Self-assessment for Leaders - what behaviours do you need to improve upon?

In 2023, I wrote a perspective on the 5 roles and their behaviours for leaders. This was based upon my work in transformation and strategy to execution advisory from the previous decade. 

A few years on, I see these 5 roles as even more critical than ever! Today’s leadership environment is even more complex, uncertain, and demanding. To support leaders in navigating this, I’ve transformed these 5 roles into a light-weight self-assessment tool designed to guide reflection and shape your learning outcomes.

Role 1: Strategist

Being a strategist, you are able to create clarity of the 'what and why'. This means that as a leader you are comfortable placing strategic bets in times of uncertainty. You are fluent in digital and AI and understand how technology can enable better outcomes. You are able to trade off short vs. long term gains. As a strategist, your default is to sense and respond, rather than to react.

Self-Assessment Questions

• Do I regularly make time to think about and shape the strategic direction of my team or area?

• Am I comfortable making decisions with ambiguity, or do I default to waiting for full certainty?

• Have I communicated the 'why' behind our work clearly and often to my team?

• Do I consider long-term outcomes in addition to short-term wins when making decisions?

• Do I create space for sensing and responding, rather than reacting to fire drills?

• Have I set a few strategic bets (3-5) that I’m committed to backing?

Role 2: Navigator

Being a navigator, you are able to influence through a network of relationships (external / internal) and to find a path through continuous ambiguity. You are able to find 'just enough' data, from either too much or too little, to inform the direction. As a navigator, often this can mean ‘creating a new path’, rather than ‘finding the existing path’.

Self-Assessment Questions

• Am I building strong, horizontal relationships across my organisation? At all levels?

• Do I feel confident navigating without clear structures, boundaries or predefined answers?

• When faced with ambiguity, do I lean into experimentation or wait for someone else to decide?

• Do I try to create clarity for others when none exists?

• Do I know which signals or data points are worth paying attention to, and which to ignore?

• Am I known for asking, “What’s the next small step we could try?” instead of “What’s the right answer?”

Role 3: Collaborator

Being a collaborator, you are able to work horizontally across functions / teams within your organisation and seek inputs external to your context. This means being intentionally curious and asking questions to deepen your understanding, rather than forming a judgment. As a collaborator, often this means letting go of 'information is power' and embracing radical transparency.

Self-Assessment Questions

• Do I seek input from people outside of my immediate team or functional area?

• Do I intentionally invite voices that are not like mine into important conversations?

• When presented with a perspective that challenges mine, do I explore it or defend my position?

• Am I comfortable sharing unfinished thinking and asking for feedback?

• Am I looking beyond our organisation to learn from other industries and contexts?

• Do I champion openness, or do I withhold information to maintain control?

Role 4: Coach

Being a coach, you are able to empower teams to make decisions – and this is your default. This often means leading with empathy and offering feedback with radical candour. As a coach, you spend much of your time asking thoughtful questions.

Self-Assessment Questions

• In team discussions, am I mostly solving problems, or am I helping the team to solve it themselves?

• Do I trust my team to deliver the work, even if they may approach it differently from how I’d do it?

• When was the last time I asked, “What do you think?” before giving my opinion?

• Do I give feedback regularly with care and candour?

• Have I shifted my focus to the 'what and why', allowing my team to own the 'how'?

• Do my team members feel psychologically safe to speak up, challenge, and experiment?

Role 5: Motivator

Being a motivator, you are able to inspire through purpose and acknowledge when it is hard, or when you don’t know the answer. It also means taking accountability for delivering on outcomes and helping others to get there. As a motivator, this can often mean going first, even when it's hard.

Self-Assessment Questions

• Do I connect our work to a meaningful purpose beyond just tasks and deliverables?

• Am I open about what I don’t know or when I’m finding things difficult?

• Do I take accountability when outcomes are not achieved, or do I deflect blame?

• Do I celebrate progress, small wins, and effort even when the final outcome isn’t clear yet?

• Do I step forward and support others when the going gets tough, or do I step back?

• Am I modelling optimism, resilience and authenticity, especially when the road is rough?

How can you use this?

For yourself as a Leader - Use this tool to reflect on your leadership growth and inform your learning plan:

• Leverage these questions to do a reflection on how you are performing the 5 roles of a leader. 

• Identify your strongest (default) role and look for ways to amplify it. 

• Then, choose one role to grow into and set a simple action plan to build that capability.

To build Leadership capability in your team - As leaders exist at all levels, here are a few ways that you can leverage this light-weight assessment:

• Pulse Check: Choose one role each week to reflect on as a team. Use the questions to guide conversation and uncover opportunities for improvement.

• Team Workshop: Facilitate a session where team members share stories and insights from their reflections based on the 5 roles. Each person commits to one behaviour shift to experiment with over the coming month.