Leslie Pratch is a Ph.D. clinical psychologist and MBA who specializes in helping public and privately held firms identify whether executives being considered to lead companies possess the competencies and psychological resources they need to be effective in a specific role. Over the past 18 years she has evaluated 570 prospective business leaders for 85 organizations. The predictive validity of her assessments exceeds 98%. Her evaluations are derived from research she led at the… Show more Leslie Pratch is a Ph.D. clinical psychologist and MBA who specializes in helping public and privately held firms identify whether executives being considered to lead companies possess the competencies and psychological resources they need to be effective in a specific role. Over the past 18 years she has evaluated 570 prospective business leaders for 85 organizations. The predictive validity of her assessments exceeds 98%. Her evaluations are derived from research she led at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. These studies and her subsequent research focused on what makes successful business leaders effective: Do a firm’s most capable managers possess personality attributes that can be identified years before those managers are ready to assume top leadership roles? In Looks Good on Paper? (Columbia University Press, July 2014) she describes this approach and its applications to assessing and developing high-performing business leaders.Since 1998, Leslie’s advisory work has emphasized the assessment and development of executives and succession planning by officers and directors. Her client base includes corporations and professional service firms. She also advises executives on ways to maximize their professional success. For the past 18 years, Leslie has focused on helping private equity investors reduce the risk associated with investing in uncertain management capability. She is also experienced as an expert witness in matters relating to leadership capability and performance. Leslie received her B.A. in Religion cum laude from Williams College; an M.A. in Human Development from The University of Chicago, an M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and an M.B.A. specializing in Corporate Strategy and Finance from The University of Chicago. Show less

Hired by the CEO of State Farm to develop a library of competencies for use throughout the entire organization. Worked closely with State Farm's senior management and Board to identify the critical competencies for each job function, define these competencies conceptually, develop behavioral anchors, and advise on the implementation of the use of the system for management development and not performance appraisal. Performed this work while completing my postdoctoral training.

Hired by the Dean of the Business School to lead research into the personality predictors of leadership effectiveness among already high-achieving M.B.A. candidates. Designed a conceptual and operational model for predicting leadership effectiveness and led a research team to implement the study. The findings demonstrated the predictive validity of the model for predicting leadership outcomes among already very smart, ambitious candidates. The assessment strategy that was employed… Show more Hired by the Dean of the Business School to lead research into the personality predictors of leadership effectiveness among already high-achieving M.B.A. candidates. Designed a conceptual and operational model for predicting leadership effectiveness and led a research team to implement the study. The findings demonstrated the predictive validity of the model for predicting leadership outcomes among already very smart, ambitious candidates. The assessment strategy that was employed proved to be three times as powerful statistically (with p values of .0001, using one-tailed hypothesis testing, and correlation coefficients of 0.54) to predict long-term leadership outcomes than conventional skills and talent based assessment methods used by most psychologists and consultants advising businesses on hiring and promotion decisions. the findings demonstrate the importance of supplementing skills and talent based assessment looking at past experience with deeper measures of personality functioning that actually predict how an individual will perform under stress. The overwhelming strength of the findings and the implications for selecting students most likely to learn and grow from the program led Booth's administration to commission a second study to determine whether the results could be replicated in an independent sample. They were indeed replicated and on the strong validation for the empirical validity of the methodology, I published the research in peer-reviewed academic journals and took it to the Street. Show less

Hired to develop the concept of the trusted business advisor. The work was commissioned by the head of Andersen Worldwide. I defined this role both conceptually and operationally. I also wrote the syllabus and the complete set of lectures, which had been in use for at least 10 years. The purpose was to train the most promising junior accountants to develop more lucrative consulting relationships with their clients. The Accounting Division needed to bring in more revenue as the revenues' of the… Show more Hired to develop the concept of the trusted business advisor. The work was commissioned by the head of Andersen Worldwide. I defined this role both conceptually and operationally. I also wrote the syllabus and the complete set of lectures, which had been in use for at least 10 years. The purpose was to train the most promising junior accountants to develop more lucrative consulting relationships with their clients. The Accounting Division needed to bring in more revenue as the revenues' of the Consulting Division grew. Resigned to focus on preparing model and methods for dissertation research. Show less

Taught English to Japanese students ranging in age from 5 to 65, and edited Japanese to English translations for lawyers and professors.

Intern at the I.A.E.A. the fall trimester of my junior year of college. Conducted empirical research into the public perception of risk of the use of nuclear power and compared to the actual risk. Achieved top research award for research by Hans Blix.