The following leadership self-assessment contains questions under four sections: (a) leadership style, (b) leadership in relation to staff and board members, (c) leadership in relation to youth and community, and (d) leadership in action. Answering the following questions will help agency leaders contemplate their own leadership style. More important, they can begin to think about how to most effectively exercise their leadership to ensure that new youth policies meet the needs of young people and communities.
| A. |
Leadership Style |
| 1. |
Do I consider myself a leader or a manager, and how do I define those different roles? |
| 2. |
What do I consider to be the key characteristics of a strong leader, and how many of those characteristics do I possess? |
| 3. |
How do I define my leadership style, and through what means do I obtain feedback about how that style affects individual's and the organization's growth and success? |
| 5. |
How would I rate my willingness to continually rethink old processes and ideas? |
| 5. |
What are my greatest fears when I think about collaborating with others (for example, loss of power, adverse effect on the agency or young people, time constraints)? |
| 6. |
What methods do I use to handle my fear of loss of power or other personal fears when moving to a "power sharing" method of collaboration within or outside the agency? |
| 7. |
What would I be willing to give up (power, funding, credit) to ensure that youth received the best possible care in my community? |
| 8. |
What is my learning style, and how does it differ from the learning styles of the people with whom I work most directly (staff, board members)? |
| 9. |
Do I worry about who will get the credit for a new idea or initiative within the agency or the community? |
| 10. |
Am I willing to admit being wrong? |
| 11. |
Do I view each mistake, mine and those of others, as opportunities to solve problems and create new systems? |
| 12. |
Is my approach primarily reactive or proactive? |
| |
|
| B. |
Leadership in Relation to Staff and Board |
| 1. |
What decisions do I choose to involve staff in making, and what process do I use to ensure their full involvement? |
| 2. |
How would staff and board members rank my willingness to involve them in continuously "reinventing" the organization to better serve youth and the community? |
| 3. |
How open am I to accommodating the different learning styles of others? What methods have I used to help my staff and board explore their learning styles? |
| 4. |
Do I continually ask questions of staff and board members, and do I really listen to their answers? |
| 5. |
Do I use my mistakes as opportunities to model learning through experience with my staff? |
| 6. |
Do I encourage my staff to take leadership on specific tasks? |
| 7. |
Do I model proactive leadership with my staff or board? |
| |
|
| C. |
Leadership in Relation to Youth and Community |
| 1. |
What process do I use for periodically reviewing the organization's mission statement to determine its continuing value and applicability to young people and the community? |
| 2. |
What values, beliefs, and paradigms about youth and community do I hold? Which are important to me, and which am I willing to rethink? |
| 3. |
What methods do I use to keep in touch with the changing needs of young people and the community? |
| 4. |
What decisions do I choose to involve youth and the community in making, and what process do I use to ensure their full involvement? |
| 5. |
How would youth and community members rank my willingness to involve them in developing new services or advocating for new policies? |
| 6. |
Do I continually ask questions of youth and community members, and do I really listen to their answers? |
| 7. |
Do I provide opportunities for youth and community members to take on leadership roles? |
| 8. |
Do I model proactive leadership with youth or community members? |
| |
|
| D. |
Leadership in Action |
| 1. |
What actions have I taken recently to build my leadership capacity? |
| 2. |
What actions have I taken recently to build leadership or management skills among my staff and board? youth and community members? |
| 3. |
Do I have people upon whom I can rely to serve as an honest sounding board with regard to my new leadership ideas? |
| 4. |
How often do I step back from my day-to-day work to reexamine the appropriateness of the organization's mission and my effectiveness in leading the agency toward that mission? |
| 5. |
How often do I schedule time for planning, both short and long term, and who do I include in the planning process? |
| 6. |
What process do I use for planning? |
| 7. |
What proactive steps have I taken in the past 6 months to enhance the organization's capacity to improve youth services and policy? |
