Self-Assessment: how good a manager are you?
Thirty questions, to assess your delegation skills, feedback skills, and more
This self-assessment is made of thirty points divided into six areas.
Each of the points below is a positive – the more apply to you, the better.
Delegation
When delegating, you explain what’s enough, what’s too little, and what’s too much.
After delegating a non-trivial task, you ask your delegee to rephrase their understanding of the task.
After delegating a task that requires multiple days of work, you set up an early check-in to correct eventual misunderstandings before it’s too late.
It seldom happens that a delegee completes the task as per your specifications, and yet you’re not satisfied.
When delegating a task whose outcome doesn’t entirely depend on your delegee, you make explicit which tasks they have full control over.
These five points are explained here.
Communication
You constantly answer the question of, “what does it mean, for them, concretely?”
You make your communication relevant to your audience by using examples that make sense to them and only to them.
When you communicate a standard, you make explicit what would be too little and what would be too much.
You observe your audience’s reactions to know whether they are onboard or require further clarification.
You generally try to be clear before misunderstandings are evident.
These five points are explained here.
Feedback
People proactively ask you for your feedback.
You avoid “fixed structures” (e.g., sandwiching a negative piece of feedback between two positive ones).
In general, you give more positive than negative feedback.
Before giving negative feedback, you generally ask why people did it the way they did.
After providing negative feedback, you ask the recipient whether it makes sense.
These five points are explained here.
Consistency
When you delegate a task, you always verify it’s been completed successfully.
When someone does something bad, you call them out before they start doubting you don’t care.
When someone does something good, you acknowledge them before they start doubting you don’t care.
You ask people to follow core values not just when they’re cheap but also when they’re expensive (in terms of effort or opportunity costs).
When you ask others to uphold a standard, you uphold it too (even if it’s not your job).
These five points are explained here.
Teamwork
Your meetings are useful and relevant.
When your team members talk during meetings, they go to the point before people lose attention.
Your team members know how to write clear emails, effective progress updates, etc.
Your people know how to give feedback to each other (and do so regularly).
You train and coach your people on how to communicate internally: how to give feedback, how to ask for help, etc.
These five points are explained here.
Trust
You make fair decisions and they are perceived as fair.
People trust you are an effective manager.
People trust you have strong values.
You explain your actions.
You walk your talk.
These five points are explained here.
Further readings
You might be interested in my books on team management (“Best Practices for Operational Excellence” and “Teams Are Adaptive Systems”) and in my course on Managing Remote Teams.