NHS England CEO hopefuls assessed for their ‘dark side traits’

KPMG senior partner Mark Britnell, NHSE deputy CEO Amanda Pritchard, and Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan are the candidates undergoing the complex interview and assessment process which HSJ revealed on 1 July.

NHSE retained head hunters Russell Reynold Associates to run the recruitment process. According to an RRA briefing document seen by HSJ, the past week has seen the three candidates undergo a “psychometric assessment” comprising “three elements”.

The first element involves completing the proprietary Leadership Span “psychometric questionnaire” developed by RRA and Hogan Associates.

Writing in 2017, RRA managing director Peter Lewis said research by the two firms had “uncovered four ‘dark side’ traits that are often associated with short-term positive performance in c-suite leaders; they are bold, mischievous, colourful and imaginative (the ‘charisma cluster’). These characteristics may have helped leaders reach the c-suite, however left unchecked, can cause havoc when they get to the top. When leaders are unaware of the negative consequences of these traits, such as arrogance, risk-taking and manipulation, they will likely overuse them and face career derailment as a result.”

To guard against recruiting leaders who would pose this danger, Mr Lewis explained RRA had developed the Leadership Span questionnaire to evaluate candidates on “their ability to pivot across a variety of major contradicting traits”.

The four “main competing traits” are identified as “pragmatic and disruptive, reluctant and risk-taking, vulnerable and heroic, and connecting and galvanising”.

The second element of the assessment is a two-hour “invigilated assessment” designed to create a “cognitive process profile” of each candidate.

According to the Association for Business Psychology, a CPP “is an advanced computerised simulation exercise which simulates an unfamiliar, ambiguous environment. The purpose of the assessment being a simulation is to measure cognitive skills when one does not have the luxury of a familiar comfort zone or ‘auto-pilot’ mode within which to work.”

The third element of psychometric assessment is an “in-depth leadership interview with a business psychologist and RRA functional expert” lasting between two-and-a-half and three hours.

The document also confirms next week the candidates will be interviewed by those NHS England and Improvement non-executive directors not involved in the final interview panel.

Each meeting will last 60 minutes and will “focus on a pre-agreed topic”.

The first interview group will involve Sir Andrew Morris, Mike Coupe, and Sir David Behan, the second Lord Patrick Carter, Wol Kolade, Jeremy Townsend, and Susan Kilsby, and the third Laura Wade-Gery, Munir Pirmohamed, and Rakesh Kapoor.

The final interview panel on 19 July will begin with a “presentation on [a] pre-agreed topic”.