The Managerial Self-Awareness (MSA) Questionnaire is an assessment tool that is commonly used with an organisation’s internal talent pool, to facilitate development and career progression and can assist with succession planning. It is a 360 degree feedback questionnaire that requires an individual, his or her manager, peers and direct reports, to rate the participant on work characteristics related to success at a particular level.  It provides a thorough picture of the individual’s strengths, as well as areas for development, and helps prioritise developmental needs, based on the importance of different work attributes. For example, for a senior manager, “being able to manage through others” is likely to be of high importance, whereas “having high levels of technical knowledge” may not. The MSA also provides a measure of self-awareness, which will help further guide ongoing development.

For each person being rated using the MSA Questionnaire, one, or a number of feedback providers can be included. Feedback is usually provided by the individual’s line manager, and in the case of 360 Degree Feedback, Direct Reports (a minimum of 3) and Peers (a minimum of 3). Peer and Direct Report ratings are grouped and de-identified, in order to maintain anonymity. If an individual doesn’t have at least three feedback providers in each of the Peer or Direct Report groups, the ratings for both groups are combined. We encourage participants to provide as many comments as possible, particularly if they are rating something as a weakness or significant strength.

The Managerial Self Awareness process helps to uncover typical strengths and developmental needs for individuals which PSI can then provide tangible interventions for. PSI is able to tailor the report so that the participant can leverage from their clear strengths and more comprehensively understand their potential developmental needs.

The MSA is most commonly used in conjunction with Personality and Abilities assessments as the combined results provide a complete picture of the individual. The MSA provides insight into ‘how’ the individual behaves, whilst the personality assessment answers ‘why’ they behave in a certain way.