Questions 1-6 below should be answered based on your current skill level. Answer Mostly False or Mostly True to indicate whether the item describes you or not—and be honest with yourself!
| How Do You View Your Current Skills? |
Mostly True |
Mostly False |
| When I have a number of tasks or homework assignments to do, I set priorities and organize the work to meet the deadlines |
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| When I am involved in a serious disagreement, I hang there and talk it out until it is completely resolved. |
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| I sometimes do things myself that I could delegate. |
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| I reach out to include other people in activities when there are discussions. |
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| I know my long-term vision for career, family, and other activities. |
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| When solving problems, I prefer analyzing things myself to working through them with a team. |
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Leader or Manager?
The
even-numbered items represent behaviors and activities related to a leadership skillset. Leaders are personally involved in shaping ideas, values, vision, and change. They tend to use an intuitive approach to developing fresh ideas. They’re likely to seek new directions for the department or organization, and to inspire teams to greater heights. They’re great responders to problems that require an innovative answer, or a very personal one.
The odd-numbered items relate to management of processes. When using a management mindset to respond to organizational problems, managers tend to focus on rational decision-making, and on stability and efficiency as goals.
Chances are you learned good management skills early in your career—they’re an important foundation for new leaders because the organization first has to operate efficiently. People who can keep the trains running on time are often promoted to positions with the hope that they can help others run their trains on time, too. However, even the best manager may need help making the leap from
managing a group of people to
leading a team.