How does you or your manager rate? Do you have what it takes to be a great manager and leader? Could you benefit from a management or leadership course? Take the following quiz to see how you rate. If you are not a manager, take the survey as if you were your manager, to see where you think they rate.

1. How would you rate your team?

   1. They are all great employees and I would not change a thing about any of them.
   2. There are always ongoing ways to develop and grow my team, but overall they are a strong team of people.
   3. There are a couple that are weak links on the team, but the rest are ideal employees.
   4. There is a lot of work needed on the team to get them more engaged, productive, and working better with their coworkers.

2. I always make time to listen to my employees

   1. When they discuss both their work ideas and important personal things that are happening in their life.
   2. Personal conversations are not for the work environment, but I do listen to their work ideas.
   3. I try to keep conversations to a minimum to keep a clearer sovereignty between management and the team.

3. My team could quote the vision or mission of the team/department, if asked.

   1. True
   2. False
   3. We don’t have a team/department vision or mission.

4. Each employee on my team has weekly goals, and reports their progress toward them each week to me, via email or other documentation.

   1. True
   2. My employees have weekly goals, but I follow up with them to get their progress when I need an update.
   3. My team does not have specific weekly goals.

5. My team takes an active part in creating their own goals, and work items they wish to work on.

   1. True
   2. False

6. I tell my employees the reasons why behind decisions or new directives:

   1. Almost always
   2. Sometimes
   3. Almost never

7. My temperament toward my employees is:

   1. Always happy – By always keeping a positive perspective on things, I try to keep the team positive and motivated
   2. Neutral – I try to limit any show of emotion and take a matter-of-fact approach toward interactions with them
   3. I clearly let them know when I’m frustrated with them, and I’m known to raise my voice.
   4. It depends on my mood, if I’m having a bad or good day, my employees can tell.
   5. I try to mostly display a positive temperament, but will be candid if they are not performing as they should.

8. Meetings I conduct with my team

   1. Tend to run long or get side tracked.
   2. Always end on time and have active participation from all employees.
   3. Have a preset agenda with minimal employee participation, as they are more used as a communication tool to deliver information to them.

9. I talk to each of my employees in a coaching capacity:

   1. Daily
   2. Weekly
   3. Monthly
   4. Quarterly

10. I do performance reviews:

    1. Annually
    2. Bi-annually
    3. Quarterly

11. Motivation and my employees:

    1. My employees are self-motivated to reach goals and seek new challenges without prompting from me.
    2. My employees will only do stretch assignments if I “show them the money” or offer a reward.
    3. Some of my employees go above and beyond, but most just meet their basic daily job functions.
    4. It is difficult to get my employees to take any initiative.

12. I mostly develop my employees by

    1. Giving them stretch assignments
    2. Setting up executive or peer level mentoring
    3. By sending them to outside training classes
    4. Not often since we don’t have any budget for training

13. My employees can be heard saying

    1. “That’s not my job”
    2. “I love working here”
    3. “I’m too busy”
    4. “There is nowhere for me to go in the company”
    5. “I like to do things with my coworkers socially”

14. I find opportunities and plan time to get my team communicating about non-work related topics and activities.

    1. True
    2. False

15. I monitor my employees very closely to ensure they stay on track and do things correctly, especially in how they complete tasks.

    1. True
    2. False

16. During employee coaching sessions, the percentage of time I spend asking questions vs giving advice is:

    1. 10% questions/90% advice
    2. 30% questions/70% advice
    3. 50% questions/50% advice
    4. 70% questions/30% advice
    5. 90% questions/10% advice

Give yourself the following
for each answer:

Results:
If you ranked 28-32: You are one of the epic great managers. You have positive impact on all of your employees, and they will always remember you as the best manager they ever had. You are a rare breed, so be sure to share your talents with others.
If you ranked 20-27: You are strong in many areas, and many of your employees look toward your leadership for guidance. Find ways to refine your skills to learn how to generate even more productivity and accountability from your team, creating a strong team culture, and an environment of growth. You can be an epic manager with some simple enhancements to your repertoire.
If you ranked 15-19: You have some strengths in some areas of management. However, there are many areas where you can grow your strengths even more. Find classes to broaden your management skill-sets that give you the support you need to be a best-in-class leader.
If you ranked 0-14: Don’t despair – Being a great manager is a skill that can be taught. Sign up for classes that can give you the tools you need. There are many exciting things about managing a team, once you have the instruments and techniques within your grasp. Management isn’t an inherent skill. All of the greats got that way through training and development of their skills.
How to be the best manager
If you did not rate as one of the epic managers, don’t fear, you still have time to get there.  Surprisingly, less than 10% of managers fall into that category.  This is not because they don’t want to be great managers, but because they were never given the proper tools and techniques to do so.  All managers can use a management or leadership training program to sharpen their management tools.  Even the best managers need continuing training to stay fresh and continue to refine their techniques.  If you are new to management, a Management 101 course can quickly get you on track toward building the best habits and a thriving team.  If you are managing a virtual or remote team, you may just need a specialized class on Managing Remote Employees to understand the different requirements to make them successful.  Or maybe you need more focus on how to juggle the task portion of management such as Time Management with Outlook, to get more done with the time you have.
We spend so much time trying to develop our employees, we often neglect ourselves.  Your development needs are just as important as theirs.  Find an opportunity to get to be a student yourself: Sharpen your skills, give yourself a new focus, and energize your year.https://www.advantedge-training.com/microsoft-office-courses/

AdvantEdge Training and Consulting offers a wide range of Professional Development classes, in addition to our Microsoft Application courses. Check us out!