Core Motive Inventory
Head of School, Principal, Executive Director Edition
Lead with virtue. Operate with discipline.
The Core Motive Inventory (CMI) converts a leader's temperament into concrete, virtue-shaping habits for running a Christian school—so your mission shows up in the calendar, the meeting, and the hard conversation.
Are You a Teacher?
Classroom teachers serving students, colleagues, and parents
Take the CMI for Teachers →Are You an Administrator?
Deans, directors, and team members who partner rather than direct
Take the CMI for Administrators →Are You a Head of School / Principal?
Senior leaders responsible for vision, culture, and mission
Take the CMI for Heads of School / Principals →Why This Matters
Great schools are built by steady, virtuous leaders. CMI moves beyond personality labels to form habits—prudence, humility, courage—so your team executes the mission with charity and consistency.
Who It's For
Heads of School, Principals, School Exec Hiring Teams
Senior leaders responsible for vision, culture, and mission
Central Office leaders
Academics, operations, HR, advancement
Network/Diocesan leadership teams
Network/Diocesan leadership teams and emerging leaders
What CMI Supports
Building Virtue
Identifying opportunities to bring our best selves to our vocation
Colleague Development
Working together in the pursuit of professional virtue
The Right Conversations
Scripts, deadlines, and accountability cues
Team Health
Owning our part in building the best culture
How It Works
(simple and fast)
Take the CMI
≈15 minutes
Receive your Guidebook
Personalized, role-specific practices
Run the 90-Day Practice Plan
Habits, checkpoints, and wins
Havard + Lencioni: CMI's Dual Engines
What Havard contributes
Right Anthropology:
Temperament is raw material; character is formed. Grace perfects nature.
Leadership Telos:
Magnanimity (pursue a great mission) yoked to humility (truth about self in service to others).
Virtue Pathway:
Prudence, justice, courage, and temperance—habits that steadily order power toward the good.
What Lencioni contributes
Operational Clarity:
The concrete work of leadership: team, management, meetings, hard conversations, communication.
Accountability Frame:
Decisions, owners, dates, and cadences that keep the mission from stalling.
Havard explains who a leader must become—temperament is given, virtue is chosen, and true leadership is magnanimity and humility governed by the cardinal virtues.
Lencioni clarifies what a leader must do—the five non-negotiable responsibilities from The Motive: develop the team, manage subordinates, run meetings, have difficult conversations, and communicate constantly.
The CMI fuses both—turning temperament into virtue-forming habits mapped directly to those five duties. It is the first virtue-driven inventory built for Christian school leadership, so your mission shows up in calendars, meetings, decisions, and follow-through.
How the CMI Unites Them
Name your temperament & drive (strengths, predictable risks).
Assign Priority Virtues to govern those tendencies.
Map virtues to duties ( The Motive's five) so growth is visible where leadership actually happens.
Prescribe weekly practices (e.g., decision log with owner/date, two-voice → one-voice rule, 24-hour recap, weekly 1:1s with agenda).
Measure evidence—artifacts and timestamps—over a 90-day plan you can renew.
What You Receive
Temperament Blend & Drive Profile
with a clear “Top Synergy Pair”
Virtue Gap Map
likely failure modes → specific virtue antidotes
Role-Cues
for your seat in one tight line
Leader's Inventory
meeting cadence, difficult-conversation steps, communications rhythm, and management practices tailored to your blend
Why CMI is Different
(Not another personality test)
Christian anthropology at the core
Temperament is real; virtue transforms it. Learn more about our foundation in Alexandre Havard's virtuous leadership
Practice over labels
outputs are rhythms, scripts, and checklists you use next week
Built for schools
aligned to the daily work of leading people, learning, and operations
Compatible frameworks
integrates with Lencioni's leadership responsibilities and your school's context
Outcomes You Can Expect
A shared, charitable language for feedback and accountability
Meetings that start and end on purpose, with decisions made on time
Fewer delayed hard conversations; clearer follow-through
Better role clarity and healthier collaboration across academics and operations
Lots of Uses
Onboarding
new leaders with a common playbook
Retreats
and PD days that translate into 90-day wins
Coaching
plans tied to measurable habits
Succession & Hiring
align candidates to role demands
Are You a Teacher?
Classroom teachers serving students, colleagues, and parents
Explore CMI for Teachers →Are You an Administrator?
Deans, directors, and team members who partner rather than direct
Explore CMI for Administrators →Stewardship & Care
Respectful of conscience and tradition
Suitable for Catholic, Protestant, and classical contexts
Private by design
Results are shared only with the leader and authorized coaches unless you choose a team rollout
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a personality test?
No. CMI identifies temperament tendencies, then prescribes virtue-forming practices tied to your role.
How long does it take?
About 15 minutes for the assessment.
Can we use this with our whole leadership team?
Yes. Plus, an update coming soon where you can analyze individual strengths and weakness from a team perspective. For now, plugging individual results into your favorite AI model will provide solid results.
Does it integrate with what we already use (e.g., Lencioni)?
Yes. The guidebook maps directly to responsibilities like meetings, communication, managing people, and hard conversations. Click here for more on how you can incorporate the Working Genius model with the CMI.
Can this inform hiring?
Used prudently, yes—paired with your Position Success Profiles to clarify role fit and development needs.