About the Assessment
ILCI-21: Isozaki Leadership & Culture Index
ILCI-21 is a 21-question reflection and development assessment for leaders and organizations that want a shared, practical way to discuss leadership, culture, and the systems that support both.
Our Mission
Make Leadership and Culture Easier to Discuss
Isozaki Coaching created ILCI-21 to help leaders replace assumptions with a shared starting point. The assessment supports thoughtful conversations about what is working, what needs attention, and what to try next.
ILCI-21
A Shared Language for What to Explore Next
ILCI-21 looks at three connected domains, Self, Structure, and Systems, across 21 competencies. It produces an overall score, nine subdomain views, and an interpretation band that can help guide the next conversation.
ILCI-21 System
A 21-question reflection across Self, Structure, and Systems. It creates an overall score, domain and subdomain views, and competency-level detail.
A dashboard and downloadable report that help individuals, teams, and organizations review results, compare trends, and choose a useful next conversation.
Optional coaching, workshops, and multi-session engagements connected to the areas your results highlight.
The Model
Three Domains · Nine Subdomains · Twenty-One Competencies
Each domain brings together practical questions about how people lead, how work is organized, and how the wider system shapes decisions. Together, the domains create a shared language for reflection and development.
Self
Competencies 1–8
Building and understanding preferences, talent, and awareness of self to strengthen leadership development and organizational effectiveness.
Structure
Competencies 9–15
Building and designing the organizational structure from idea to implementation to enable execution and innovation.
Systems
Competencies 16–21
Building and cultivating culture, strategy, and systems to sustain and scale performance.
The Building Blocks
Nine Subdomains
Each domain is divided into three subdomains that make leadership and organizational patterns easier to see and discuss.
Self
How a leader understands and develops from within
Preferences
Understanding how individuals communicate, process information, and make decisions to strengthen leadership awareness and team effectiveness.
Talent
Discovering and applying natural strengths and career interests to enable individuals and teams to perform at a high level.
Awareness
Building emotional intelligence, cultural fluency, and well-being practices to sustain effective and adaptive leadership.
Structure
How an organization understands and operates from within
Business
Establishing organizational clarity across leadership, operations, branding, marketing, sales, products, services, and financial sustainability.
Productivity
Defining and aligning priorities, accountability, and execution to achieve SMARTER goals and maximize organizational output.
Innovation
Cultivating human-centered design thinking and diverse creative approaches to generate ideas, solve problems, and drive sustainable solutions.
Systems
How an organization sustains and scales over time
Culture
Aligning mission, values, and engagement practices to shape and sustain a thriving, high-performance organizational culture.
Strategy
Engaging in strategic foresight and collaborative strategy-building to prepare for and shape the future with intention.
Artificial Intelligence
Ethically integrating artificial intelligence to enhance creativity, productivity, innovation, and decision-making across the organization.
Service Pathways
The Twenty-One Competencies
Self → Structure → Systems. Each competency connects to a practical area for reflection and a corresponding development pathway from Isozaki Coaching.
Self
Competencies 1–8Understand how preferences, talent, and self-awareness shape leadership and organizational effectiveness.
Understanding Your Preferences
Explore how you process information and make decisions so you can strengthen leadership awareness and team effectiveness.
Becoming Your Best Self
Explore the motivations, patterns, and interpersonal dynamics that shape self-awareness, growth, and leadership.
Living Your Strengths
Apply CliftonStrengths® to help individuals and teams contribute at their best through intentional, strengths-based development.
Exploring Your Career Interests
Use the Strong Interest Inventory® to connect roles and responsibilities with interests, engagement, and long-term contribution.
Empowering Your Working Genius
Use Working Genius to align work with natural areas of contribution and improve productivity, collaboration, and fulfillment.
Enhancing Your Emotional Intelligence
Develop emotional intelligence to strengthen self-awareness, emotional regulation, and relationships at work.
Leading Across Cultures
Leading across cultures with Cultural Intelligence (CQ), Cultural Proficiency, and Cultural Mapping to navigate diverse contexts with awareness, adaptability, and effectiveness.
Cultivating Well-Being & Flourishing
Create conditions that support sustained performance and well-being across personal and professional life.
Structure
Competencies 9–15Design the structures that turn ideas into coordinated execution and innovation.
Simplifying Your Business
Build clarity across leadership, operations, marketing, sales, products, services, and financial sustainability so the organization can align and scale.
Clarifying Your Message
Use a communication framework to express your value clearly to internal and external audiences.
Building Your Business Model
Use a Business Model Canvas to align how your organization creates, delivers, and sustains shared value.
Scaling an Entrepreneurial Mindset
Use Builder Profile 10 (BP10) to develop growth-oriented leaders who can advance innovation, new initiatives, and organizational expansion.
Achieving Your Goals
Use SMARTER goals to clarify priorities, accountability, and execution across your organization.
Embodying Human-Centered Design
Use human-centered design to understand stakeholder needs and develop relevant, effective, and sustainable solutions.
Unlocking Your Creative Genius
Use Creative Types to activate different creative approaches, generate ideas, solve problems, and foster innovation.
Systems
Competencies 16–21Align culture, strategy, and systems to sustain performance and support growth.
Aligning Your Mission & Values
Aligning your mission and values through Reconstructing Us to guide decision-making, culture, and organizational direction.
Understanding Organizational Culture
Use the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to assess and adapt culture in support of strategy, goals, and context.
Driving Engagement & Performance
Use the Gallup Q12® Engagement Survey to strengthen expectations, recognition, collaboration, growth, and performance.
Preparing for the Future
Use strategic foresight to examine trends, risks, and opportunities and make better future-focused decisions.
Building Your Culture & Strategies
Use LEGO® Serious Play® to build shared understanding, strengthen ownership of mission and values, and address complex challenges.
Using AI Responsibly
Explore how artificial intelligence can ethically support creativity, productivity, innovation, and decision-making.
Score Interpretation
Five ILCI-21 Assessment Bands
Your overall score and each of your nine subdomain scores map to one of five bands. Each band offers a conversation starter and possible areas to explore.
Flourishing
Strong alignment to build on
Responses suggest strong alignment across leadership, culture, and systems, with practices that reinforce one another.
Focus: Share effective practices · Extend strengths across teams · Invest in innovation and continuity · Steward what is working over time
Growing
Growth with room to strengthen
Responses suggest a solid foundation with a few areas where greater consistency could support the next stage of growth.
Focus: Strengthen areas that matter most · Reduce avoidable friction · Align teams around shared priorities · Sustain growth intentionally
Emerging
Early development
Responses suggest that direction, structure, and alignment are developing and could benefit from focused attention.
Focus: Clarify mission, roles, and priorities · Strengthen foundational systems · Create leadership alignment · Build consistency across teams
Withering
Patterns worth exploring
Responses point to possible gaps in alignment, trust, or execution that may be useful to explore together.
Focus: Reconnect leadership and teams · Create space for trust and communication · Review how systems and processes connect · Revisit shared direction
Uprooted
Foundations worth exploring
Responses suggest that foundational leadership, communication, or operating practices may be useful to explore before larger initiatives begin.
Focus: Clarify leadership expectations · Review core structures · Reconnect mission and values to daily work · Choose a practical foundation for the next step
Culture is the operating system of every organization. ILCI-21 gives you a shared way to reflect on it.
Core Concept
Rebuild the Foundation
Rebuilding the foundation means creating the conditions for clearer leadership, stronger communication, connected systems, and shared trust. When results point to foundational questions, this is a practical place to begin.
Lifecycle Progression Model
ILCI-21 Developmental Band Model
Leadership and culture development are ongoing. Each band offers a conversation starter, patterns to explore, and possible focus areas for what comes next.
Uprooted
Foundations worth exploring
- Clarify leadership expectations
- Review core structures
- Reconnect mission and values to daily work
- Choose a practical foundation for the next step
Withering
Patterns worth exploring
- Reconnect leadership and teams
- Create space for trust and communication
- Review how systems and processes connect
- Revisit shared direction
Emerging
Early development
- Clarify mission, roles, and priorities
- Strengthen foundational systems
- Create leadership alignment
- Build consistency across teams
Growing
Growth with room to strengthen
- Strengthen areas that matter most
- Reduce avoidable friction
- Align teams around shared priorities
- Sustain growth intentionally
Flourishing
Strong alignment to build on
- Share effective practices
- Extend strengths across teams
- Invest in innovation and continuity
- Steward what is working over time
Flourishing
Strong alignment to build on
- Share effective practices
- Extend strengths across teams
- Invest in innovation and continuity
- Steward what is working over time
Growing
Growth with room to strengthen
- Strengthen areas that matter most
- Reduce avoidable friction
- Align teams around shared priorities
- Sustain growth intentionally
Emerging
Early development
- Clarify mission, roles, and priorities
- Strengthen foundational systems
- Create leadership alignment
- Build consistency across teams
Withering
Patterns worth exploring
- Reconnect leadership and teams
- Create space for trust and communication
- Review how systems and processes connect
- Revisit shared direction
Uprooted
Foundations worth exploring
- Clarify leadership expectations
- Review core structures
- Reconnect mission and values to daily work
- Choose a practical foundation for the next step
Delivered by
Isozaki Coaching
We champion leaders who mobilize organizations to create meaningful change.
Executive Coach & Consultant · Higher Education Professional · Leadership Practitioner · ICF Associate Certified Coach · Gallup Certified Strengths Coach · LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitator · Human-Centered Designer · Strategic Futurist
Our work helps leaders understand how they think, lead, collaborate, and build culture. Depending on the goal, engagements may draw on tools such as MBTI®, the Enneagram, CliftonStrengths®, the Strong Interest Inventory®, and LEGO® Serious Play®.