Creating a successful academic leadership program at a college or university requires first knowing what skills, practices, and attributes you need to develop in current and prospective leaders and then structuring opportunities to provide that development. But how do you know what those needs are so that you can address them most effectively? There are several widely recognized ways of achieving this goal, but as we’ll see, some of the most common approaches institutions adopt for assessing their leadership needs don’t result in the level of improvement they want. What are they doing wrong, and how can they do better?