Calculators and Evaluators Calculate. Evaluate. Interact. Are You a Good Leader? Think you have the skills it takes to succeed as a leader? Take our quiz and find out if a climb to the top is in your future. NameBusinessEmail1) You have lots of training and experience managing people, but have trouble keeping up with the latest technology. You: Try to learn as much as you can about new advances in your spare time. Sign up for extra training on how to motivate employees, evaluate their performance, and improve your public speaking skills. Assume that, if there's anything you need to know about new office technology, the IT department will tell you about it.2) You've always been a linear thinker, using logic to solve every problem. When someone presents you with a dilemma for which there is no clear logical response (say, an employee upset over a missing stapler loudly denounces his colleagues as a bunch of thieves), you: Hammer away at the employee with logical arguments as to why he is being irrational. After all, your clear-headed approach is one reason you're the boss. Tell the employee he's being ridiculous and assume the fuss will die down. Look at the situation from the employee's point of view, even though his worries strike you as paranoid.3) The CEO asks you for ideas for a new marketing campaign, even though advertising is not your area of expertise. You: Meet with people in the marketing department to get their views, brainstorm with a mentor, and research you competitors' marketing campaigns. Explain to the CEO that you are the wrong person for this task, since you know nothing about marketing, and recommend someone with the right skills. Put off dealing with the assignment until the CEO assigns it to someone else who is better qualified to handle it.4) You are so stressed about the mountain of work to be done over the next several weeks that you doubt whether you can finish it all. You: Resolve to work around the clock, including weekends, to get it all done. Tell your boss that you think your workload is excessive and that you could do a better job if some of your deadlines were extended. Slow down, leave the office at 6 p.m. each day, and maybe even consider a short vacation to recharge your batteries.5) You've been concentrating hard on solving a thorny problem, but don't seem to be getting anywhere. You: Try harder. In the past, you've always found a solution after plugging away at the problem long enough. Delegate the problem to someone under you and hope that a fresh perspective will yield a workable solution. Relax, stare out the window or take a walk, and let your mind wander.6) You have several tasks to complete by the end of the week. The most efficient way of organising your time is to: Do as many things at once as you can, since multi-tasking saves time. Focus your attention on one thing at a time, moving on to the next task once you've finished with the one at hand. Try to get everything done by putting in longer hours than usual.7) You are faced with an important decision that could impact your company's future strategy, but don't have enough facts to suggest which way it should go. You: Think carefully about what the information you have indicates, discuss the options with knowledgeable colleagues, and then make a decision. Make no decision until you've done exhaustive research and analysed every possible outcome of every available option. Delegate the decision to someone else with better intuition than you.8) Your department is not meeting its financial targets and key customers are less loyal than before. You need to turn things around fast. The best way to do this is: Cancel the holiday party, ask people to take shorter lunch breaks, and get everyone to work longer and harder until the department gets back on track. Take responsibility for the department's problems, since you're the one in charge, and do your best to fix them. Inspire people by ordering free pizza at lunch, start a t-shirt slogan contest, and award free movie tickets or restaurant dinners for two to the person with the most creative solution to winning back a client.9) You have been assigned to lead a team of employees from different races and ethnic backgrounds and whose ages range from early 20s to late 50s. The best way to help the group bond is to: Encourage people to express different points of view based on their diverse backgrounds and experiences. Ignore the differences among them since neither age, race, nor ethnicity has any bearing on their abilities to do the job. Take a course in managing diversity so that you're aware of the legal issues, but otherwise guide the team as if there were no differences among age, race or ethnicity.10) At the end of the year, your department has money left over in the budget that you are free to spend how you choose. To help make the company more successful, you: Give the top five performers in your department a big bonus. Ask employees for suggestions on which local charities need help, then come up with a project you can sponsor that will make a visible difference to the community. Throw a blowout bash for the entire department and their families.
