Your Leadership

Exercise 13.1

Your leadership

The aim of this exercise is to get you to focus on your leadership skills and how they might be developed as the business grows.

1. Complete the Leadership Style questionnaire below. It evaluates your ‘people vs task’ orientation. For each of the following statements, select ‘Yes’ if you tend to agree ‘No’ if you disagree. Try to relate the answers to your actual recent behaviour as a manager. There are no right and wrong answers.

Click inside the table to begin using it.

1. I encourage overtime work / Choose an item.
2. I allow staff complete freedom in their work / Choose an item.
3. I encourage the use of standard procedures / Choose an item.
4. I allow staff to use their own judgement in solving problems / Choose an item.
5. I stress being better than other firms / Choose an item.
6. I urge staff to greater effort / Choose an item.
7. I try out my ideas with others in the firm / Choose an item.
8. I let my staff work in the way they think best / Choose an item.
9. I keep work moving at a rapid pace / Choose an item.
10. I turn staff loose on a job and let them get on with it. / Choose an item.
11. I settle conflicts when they happen / Choose an item.
12. I get swamped by detail / Choose an item.
13. I always represent the ‘firm view’ at meetings with outsiders / Choose an item.
14. I am reluctant to allow staff freedom of action / Choose an item.
15. I decide what should be done and who should do it / Choose an item.
16. I push for improved quality / Choose an item.
17. I let some staff have authority I could keep / Choose an item.
18. Things usually turn out as I predict / Choose an item.
19. I allow staff a high degree of initiative / Choose an item.
20. I assign staff to particular tasks / Choose an item.
21. I am willing to make changes / Choose an item.
22. I ask staff to work harder / Choose an item.
23. I trust staff to exercise good judgement / Choose an item.
24. I schedule the work to be done / Choose an item.
25. I refuse to explain my actions / Choose an item.
26. I persuade others that my ideas are to their advantage / Choose an item.
27. I permit the staff to set their own pace for change / Choose an item.
28. I urge staff to beat previous targets / Choose an item.
29. I act without consulting staff / Choose an item.
30. I ask staff to follow standard rules and procedures / Choose an item.

Next plot your position on the Leadership Grid on the following page.

Leadership Style Questionnaire: Scoring

To obtain your leadership orientation rating, score 1 point for the appropriate response under each heading, then total your scores. If your response is inappropriate you do not score. Plot your score below by placing an ‘X’ in the appropriate box. As a guide, a score of 5 or less is low and 12 or more is high.

Concern for PEOPLE score (maximum score 15)

‘Yes’ for questions 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 19, 21, 23, 27. ‘No’ for questions 6, 13, 14, 25, 29, 30.

Concern for TASK score (maximum score 15)

‘Yes’ for questions 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28.

‘No’ for question 12.

Click inside the table to begin using it

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0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15

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What does this tell you about your leadership style?

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2. Complete a Thomas–Kilmann Conflict Modes Instrument (http://www.kilmanndiagnostics.com/conflict.html). What does this tell you about your style of dealing with conflict?

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Exercise 13.2

Review the results of your Belbin test in Exercise 12.4.

Exercise 13.3

With the results of these tests in mind, evaluate your ability to lead an entrepreneurial organization against the ten attributes, skills and behaviours listed in Table 13.1. Jot your conclusions down below.

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Exercise 13.4

Review the results of Exercises 12.5 and 12.6 and change, as appropriate, to reflect your leadership style.

Exercise 13.5

List the implications of these exercises for your current leadership skills. Think about what you need to do to develop them further. Jot your conclusions down below.

Click here to enter text.

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For more resources visit http://www.palgrave.com/companion/burns-new-venture-creation