Self-Assessment Archives - Team Leadership Culture

We started off these two blog series with Paul’s text to the Corinthians. He listed the following items:

Afflicted but not crushed
Perplexed but not driven to dispair
Persecuted but not forsaken
Struck Down but not destroyed

We then looked at Daniel Pink’s book The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. Pink identifies the four core regrets:

Foundation
They begin with an irresistible lure and with incredible logic.
Boldness
Thwarted possibility of growth. The failure to become the person—happier, braver, more evolved, than we could have been.
Moral
Deceit, infidelity, theft, betrayal, sacrilege.
Connection
Meaningful relationships.

Together, they make some interesting connections. In Paul’s letter, we experience great difficulties and painful points in our lives. But in the end, they don’t break us. We are not crushed, driven to despair, forsaken, or destroyed.

In Pink’s book, the four regrets of foundational, boldness, morals, and connection are capable of breaking us and in all cases are self-inflicted. In Paul’s writing, the pain and suffering are no more or less than those identified by Pink. However, in Paul’s letter, there is a sense that these things happen in everyday life. While we should examine our own behavior and beliefs to determine if we are contributing to the affliction, perplexion, persecution, and personal destruction put forth by Paul—in the end, it may have nothing to do with our own behavior. Daniel Pink says that it essentially has everything to do with our personal behavior.

Regrets: Self-Inflicted

If you look at each of Pink’s regrets, there is a self-infliction:

- Foundational: It starts with an irresistible lure. This may be food, sex (also mentioned in the moral section), or materialistic desires. I’ve mentioned that my irresistible lures are new cars (I’ve had a new one every three years over the past 50 years). And watches. The self-inflicted part happens when we let our logic run ramrod over knowing that certain things are just wrong. I have an incredibility logical mind. I can convince myself that almost anything can be explained through logic. And I’m good at it. My self-infliction is in allowing my logical brain to convince myself that my logic overrules irresistible lures. I’m just too “smart” to be dictated by my feelings.
- In the boldness category, Pink makes the point that we’re just not bold enough to try new things. I’ve had three major careers since graduating from engineering school. The first was walking steel 160′ in the air. The second was developing a software company at the beginning of the microcomputer age. The third was TLC (Team Leadership Culture) consulting all over the world. A lot of people would say to me, “I couldn’t do that, I was never qualified. How were you able to accomplish three different careers and work all over the world?” It’s because I was bold and willing to try new and different things. I never felt qualified either. It just seemed like the new and bold thing to do at the time. Our lack of boldness is self-inflicted when we feel that we must be qualified first. If you’re bold in trying new things, you’re never qualified.
- Moral. In this one, I focused on sacrilege. It doesn’t have to be a religious issue. Sacrilege means “violation or misuse of what is regarded as sacred.” What do you consider as sacred? Violating it will cause suffering.
- Connection. I have at least three groups of good friends. Two of the groups are (or were) centered in Ann Arbor where we lived for 35 years. One group is built around our GPS4Leaders App. We’ve gone through good times and bad but have stuck together for several years. The second ground of guys have given ourselves the name “Space Cadets.” This is a group from several professions and we spend our time discussing clients and how to add the best of who we are to help them grow and become better. I feel very close to this group. We also moved to Grand Rapids, MI, a few years ago to be close to one daughter and our two grandchildren (our other daughter and grandkids live around the world and are currently in Tunisia). We are now a part of a Grand Rapids church and have developed several friends there. We’re very blessed with all of these connections.

Pain: Everyday and Self-Inflicted

Paul talks about the difficulties that we face in this world. If we have examined ourselves and feel we’re seeing everything clearly, these are difficulties that we face just because we live here.

Pink, on the other hand, talks about regrets being self-inflicted. We can avoid that by examing ourselves and our motives. It often takes that close friend who we trust who is not afraid to point out our flaws and shortcomings. But we must have someone that we’re that close to and who is willing to tell us what they are seeing in our behavior. Avoid self-inflicted pain—the world is full of enough pains for us without the ones we cause ourselves.

I have worked with hundreds of leaders through the years. My experience and belief is that none of them had bad intentions.

360 Feedback

I’ve used several well-regarded instruments for collecting and analyzing feedback from the people they work with. Typically the assessments include surveys of:

Self
Direct Reports
Peers
Boss

This gives us a full “360” view of their style.

Self Assessment

Each of the four assessments can be categorized into three general areas:

Very high overall assessment
Neutral or “middle of the road” assessment
Very low or undervalued assessment

High self-assessment

When the self-assessment is very high, I find that it is driven by ego and lack of self-awareness. Large egos are often driven by fear of failure, low self-assessment, or very low self-awareness. I have found that this low self-awareness happens because they believe their intentions and actions are at the highest level. They only want the best for others, the project, or the team.

Neutral self-assessment

This “middle of the road” assessment is often driven by a belief that they have very good intentions but they aren’t the “smartest person in the room” and they are very open to others’ ideas and constantly striving for unity based on respect.

Low self-assessment

This one may actually concern me the most. It is often driven by low self-respect and low self-esteem and is the toughest issue to deal with. It is often driven by long-standing, historical issues of neglect, abuse, and lack of self-worth. These are psychological issues that I believe are beyond a business consultant.

Direct Report Assessments

Direct Reports can also fall into the three general areas of high, neutral, and low. While the self-assessment is driven mostly by intentions, the Direct Reports often assess actions. The comparison of self- and direct reports will often be the clearest indicator of Intentions vs Actions.

Peer Assessments

While most leaders will work hard at being a good leader to their team (either intentionally or in action) they don’t feel the same need to be a good team member. They can believe that peers should know their job and do their job. It’s not their job as a team member to help and direct them but only to praise or criticize.

Boss Assessment

Often people are described as “managing up well.” This means they will always attempt to look good in front of the boss and always do what is being asked. Sometimes they’re referred to as “yes men”. Having a good score from the boss is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing. But only if there are also good scores from peers and direct reports.

Feedback

The point of these exercises is to know if our actions are matching our intentions. I said at the beginning of this blog that I don’t believe leaders have bad intentions. However, even with good intentions, I’ve worked with several leaders who have bad actions that don’t align with those good intentions.

Work hard at getting accurate feedback. This can be done with formal assessments like we just discussed. Or better yet, if the people around you feel comfortable giving you straight feedback. You’ll become a better leader and team member if you respect and appreciate the feedback you’re getting.

Self-Assessment

Regrets—Text to Corinthians