadership Culture Assessment Tool and potential actionable points, the next step is to work one-on-one with specific leaders to make a difference in the organization. For this purpose, the UNSSC-McKinsey Team offers the client organization’s change management experts the opportunity to benefit from advisory services organized around three areas: debriefing, brainstorming, and collaboration. The aim of this type of one-to-one consultancy and coaching is to leave the client office, agency, fund, or programme with a high-level road map outlining how to transform the assessment into actions that result in transformational change.

The Culture Assessment Tool will be ready for deployment system-wide in the second quarter of 2020. Any UN office, agency, fund, or programme interested in commencing an innovative leadership journey with the Tool can contact b.harbaugh@unssc.org or d.moench@unssc.org for questions and further details.