Every organisation has a plan.
Most are working against it.

The Cost Calculator applies a deterministic model to a small set of inputs: your organisation type, leadership cohort size, average cohort salary, and your self-assessed condition scores. It produces four components — re-decision and coordination overhead, below-potential leadership performance, attrition and succession cost, and succession gap exposure. Every component is driven by at least one of the five condition scores and grounded in published research (Rogers and Blenko 2006, Hunter, Schmidt and Judiesch 1990, Gallup 2013/2023, Bidwell 2011, Kavanagh and Carlson 2012, SHRM, CIPD). The four components sum exactly to the modelled total. Every figure has a named source and a clear derivation in your PDF.

Because the Cost Calculator should only collect what the model genuinely needs. Sector, transitions and HQ region shape the narrative read, not the numbers — they live in the Leadership Scan, and when you complete both tools the context carries across automatically. An attrition rate input would imply a precision the model does not have; instead, baseline attrition is taken from the organisation-type default and modulated by your readiness, capability and engagement scores. This keeps the inputs honest and the output defensible.

The figure is the estimated cost of current leadership conditions across the whole cohort, not the cost of a single problem. Four components driven by five conditions, applied across a cohort of ten, twenty or fifty people, accumulate quickly. The headline shown is the conservative end of the modelled range — not the upper end. If it feels large, the most useful question is whether the individual components feel plausible. The per-component breakdown in your report lets you assess each one separately.

The full modelled cost is the sum of the four components — what current leadership conditions appear to be costing across the cohort. The recoverable value is a conservative portion of that total — what could plausibly be recovered if those conditions strengthened. Both are indicative figures to explore in conversation, not forecasts.

The tool uses your self-reported condition scores and a small set of context inputs, combined with published research benchmarks. It does not have access to your organisation's HR, financial or performance systems. The output is an evidence-based model applied to your inputs — not a measurement of your organisation. Think of it as a well-calibrated estimate rather than an audit.

Because condition scores are the primary driver of the model. Each one-point movement on the four-point response scale represents a meaningful shift in the underlying cost mechanism — for example, a change in coordination friction on the leadership payroll, or a step change in the effective attrition rate. The model is deliberately sensitive to these inputs because the conditions themselves have a material effect on organisational performance. If adjusting a score by one point produces a figure that feels implausible, that may indicate the score is at a boundary where your honest assessment could go either way.

Your leadership cohort is the group of people whose judgment directly shapes how your organisation operates — not just the most senior people, but everyone whose decisions affect others' work, the organisation's direction, or how resources are used. A useful test: if this person were absent for a month, would it change how the organisation makes decisions? If yes, include them. Typically included: your senior leadership team or executive team — the people who own the strategy and set direction. Heads of function or department — the people who translate strategy into how their area operates day to day. Senior managers or team leads who make meaningful decisions about people, priorities or resources. Typically not included: team members who execute decisions made by others, even if they are highly skilled or senior in title. Project managers or coordinators whose role is to organise work rather than make direction-setting calls. Individual contributors, however experienced, who do not have genuine decision-making authority. Reference points by organisation size: Under 50 people: your cohort is likely 4 to 10 people. 50 to 150 people: your cohort is likely 8 to 20 people. 150 to 500 people: your cohort is likely 15 to 40 people. 500 or more people: scope to the top two layers of leadership — executive team and their direct reports who own functions or geographies. If you are not sure: list everyone who attends your leadership team meetings or equivalent, add anyone who directly leads a function or team of five or more people with meaningful autonomy, and remove anyone whose primary role is delivery rather than direction. That group is usually your cohort. The model is most useful when the cohort is defined consistently. If you run the tool again later or compare with a colleague, use the same definition both times.

We do not publish benchmarks by sector or organisation type because the inputs vary too much for a direct comparison to be meaningful. What the research does tell us is that leadership-related costs are consistently underestimated across all organisation types. The direction of the findings is consistent even where the magnitudes vary.

They are. Organisation type shapes the Cost Calculator's defaults and baseline attrition. In the Leadership Scan, sector, transitions and HQ region shape the AI-synthesised narrative read. A 50-person public sector body and a 200-person scaling technology business with the same condition scores will receive different outputs from both tools. The more accurately you answer the context questions, the more relevant the output will be.

The tools were built by Lexn. The diagnostic frameworks, the research base, and all prompt and output design are Lexn's. The cost benchmarks are drawn from peer-reviewed research. The AI synthesis in the Leadership Scan uses Claude, developed by Anthropic. The tools are designed to start a better conversation — not to replace the judgment of the people in it.

Your responses and contact details are stored on encrypted UK and EU infrastructure. They are used to generate your report, to prepare for any follow-up conversation you request, and to improve the tools over time. We do not sell your data or share it with third parties. You can request deletion at any time by emailing hello@lexn.co.uk. The AI synthesis processes your answers server-side only — your responses are not used to train any third-party model.

The Cost Calculator quantifies. It takes your inputs and produces a conservative indicative figure for what the current leadership conditions may be costing — broken down by condition. It takes about ten minutes. The Leadership Scan locates. It goes deeper into each condition and produces an AI-synthesised reading of where each condition may be breaking down and what the highest-leverage move to explore might be. It takes about twelve to fifteen minutes. Most people do both in one sitting. If you complete the Cost Calculator first, your context carries across automatically.

Yes. Both tools generate a PDF report formatted for that purpose. It is designed to be shared as a starting point for a leadership conversation — a hypothesis to explore rather than a finding to act on immediately.