How to Assess Your Leadership Style

Goleman and Stanford explain the dramatic impact of empathy on the performance of executives. Yet, many management books equate men with materials in the 5 M concept. The title of the subject, Human Resources Management also treats people as resources like materials, etc. There is an urgent need for a radical change in the mindset.

An empathic leader achieves better results through intimate bonds between himself/herself and the people who work for him/her. A bureaucrat uses authority, procedures, rules and regulations to move, rather than drive people to achieve goals. “Business is people” is an empty catchphrase for many in authority. But for charismatic and empathic leaders, it is a cardinal principle or an article of faith.

The charismatic leadership style is the most cherished one, but it is also highly difficult to attain and maintain. We have attempted to provide a guide to assess your charisma and empathy levels.

“What makes the difference between stars and others is not their academic IQ, but their EQ or emotional quotient.” ------ Daniel Goleman

“Charisma without empathy will start to look like manipulation. However, you may develop charisma as a by-product of increasing your EQ overall.” --------- Stanford

We discussed the test questions below with a few eminent executives. One well-educated, director of a global company appeared disturbed when he saw the question about “employee’s visit to residences of higher officers”. He would perhaps prefer meeting and talking to people in a jamboree at an expensive tourist place.

Such executives forget what Robert H Waterman, the eminent author of many bestselling books, observes that “even small actions can act as catalyst for impressive results”. He cites the example of the first Christmas dinner arranged by Petersen who succeeded Lee Iacocca as the Chairman of Ford. At this dinner “rather than getting their food buffet style as in the past, employees were waited on - this sharpness of departure from previous parties - sent a reverberating signal that things were truly different”. 

A visit to senior executives’ homes could be a source of such reverberating signals. And so will a few other ‘small actions’ listed in the test. 

Test

Notes: 

(1) Some of the questions below may not be applicable to your company; please ignore these. That is why we did not include a scoring pattern for the test.

(2)Please give spontaneous answers without referring to documents or thinking hard or trying to remember.

• Name five employees in your section/department/company who have made outstanding contributions in the last 12 months.

• Name five people in the company who do not report to you and cite each one’s outstanding contribution during the last 12 months.

• Name five employees whose residences you were invited to for a social gathering in the last 12 months.

• Name five employees who you invited for a social gathering at your residence in the last 12 months.

• Name five employees who sought your help in personal matters not related to the job.

• Write full names of five office-bearers of your company’s trade union

• Name the residential areas where these five people live

• Name the jobs these five people are engaged in

• State one personal issue that each of these five people faces 

• Name past five office bearers of the trade union of your company

• Name five areas of the town/city where the employees of your company are concentrated. 

• List the dates/occasions when you held frank discussions with all the employees reporting to you in the last 12 months.

• Name the five promises you made in the last 12 months to individuals/groups which you fulfilled on time.

• List five benefits which you are planning to give your employees if the company exceeds the targets.

• State the birthdays of the top five people who report to you.

• Give the names of the spouses and children of these five employees.

• State the approximate number of years of service and the dates of annual reviews  of these five employees 

How many of these questions were you able to answer? The more the number you could answer correctly, more of a “people’s leader” you are. That’s because the answers show the various facets of your employees that make them more than just people doing their jobs. It’s never too late to start to get to know your team better.