Leadership Self-Assessment (mini)

This page contains the mini version of the assessment. It has 20 scenario-based, multiple-choice questions. It usually takes about 30 minutes to answer them. If you’d like, you can take the full assessment instead, which contains 67 questions and gives you a more reliable report.

This assessment is not initiated by a coach and won’t share your answers with third parties. When you reach the end of the form on this page, the result will be shown immediately, and you don’t have to submit your email address or provide any other extra information.

The assessment starts below this line. Good luck!

In a meeting with the project’s customer, a customer representative gives you a sarcastic remark that seems completely sexist and racist. The sexism and racism of the comment seem to be intentional. That makes you very angry, and no matter how much you try, you can’t calm yourself down. What would you do?

As calmly as possible, I’ll stand up and say, “I believe this meeting is done here. I’ll contact you tomorrow to talk about what happened.” Then I’ll leave the room. I’ll follow up on it the next day when I’m not so angry, or even later, if I need more time to calm down.
As calmly as possible, I’ll explain how unacceptable their comment was and that I expect an apology and a guarantee that such a thing won’t happen again in the future.
I won’t say anything, but I’ll contact that person’s manager after the meeting to complain about what happened.
I won’t say anything, but I’ll contact my manager after the meeting to discuss the issue and see what can be done about it.
I’ll ignore it because that’s the best way to make it go away without hurting me more.

You’re the manager of a project for building a multi-functional building for an external customer. You are building everything based on the designs that the customer has given you, but you still have an internal architect to make sure everything is fine. One day, your architect comes to you and says the following:

“I’ve noticed that the building has no wheelchair-accessible entrance. It’s always possible to have a portable ramp ready if someone needs it, but it’s not perfect and shows that the design was not inclusive enough. My suggestion is to add a ramp to the entrance for accessibility.”

The comment seems right to you. While the two of you were still talking about it, the customer representative came to your office unannounced, and the three of you started discussing the idea of adding a ramp. Because of the extra cost and time involved in adding the ramp, the customer representative rejects the idea.

What would you do?

I accept it and move on, as they are the customer, and we’re supposed to make them happy by building them what they want.
I’ll send an email to the representative with a summary of why it’s a good idea to add the ramp along with its impact on time and cost, and I’ll ask them to accept or reject it by replying to the email.

A new regulation will take effect in 3 months, and your company has just realized that one of your major products is incompatible with the new regulation. So, a critical project is defined to adjust the product and make it compatible. This project is so important that it has a virtually unlimited budget because 83% of the income of the company depends on that product, and if it’s incompatible in 3 months, you won’t be allowed to use that key product anymore.

You’ve been selected as the project manager, and you’ve started initiating (preparing and planning) the project when one of the executives in the company comes to you and says the following:

“Please stop wasting time! We don’t have a minute to spare, and we must work as quickly as possible to meet the deadline.”

What would you do?

I’ll continue initiating the project.
I’ll skip project initiation because it’s an urgent project and also because the executive has asked me to do so.

You’re the manager of a small project. One day, the customer comes to you and asks for a change. What they want takes nearly no time to implement. What would you do?

I’ll do it immediately to show the customer how responsive and supportive we are.
I’ll document the request, check it completely, and then proceed from there.

There’s a deadline in 50 workdays. For that, you have 200 work items to finish, and you’ve already finished 20 of them. It took your team 8 workdays to finish those items. What would you do?

Nothing special; we’ll just keep going.
I’ll ask the team to work on weekends and stay two hours longer each day. That way, we’ll be able to meet the deadline. After that, I’ll compensate them with more vacations and bonuses.
We’ll separate the most important items and focus on them, to make sure at least those are finished before the deadline.

You’re a program manager, and the portfolio manager has asked you to track and report the number of person-hours you’ve used from each of the three categories of expertise they have defined in the organization.

How would you respond?

I’ll ask them to explain its purpose.
I’ll accept because my superior has asked me.
I’ll reject it because tracking hours is a traditional control mechanism that’s rejected many years ago.

You’re the project manager, and there’s a business analyst working on your project. At this time, the business analyst is gathering requirements, and they are asking you who to go to for that. What would you respond?

They should go to the customer, as they own the output of the project, and we should see what they want that output to be, not anyone else.
We should first create a list of the customer and other stakeholders and then collect all the implicit and explicit requirements.

You want to make one of your team members responsible for doing a task, and you don’t want to be a micro manager. So, you tell them “This is your task. Feel free to get it done in any way you want, and consult anyone you want along the way, _____.”

and pretend that I don’t exist until you’re done with the task.
and only make arrangements with me if the decision is worth more than €10k.

You’re a team manager on a project. It’s been a few days that one of your teammates seems unhappy. You ask them if everything is okay, but they say that everything is okay and don’t talk about any problems.

What would you do?

I’ll consider it closed for now because I’ve shown that person that I care and that I’m willing to listen to them if they want to talk later on.
I’ll leave it for a few days, and if that person still seems unhappy, I’ll invite them for a coffee and chat, hoping that they will open up and talk about their problem.
I won’t do anything else because I have to respect people’s privacy. I’m there to facilitate work, not to become a key part of their personal lives.

You’re the manager of a research project. One of your team members who’s a specialist was showing the client what their team has recently done for the project. The client representative got very angry because what was done was based on a serious misunderstanding of the client needs and so had delayed the project significantly. They left the meeting, and called you a few minutes later, saying, “I’m very unhappy with this person. Please send them to my office to have a talk and see whether they can stay in this project.”

How would you respond?

I’ll do as requested by the client representative.
I’ll apologize for what has happened and then send that person to the client representative.
I won’t send that person alone. We’ll go together to the client representative.
I’ll go to the client representative myself instead of sending that person.
I’ll reject the client representative’s request.

Your project is estimated to cost €800K, and you can earn a total of €1300K when it’s done. Your progress is 80% now, and your plan shows a budgeted cost of €350K for now. Your actual cost has been €700K. Your estimated revenue is unchanged.

What would you do as the sponsor of the project?

I’ll cancel the project immediately.
Everything is fine. We’ll continue.
Since we already have 80% progress and we’ve spent so much money, I’ll continue and finish the project.
I’ll let the project manager decide.

You’re managing a project that develops a web application that is supposed to work for at least 15 years. In the middle of the project, the team informs you that one of the famous providers of virtual servers has added new proprietary features that can help a lot in the project. If we use their servers, with those proprietary features, the remaining parts of the project can be done 30% faster.

What would you do?

No, let’s not lock ourselves into a proprietary service and build something that can work in virtual servers of any service provider.
Sure, a 30% reduction in effort is a great gain. Let’s do it.
Let’s check the cost of using their servers in the next 15 years compared to more affordable service providers and compare that with what we save by the 30% reduction in effort. If the savings are higher, we’ll do it.

You’re the manager of a project. Its client representative comes to your office one day and asks you to change something in the project. You ask for two of your key team members, and together with the client representative, check every aspect of that change and conclude that it doesn’t have any impact on project targets and, therefore, it would be fine to implement the change without any compensation.

You ask the client representative to send you the change request in writing so that you can immediately incorporate it into the plans. The client representative asks you not to delay the change and do it without unnecessary paperwork, given that it doesn’t have any impact on project targets.

What would you do?

That’s right; what was supposed to be done after receiving the written change request is already done in a meeting, and we have the conclusion. So, we can proceed without a written change request.
Ask the client representative to fill in the change request form anyway, but if they resist, ignore it and proceed without a written change request.
Fill in the change request form for the client representative, put it in front of them, and ask for their signature. If they resisted, explain that it’s the standard process in the project and no changes can be incorporated without a traceable decision.

A project manager in your company comes to you, enthusiastically telling you about the meeting they had with another company:

“It was like a battlefield! We were fighting over 7 items, and each of us wanted to win in as many of them as possible. Guess how many I won! All of them! We have all the advantages! It will be great. No one negotiates better than I do!”

How would you respond?

Congratulations! Negotiation is a key leadership skill, and you’ve shown that you’re good at it.
Well done! I’m glad you could win all 7 items. Just make sure the other party doesn’t see it as a battle because that would make future wins more difficult. Create a sense of collaboration and friendship instead.
I’m afraid what you’ve described is not ethical, and you’d better revise your behavior.
I’m afraid what you described may not be sustainable. Results are more sustainable when no party feels defeated.

You’ve been the sponsor of a critical project in your company that is supposed to adjust your main software product to comply with a new regulation.

The project team has designed a sophisticated solution and has been working on it for a few months. The project is about 85% done when suddenly, one of the team members comes up with an extremely simple solution to the original problem that can be implemented in only a few days. However, before implementing that, the changes already made by the project should be rolled back, which takes time.

You’ve asked the project manager to analyze the two options, and this is the result:

To complete the sophisticated solution, 1200 more units of effort are required.
To stop the current sophisticated solution, roll it back, and then start implementing the simple solution, a total of 1400 units of effort is required.

According to the project manager, these two solutions will have a similar outcome in the foreseeable future.

Which one would you choose?

Continue the implementation of the sophisticated solution.
Stop the project, roll it back, and implement the simple solution.

One of the teams has been working on a deliverable for about 20 days, and their work is about 90% done. However, the remaining 10% is blocked. What would you advise?

Move on to another deliverable and return to the blocked deliverable later.
Transfer the deliverable to another team and start working on a new deliverable.
Bring extra help and focus on the deliverable until it’s finished.
Start a new deliverable in parallel and keep trying to finish the first deliverable.

You have two top experts with similar capabilities in your team. There are 5 other people as well, but they are not experienced at all and can’t work without supervision from those experts. You’ve tried the following two setups:

Option A: Everyone works together on the same deliverables.
Option B: People are divided into two teams, each with one of the two experts. Teams work on separate deliverables without being involved in the deliverables from the other team.

In scenario A, they could finish 1812 units of work in 3 months. In scenario B, they could finish 1885 units of work in 3 months. Which setup would you choose as the permanent one?

Option A
Option B
I’ll ask the team to select one by voting.

You should buy a special device for the project, and the only company that sells it in your region belongs to one of your close friends. What would you do?

I’ll get prices from a few other suppliers, and if my friend’s price was not higher than them, I’ll buy it from my friend because being closer to our location makes transportation easier.
I’ll buy from someone else to be sure no one thinks that I’m giving advantage to my friends.
I’ll analyze the options, and if my friend’s option is the best, I’ll send the report along with a letter that explains my relationship with that company to a higher manager and ask them to decide.

Your managers want to invest on a project, but you strongly believe that it’s a wrong decision and it will seriously harm the company if you invest on that project. You explain it to your managers, but they don’t change their minds and start the project. You will have a small role in the project as well. What would you do?

I’ll do my best to make it a successful project.
I won’t spend too much effort on it because I’m sure it will fail.

You’re a team manager in a project that builds a web application. The project manager asks you to add a feature to the application that collects extra personal information from users. You ask for the purpose, and they explain that such information is useful and the company may be able to sell them in the future. You say that it might be a violation of users’ privacy, and the project manager tells you to leave that to the company lawyers and implement the feature.

What would you do?

I’ll accept it.
I’ll accept it, but I’ll make sure that my objection and the project manager’s response are documented in case we run into problems in the future.
I’ll object again, and if needed, I’ll try to find other solutions, such as talking to the project sponsor or the CEO of our company about it.

21×2=