In the last few years, there have been many leaders ranging from supervisors to CEOs that have let their standards slip. They slowly became deceitful and dishonest. The lies and deception gradually grew to the point where it led to their downfall. Some of them fell so deeply that in addition to losing their jobs, they got arrested and lost their freedoms.
Often these leaders fell because they did not have any system in place to evaluate their actions. The were not performing a leadership evaluation or doing anything else to keep themselves in check.
Leadership Evaluation
Leadership is done right when leaders constantly seek improvement and perform a periodic leadership evaluation. The leadership evaluation help you to grow and learn so you can improve by making appropriate changes in your behavior.
To perform an effective leadership evaluation, you need to look at your actions past, present and in the future. Additionally, the leadership evaluation should be set up in a way that it addresses the tough questions.
Evaluate your past
The following questions will help you evaluate your past:
- How long have you been the leader?
- What did you do to become the leader?
- What past decisions helped you become a leader?
- Are you still making those decisions?
- What did they do to teach you?
- What type of a group do you lead?
- How did you become the leader?
- Where did you come from to get to where you are now?
As you understand your past and the path that led to you being the leader you will gain perspective on your past and strengthens your vision for the future.
Evaluate your present leadership standards
As part of your present leadership evaluation, think about how you lead. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have integrity?
- Do you work hard when no one is looking?
- Do you practice what you preach?
- How do you define your leadership qualities?
- Are you honest?
- Do you follow the laws around your specific industry?
- Do you treat others as you would want to be treated?
- What can or should you be doing better?
- What do you need to do to improve?
- What are your current weaknesses?
- What are your current strengths?
- Are you doing the right things when no one else is around?
When you ask these questions, be true to yourself and answer sincerely and honestly. Dig deep as you perform your leadership evaluation.
Evaluate how you will lead in the future
Once you have identified what you did in the past, look to the future and how you will lead going forward. Ask these questions:
- How can you address your weaknesses to minimize them?
- How can you maximize your strengths?
- How are you going to help your employees going forward?
- How will you help them to grow?
- Do you give them freedom to grow?
- Do you help your employees to succeed?
- What steps will you take to ensure that you can maintain your integrity?
- How will you be an example of honesty for your employees?
- How will you establish a culture of honesty and integrity?
If you ask these questions sincerely and then actively try to improve by correcting any negative results, you will be on the right path of leadership. You will be able to avoid the pitfalls that led to the demise of previous leaders.
Conclusion
If you perform a periodic leadership evaluation, it will help you to be an effective leader. Try to keep the big picture in mind and identify if you are on the road to your desired outcome. If you find that you are not on the right road, change your course by making the necessary adjustments. Proceed down that road for a time and then do another leadership evaluation. Through periodic evaluations, your leadership will greatly improve.
Do you do a periodic leadership evaluation? How do the above questions help you in your leadership evaluation? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Having evaluations is one thing. Having a culture that treats evaluations objectively is a whole other can of worms. At one client we were supporting a business transformation program. During the leadership evaluations we noticed that those answering the surveys were consciously biasing their input. On a scale of 1 to 5, if it was a 1 or a 2, they would put in a 3. If it was a 3, they would put a 4. Rarely was a 5 given.
We had to intervene. If the results were used as is, stuff would have hit the fan.
Your story is really interesting. Thank you for sharing. You make a great point that when you do an evaluation, it must be an honest evaluation. Just going through the motions to perform evaluations is a complete waste of time and money. On the other hand, sincere and honest evaluations help you realize and understand where you can improve. You can then determine steps you can take to become better which is where the real improvement takes place.