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Being a good leader in the workplace is no easy feat. Every day is busy and full of challenges. It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of your everyday management tasks and let your leadership style fall by the wayside sometimes. However, as a boss, it's important that you don't let this happen, as your employees are counting on you.
"Leaders set the standards required of a culture," said Michael Henderson, corporate anthropologist and author of "Above the Line: How to Create a Company Culture that Engages Employees, Delights Customers and Delivers Results" (Wiley, 2014). Henderson noted that your leadership style indicates what's considered appropriate behavior in your organization, and that your company's culture will moderate itself based on what you endorse both formally and informally.
So how do you know if you're really a good boss? Henderson put together this quiz to help you evaluate your leadership skills. Answer "true" or "false" to the following 20 questions, and see how your management skills add up.
1. _________ I have communicated clearly and repeatedly to people on my team or department what our core business is.
2. __________ I constantly remind myself and my team of the purpose of our work and why we are doing what we do (e.g., for customer results, customer service or to hit sales targets.)
3. __________ I know and live by my own set of personal values that make me reliable and consistent around my team.
4. __________ I have communicated clearly and repeatedly to people in my team or department what my expectations of them are.
5. __________ I provide regular informal feedback on people's efforts and performance.
6. __________ I provide an organized formal performance review process at least twice a year with my people.
7. __________ I understand and know our company values, and how our collective behavior reflects or violates these values.
8. __________ I regularly praise employees' efforts and behaviors by describing how they reflect our company or team values.
9. __________ I am able to explain the need for change in our business in a way that interests or encourages my employees and doesn't dishearten them.
10. __________ I personally embody the company values in everything I think, say and do in the workplace.
11. __________ I am able to explain the wider context of situations and circumstances that affect or challenge our company in a way that my team can understand.
12. __________ I am able to identify where my team needs to grow and/or develop skill sets and capabilities, and can find the necessary resources to facilitate this growth.
13. __________ I do not judge my staff based on who I am, but rather on who they could be and should be.
14. __________ I never lose my temper with staff.
15. __________ I am credible as a leader. I know my stuff.
16. __________ I am approachable. Employees can ask me anything without fear of rebuke or belittlement, and I listen to them with full attention.
17. __________ I can explain to my team our key value proposition for customers in one short sentence.
18. __________ I am inspired by my work and the work of my team.
19. __________ I believe in my employees.
20. __________ I have an up-to-date understanding of our customers' needs and expectations of us, and their perception of us as an organization.
What does your score say about you? The more you answered "true," the closer you are to being a good boss.
"If you have scored 15 or more statements as 'true' for you, you are well positioned as an effective and inspiring leader," Henderson said. "If you have scored 10 to 15 statements as 'true' for you, you must begin work on the oversights immediately in order to become an effective leader. If you have scored less than 10 statements as 'true' for you, seek support or training and development, as you are currently missing many of the vital components required to be an effective leader."
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