| The self-assessment tools are intended as a first step
in helping you to define issues that may be important to your effectiveness in a
leadership capacity. The value in these assessments is in answering them as honestly as you can, and then following through on the learning that they might indicate. Remember that leadership skills can be learned. Your current assessment need not be the same as your future assessment. Think of this as a learning opportunity. |
This survey is designed to assess your interpersonal communication practices.
For each item on the survey, you are requested to indicate which of the alternative reactions would be more characteristic of the way you would handle the situation described. Some alternatives may be equally characteristic of you or equally uncharacteristic. Although this is a possibility, please choose the alternative that is relatively more characteristic of you. For each item, you will have five points that you may distribute in any of the following combinations, where 5 = most characteristic and 0 = least characteristic. The following are example responses.
A |
B |
|
| 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. |
5 |
0 |
Thus, there are six possible combinations for responding to the pair of alternatives presented to you with each survey item. Be sure the numbers you assign to each pair sum to 5. To the extent possible, please relate each situation in the survey to your own personal experience. In this survey, we alternate the words he/she and him/her to include both the feminine and masculine genders with balanced frequency.
| 1. | If a friend of mine had a personality conflict with a mutual acquaintance of ours with whom it was important for her to get along, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | tell my friend that I felt she was partially responsible for any problems with this other person and try to let her know how the person was being affected by her, or | |
| ____ | B. | not get involved because I would not be able to continue to get along with both of them once I had entered into the conflict. | |
| 2. | If one of my friends and I had a heated argument in the past and I realized that he was ill at ease around me from that time on, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | avoid making things worse by discussing his behaviour and just let the whole thing drop, or | |
| ____ | B. | bring up his behaviour and ask him how he felt the argument had affected our relationship. | |
| 3. | If a friend began to avoid me and act in an aloof and withdrawn manner, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | tell her about her behaviour and suggest she tell me what was on her mind, or | |
| ____ | B. | follow her lead and keep our contacts brief and aloof since that seems to be what she wants. | |
| 4. | If two of my friends and I were talking and one of my friends slipped and brought up a personal problem of mine that involved the other friend, and of which he was not yet aware, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | change the subject and signal my friend to do the same, or | |
| ____ | B. | fill in my uninformed friend on what the other friend was talking about and suggest that we go into it later. | |
| 5. | If a friend were to tell me that, in her opinion, I was doing things that made me less effective than I might be in social situations, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | ask her to spell out or describe what she has observed and suggest changes I might make, or | |
| ____ | B. | resent the criticism and let her know why I behave the way I do. | |
| 6. | If one of my friends aspired to an office for which I felt he was unqualified and if he had been tentatively assigned to that position by the president, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | not mention my misgivings to either my friend or the president and let them handle it in their own way, or | |
| ____ | B. | tell my friend and the president of my misgivings and then leave the final decision up to them. | |
| 7. | If I felt that one of my friends was being unfair to me and her other friends, but none of them had mentioned anything about it, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | ask several of those people how they perceived the situation to see if they felt she was being unfair, or | |
| ____ | B. | not ask the others how they perceived our friend but wait for them to bring it up. | |
| 8. | If I were preoccupied with some personal matters and a friend told me that I had become irritated with him and others and that I was jumping on him for unimportant things, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | tell him I was preoccupied and would probably be on edge a while and would prefer not to be bothered, or | |
| ____ | B. | listen to his complaints but not try to explain my actions to him. | |
| 9. | If I had heard some friends discussing an ugly rumour about a friend of mine that I knew could hurt her and she asked me what I knew about it, if anything, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | say I didn't know anything about it and tell her no one would believe a rumour like that anyway, or | |
| ____ | B. | tell her exactly what I had heard, when I had heard it, and from whom I had heard it. | |
| 10. | If a friend pointed out the fact that I had a personality conflict with another friend with whom it was important for me to get along, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | consider his comments out of line and tell him I didn't want to discuss the matter any further, or | |
| ____ | B. | talk about it openly with him to find out how my behaviour was being affected by this. | |
| 11. | If my relationship with a friend has been damaged by repeated arguments on an issue of importance to us both, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | be cautious in my conversations with her so the issue would not come up again and worsen our friendship, or | |
| ____ | B. | point to the problems the controversy was causing in our relationship and suggest that we discuss it until we get it resolved. | |
| 12. | If in a personal discussion with a friend about his problems and behaviour, he suddenly suggested we discuss my problems and behaviour as well as his own, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | try to keep the discussion away from me by suggesting that other, closer friends often talked to me about such matters, or | |
| ____ | B. | welcome the opportunity to hear what he felt about me and encourage his comments. | |
| 13. | If a friend of mine began to tell me about her hostile feelings about another friend who she felt was being unkind to others (and I wholeheartedly agreed), I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | listen and express my own feelings to her so she would know where I stood, or | |
| ____ | B. | listen but not express my own negative views and opinions because she might repeat what I said to her in confidence. | |
| 14. | If I thought an ugly rumour was being spread about me and suspected that one of my friends had quite likely heard it, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | avoid mentioning the issue and leave it to him to tell me about it if he wanted to, or | |
| ____ | B. | risk putting him on the spot by asking him directly what he knew about the whole thing. | |
| 15. | If I observed a friend in social situations and thought that she was doing a number of things that hurt her relationships, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | risk being seen as a busybody and tell her what I had observed and my reactions to it, or | |
| ____ | B. | keep my opinions to myself, rather than be seen as interfering in things that are none of my business. | |
| 16. | If two friends and I were talking and one of them inadvertently mentioned a personal problem that involved me but of which I knew nothing, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | press them for information about the problem and their opinions about it, or | |
| ____ | B. | leave it up to my friends to tell me or not tell me, letting them change the subject if they wished. | |
| 17. | If a friend seemed to be preoccupied and began to jump on me for seemingly unimportant things and to become irritated with me and others without real cause, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | treat him with kid gloves for a while on the assumption that he was having some temporary personal problems that were none of my business, or | |
| ____ | B. | try to talk to him about it and point out to him how his behaviour was affecting people. | |
| 18. | If I had begun to dislike certain habits of a friend to the point that it was interfering with my enjoying her company, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | say nothing to her directly but let her know my feelings by ignoring her whenever her annoying habits were obvious, or | |
| ____ | B. | get my feelings out in the open and clear the air so that we could continue our friendship comfortably and enjoyably. | |
| 19. | In discussing social behaviour with one of my more sensitive friends, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | avoid mentioning his flaws and weaknesses so as not to hurt his feelings, or | |
| ____ | B. | focus on his flaws and weaknesses so be could improve his interpersonal skills. | |
| 20. | If I knew I might be assigned to an important position in our group and my friends' attitudes toward me had become rather negative, I would: | ||
| ____ | A. | discuss my shortcomings with my friends so I could see where to improve, or | |
| ____ | B. | try to figure out my own shortcomings by myself so I could improve. | |
In the Personal Communication Practices Survey, there are ten items that deal with your receptivity to feedback and ten that are concerned with your willingness to self-disclose. Transfer your scores from each item to this scoring key. Add the scores in each column. Now, transfer these scores to the Figure below by drawing a vertical line through the feedback score and a horizontal line through the self-disclosure score.
Receptivity to Feedback |
Willingness to Self-Disclose |
|||||
| 2. | B | ____ | 1. | A | ____ | |
| 3. | A | ____ | 4. | B | ____ | |
| 5. | A | ____ | 6. | B | ____ | |
| 7. | A | ____ | 9. | B | ____ | |
| 8. | B | ____ | 11. | B | ____ | |
| 10. | B | ____ | 13. | A | ____ | |
| 12. | B | ____ | 15. | A | ____ | |
| 14. | B | ____ | 17. | B | ____ | |
| 16. | A | ____ | 18. | B | ____ | |
| 20. | A | ____ | 19. | B | ____ | |
| Total: | ____ | Total: | ____ | |||
As the Figure below suggests, higher scores in receptivity to feedback and willingness to self-disclose indicate a greater willingness to engage in personal openness in interpersonal communications. Of course, you need to be mindful of the situational factors that may influence your natural personal preference to be relatively more open or closed in interpersonal communication.
From Organizational Behavior by Hellriegel, Slocum, Woodman, and Bruning. Reprinted with permission of ITP Nelson.
Last Review / Update: 2005-01-04