Not all are created equal, but the best leaders share skills and behaviours that help them manage teams and even whole companies!
Maybe you are already on the path to success, or maybe you still need to improve a thing or two. Lucky for you, we prepared an exclusive test that can help you find out what areas you should focus on to improve your leadership skills.
Don’t forget to take notes on your answers and look at the results to find out if you exhibit the right behaviours to lead a team effectively.
Answer our questions and learn if you are the best leader you can be:
1. Your boss asked you to submit a report that was actually your coworker’s responsibility. It is due in a few hours, what do you do?
a) Not with this again! You know this is not your fault, so you actually don’t do anything.
b) You can see your colleague is very busy and you already know what to do, it won’t hurt if you do it for them.
c) You let your boss know this is not part of your responsibility and ask your colleague if you can do anything to help them follow the deadline.
2. You heard your company offers discounts and partnerships to take online classes at a prestigious university. What should you do?
a) It seems nice, but you already have a ton of work to do and worry you won’t be able to keep deadlines if you pick up a class.
b) That is perfect! Even though you have a nice education, you worry your boss will soon discover you have no idea what you are actually doing.
c) You ask your boss if you can leave early a day a week so you can enroll in a course about soft skills or improve your capabilities.
3. You left your job to become an entrepreneur. Pricing is difficult, but you made about 30 dollars an hour at your previous job. How much should you charge?
a) It is time to finally start charging that 100 dollars/hour your company used to charge clients.
b) Well, since it is your first client and you are just starting, you lower your price a little bit to 25 dollars.
c) Running a business on your own is expensive, and you know your worth, so you will start charging 40 dollars an hour to see how things go.
4. When you have a large deadline, how do you usually manage your time?
a) You’ll take the opportunity to do everything early and submit it as soon as possible, then the rest of the team will have time to review any mistakes.
b) You know procrastinating is bad, but at least you can take some time to take care of other things in life… Then you do everything at the last minute.
c) You take your time but won’t wait until the last minute. You’ll take the opportunity and review your work and try to develop creative solutions.
5. The final product went to the client with a huge mistake. You were responsible, but you know other people reviewed it after you turned in your work. How do you react?
a) You feel bad for your mistake, but your team should definitively have picked up this earlier… It is not entirely your fault.
b) Oh no! You worry the client will leave and you’ll be let go. You’ll take every possible opportunity to make sure the team knows you are sorry.
c) You apologize to your boss and try to understand what went wrong. The most useful thing now is correcting this mistake and ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
6. What is your approach to making friends at work?
a) Work friends don’t exist… Colleagues are competitors, and you should beware of them trying to bring you down.
b) How would you live without work friends? Everybody needs to blow off steam and talk trash about that nasty client!
c) It is important to make friends everywhere. Still, you know you have to maintain certain professionalism, so you try not to gossip as much.
7. Corporate wants to install new software company-wide. How do you react?
a) Piece of cake! You are an ace with technology, and soon your boss will see you are better qualified for this job than your peers.
b) Ugh, you can’t take another change! Things seem so different from when you started… You’ll wait for training.
c) You are not exactly the best person with tech, but you have the name of the software and start researching how it can help you do your job.
8. Your company said you can choose to work from home, but you should keep track of your hours. How do you manage time?
a) You see this as an opportunity to be more task-oriented. You finish the harder tasks in the morning and keep your phone on for the rest of the day and enjoy your home.
b) This can be either a blessing or a nightmare! You love being at home with your family, but sometimes you forget you have work to do – but you are sure to be available at all times.
c) This doesn’t change anything. You prefer to go to the office, but if you can’t, you’ll be sure to wake up at the same time and be available at appropriate times, turning your notifications off after work.
9. You were given the role of project manager for the first time in a team you know well. How will you manage them?
a) This is the opportunity to show your boss you won’t let mistakes fly. You know your colleagues’ weaknesses, so you are sure to only delegate tasks that are not that important.
b) You couldn’t ask for something better! You trust your team entirely so you can focus on your new tasks, and they will let you know if anything goes wrong.
c) There is nothing to worry about. In the first week, you improved the workflow, and now you can trust your team and add time to your tasks to supervise the workflow.
10. What is the best way to talk about difficult subjects at the office?
a) Some things are just not appropriate to talk about in a professional space. You’ll ask for time off if you absolutely have to, but without sharing many details.
b) You’ll let everybody know about your personal issue at the weekly team meeting. This way, you’ll only have to share once, and people know you aren’t just slacking off.
c) Transparency is important, but so is privacy. When you have issues, you go straight to your boss and trust them to let everybody know you’ll need time off this week.
Results:
If you checked more A
Your answers reflect that you know a lot about what you are doing, but you may be too focused on the tasks and don’t pay much attention to interactions with others. The best leaders know how to best employ their resources, including human resources. It is time to listen to other people and practice empathy.
If you checked more B
You mostly know how to do your job, but maybe your colleagues don’t know that. Leaders work well with people, but that doesn’t mean they say “yes” to everything. It is time to learn how to be more assertive and start to make your voice heard. It also doesn’t hurt to pick up some new leadership and soft skill courses along the way.
If you checked more C
You are a natural-born leader. Well, not exactly… we know maintaining these skills takes effort, so good job! You have both the knowledge and the behaviour necessary to thrive.
