Self-Assessment Tool:
Are You A Transformational Leader?

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.

Transformational leaders can inspire profound growth and change in followers. Are you a transformational leader?

Instructions

The following statements refer to the possible ways in which you might prefer to behave toward others when you are in a leadership role. Please read each statement carefully and decide to what extent it applies to your preferred or actual behaviours. Then circle the appropriate number.

  To a Very Great Extent
To a Considerable Extent
To a Moderate Extent
To a Slight Extent
To Little or No Extent		 5
4
3
2
1		  

Your preference is to ...

1. pay close attention to what others say when they are talking.

5

4

3

2

1
             
2. communicate clearly.

5

4

3

2

1
             
3. be trustworthy.

5

4

3

2

1
             
4. care about other people.

5

4

3

2

1
             
5. not put excessive energy into avoiding failure.

5

4

3

2

1
             
6. make the work of others more meaningful.

5

4

3

2

1
             
7. seem to focus on the key issues in a situation.

5

4

3

2

1
             
8. get across your meaning effectively, often in unusual ways.

5

4

3

2

1
             
9. be relied on to follow through on commitments.

5

4

3

2

1
             
10. have a great deal of self-respect.

5

4

3

2

1
             
11. enjoy taking carefully calculated risks.

5

4

3

2

1
             
12. help others feel more competent in what they do.

5

4

3

2

1
             
13. have a clear set of priorities.

5

4

3

2

1
             
14. keep in touch with how others feel.

5

4

3

2

1
             
15. rarely change once you have taken a clear position.

5

4

3

2

1
             
16. focus on strengths, of yourself and of others.

5

4

3

2

1
             
17. seem most alive when deeply involved in some project.

5

4

3

2

1
             
18. show others that they are all part of the same group.

5

4

3

2

1
             
19. get others to focus on the issues you see as important.

5

4

3

2

1
             
20. communicate feelings as well as ideas.

5

4

3

2

1
             
21. let others know where you stand.

5

4

3

2

1
             
22. know just how you "fit" into a group.

5

4

3

2

1
             
23. learn from mistakes; do not treat errors as disasters, but as learning.

5

4

3

2

1
             
24. be fun to be around.

5

4

3

2

1

Interpretation

The questionnaire measures each of the six basic leader behaviour patterns, as well as a set of emotional responses usually associated with transformational leaders. Your score can range from 4 to 20. Each question is stated as a measure of the extent to which you prefer or actually engage in a behaviour. The higher your score, the more you prefer or actually demonstrate transformational leader behaviours.

Index 1: Management of Attention (1, 7, 13, 19). Your score ____.

You pay especially close attention to people with whom you are communicating. You prefer to "focus in" on the key issues under discussion and help others to see clearly these key points. You have clear ideas about the relative importance or priorities of different issues under discussion.

Index 2: Management of Meaning (2, 8, 14, 20). Your score ____.

This set of items centers on your communication skills, specifically your ability to get the meaning of a message across, even if this means devising some quite innovative approach.

Index 3: Management of Trust (3, 9, 15, 21). Your score ____.

The key factor is your perceived trustworthiness as shown by your willingness to follow through on promises, avoidance of "flip-flop" shifts in position, and preference to take clear positions.

Index 4: Management of Self (4, 10, 16, 22). Your score ____.

This index concerns your general attitudes toward yourself and others:  your overall concern for others and their feelings, as well as for "taking care of" feelings about yourself in a positive sense (e.g. self-regard).

Index 5: Management of Risk (5, 11, 17, 23). Your score ____.

Effective transformational leaders are deeply involved in what they do. They do not spend excessive amounts of time or energy on plans to "protect" themselves against failure (a "CYA" approach). These leaders are willing to take risks, not on a hit-or-miss basis, but after careful estimation of the odds of success or failure.

Index 6: Management of Feelings (6, 12, 18, 24). Your score ____.

Transformational leaders seem to consistently generate a set of feelings in others. Others feel that their work becomes more meaningful and that they are the "masters" of their own behaviour; that is, they feel competent. They feel a sense of community, a "we-ness" with their colleagues and co-workers.

From Organizational Behavior by Hellriegel, Slocum, Woodman, and Bruning.   Reprinted with permission of ITP Nelson.

For more information on Transformational Leadership, you may want to look at:

Leaders - The Strategies for Taking Charge, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus

or

The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner

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Last Review / Update: 2011-07-04