4 Simple Ways to Assess Your Leadership Impact
The good news is you don’t have to buy a tool, develop a survey, or hire a consultant. If a leader is really honest with him or herself, then this simple method will be accurate, informative, instructive, and inspire immediate improvement. Good leaders step back and reflect on what is happening in their organization with these 4 straight-forward leadership indicators: Discipline, Proficiency, Morale, Esprit de Corps. I learned this technique as a Corporal at the United States Marine Corps NCO Academy.
Discipline
Discipline is the ability to focus, to endure, and stick to the task until the job is done. Discipline requires a person to tame his or her passion in order to accomplish a specific purpose. Discipline is the ability to meet deadlines, to shape one’s environment so that goals and objectives are achieved. Discipline allows us to filter out the noise that competes with real priorities.
Questions you should ask yourself:
- Do your teams focus?
- Are tasks getting done on time?
- Is the most important work not getting done while other less important work sails through?
Proficiency
Proficiency is the degree to which a person is skilled in their work. An organization with highly proficient contributors has a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, this is a place that some managers cut corners. Make sure your people are trained, have the proper tools to get their work done, and have opportunity to continue to grow their skills.
Questions you should ask yourself:
- Do I like the quality of the work we do?
- Do my people perform well?
Morale
Morale is the temperature of how your followers feel. If morale is high people are engaged, excited, anxious to achieve, and generally of good temperament. If morale is low people are discouraged, anxious about their condition, worried about what is coming next, frustrated, and as a result produce very little.
Questions you should ask yourself:
- What’s the morale like and why?
- What are the leaders doing to hurt morale?
- What can we do to improve morale?
Esprit de Corps
Esprit de Corps is a French term that captures the essence of what we hope to have in our teams. If our teams are connected to each other, if they are loyal to each other and to the larger group, if they are worried about each other, committed to team success, and demonstrate a sense of enthusiasm about their team and their work, we can say there is Esprit de Corps.
“the common spirit existing in the members of a group”
“inspiring enthusiasm, devotion, and strong regard for the honor of the group”
Questions you should ask yourself:
- Do my people care about each other’s success?
- What’s the commitment I see to the team?
- How much more could we achieve if we had a common spirit and strong regard for the group?
These four indicators are a fast, easy, and affordable way to quickly assess the impact of your leadership. After 30 years of leadership experience I find that leaders should be able to quickly see what’s happening and figure out how to fix it.
These four indicators are the best tools for self-analysis as a leader.