Get to Know Yourself! Quizzes Galore!

So I thought, since we are going to be taking this journey together, it might be fun to know who we are when we start!

I've been looking for some leadership quizzes to share with you, so that you can get an idea of your leadership strengths and weaknesses and know what you need to focus on as we move forward in our discussion about Servant Leadership.

If you have some time over the next few days, check these out and learn a little about yourself and your own leadership style. Often, just knowing our strengths and weaknesses is half the battle -- when we can work within our strengths and find help for areas where we are weak, we are better leaders to those who follow us!

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Leadership Styles Assessment Test
This is a pretty cool test that ranks you in six different areas based upon your answers to 30 multiple choice questions. The descriptions they give for each "type" of leader are really interesting and I think this is a great assessment tool to see where your strengths as a leader lie.

In the interest of fairness (after all, I'm never going to ask you to do something that I won't do!), here are the results of my quiz:

Ambassador – your score is 21 points out of 25

Advocate – your score is 17 out of 25

People Mover – your score is 21 out of 25

Truth-Seeker – your score 18 out of 25
Creative builder – your score is 24 out of 25
Experienced guide – your score is 21 out of 25

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Leadership Style Quiz
Another, shorter, quiz, that asks twelve multiple choice questions to determine your placement in one of four categories (Visionary, Nurturer, Teacher and Organizer). I wasn't surprised that I was highest in "Visionary" -- but it was a little sad (yet not terribly surprised) to see that I had a big fat zero in "Organizer"!

My results are below, just in case you want to see where I fall.

Leadership Style
Your Result: Visionary (East)
You are a visionary. You see the big picture and are a generative and creative thinker. You think outside the box and are good at problem solving. You think a lot about the future and use future thinking to make decisions. You like to experiment and explore possibilities. You value words like "option, possibility and imagination". You look for themes, patterns and connections to help you interpret things.

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Leadership Style Quiz (2)
Another multiple choice quiz that asks twenty questions to determine what type of leader you are. They've coined their own "types" but from the descriptions, you can get a pretty good idea of your style. Here's mine:

Your Score Is... 164

Your leadership type is: The Enlightened Warrior (Score: 123-200)

Whether they've worked hard to develop their leadership qualities or they're one of the lucky ones to be born that way, Enlightened Warriors have what it takes to lead a team towards success. People who fall into this category possess excellent people skills and a knack for inspiring both enthusiasm and loyalty from others.

With their strong drive to succeed and their eyes constantly on the horizon, Enlightened Warriors are always on top of the latest business trends, ready to seize upon good opportunities. Individuals with this leadership type don't wait for things to happen - they make them happen. Always willing to go out on a limb when necessary, they can easily adapt to the often unpredictable changes in the business world.
Enlightened Warriors take their responsibility as leader very seriously and do their best to set an example for those that follow them. They command respect from others by offering the same degree of respect in return.

I know these quizzes don't specifically touch on servant leadership. There are some out there, but they didn't really assess your strengths and weaknesses the way the ones above do... and I felt that, at least for this exercise, it was more important to get an idea of where you fall as a leader than having the word "servant leadership" in the quiz!

Taking the time to learn a little bit about yourself and your leadership style can only help you further in your quest to become a better and more effective leader. Knowing and understanding your strengths and weaknesses as a leader is a great first step in leadership growth! I hope you guys had fun with these little quizzes today and, hopefully, have learned a little bit about yourselves in the process!

--Heather

For further reading...

So you want to get ahead of the Servant Leadership game? Check out these resources to get a great overview of what we will be talking about in the coming weeks.

Practicing Servant Leadership by Larry C. Spears

Ten Steps to Becoming a Servant-Leader by Lane Baldwin

What IS Servant Leadership?

Hello everyone!

I thought we might take some time today to define servant leadership.

Servant Leadership is a phrase coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 essay, "The Servant as Leader." Greenleaf enjoyed a forty-year career in the field of management research, development and education at AT&T. After he left AT&T, he enjoyed a second career as a consultant to many other institutions, including Ohio University and the Ford Foundation. Greenleaf formed the Center for Applied Ethics in 1964, which was renamed the Robert K. Greenleaf Center in 1985 and is headquartered in Indianapolis, IN.

The idea of this form of leadership is that one must first be experienced as a servant to others in order to truly be a great leader. "True leadership emerges from those whos primary motiviation is a deep desire to help others." (Spears, Larry C. "Practicing Servant-Leadership" Leader to Leader. 34 (Fall 2004)7-11.)

There are two basic types of leaders in the world -- the ones who work for other people and the ones who work for themselves. A lot of times, you see people in leadership positions that have a thirst for power. These are the people who climb on whoever is in the way to get to the top. The ones who abuse their power and take advantage of their position. The people who "pull rank" when they don't get their way.

Servant leadership is the exact opposite. Being a leader is a sacrifice. You give more than you take. You listen more than you talk. And you work hard... as hard or harder than those working below you.

Being a leader is not about resting on your laurels at the top of the pile. Rather, it is about helping others climb the ladder with you, striving to build a strong team and encouraging growth within that team to help build a new generation of leaders.

Genuinely caring for the people on your team, being aware of their personal and professional goals and fostering their growth and development in the company are all marks of a servant leader. When you truly care about the people who work for you, they can see that -- and they are happier and more productive, and they are more loyal to you and your organization.

Think of your past experiences in the workforce and the leaders that you worked with. What qualities did you admire in those leaders? What qualities did you not care for? Chances are, the leaders you enjoyed working for were practicing some servant leadership skills.

Over the next ten weeks, we are going to explore the ten qualities of a servant leader. Each week, I will post an overview of the quality we are discussing, as well as some examples of how you can put it into practice.

As time permits, I would also like to come back a couple more times each week and give extra examples, optional further reading and answer any questions posted in comments. I do hope that those of you who read my blog will comment and ask questions! I want this to be a learning experience for all of us!

Thanks for taking the time to read today. I'll be back again this week, with some additional preliminary information and we'll get started in earnest next week!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. Thanks for stopping by!

I first need to make a confession. While I do enjoy writing, I am not the best at writing consistently. I am hoping that I can change that with this blog and not only share some cool things that will help all of you reading it, but also discipline myself to write regularly.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be talking a lot about servant leadership. This is my leadership style and it was pretty neat to find that it actually had a name! There's lots of information about it on the internet, if you are up for searching, but I'd like to spend some time here not only talking about the leadership style itself, but giving specific examples showing how it can be employed to strengthen your teams and your relationships with staff and members alike.

I promise to try to make it interesting and hopefully you will find at least a few tips to try out!

Please stay tuned, because I'm making a promise for a weekly post! I welcome any and all feedback and also am happy to discuss anything in my blog via email if you'd prefer, so feel free to drop me a line anytime - heather@themommiesnetwork.org

I look forward to getting to know you more as we explore this topic together!