How Do You Rate?

Rigor >> The courage to impose discipline and make it stick

13] When presented with a hill to conquer, what do you do?

• Charge ahead heroically, taking the hill.
• Design a system that lets your team take the hill, anticipating any obstacles.
• To garner support, claim that the residents of the hill have weapons of mass destruction.

14] How do you react when offered an alternative to your way of doing things?

• Stand by your team and your methods.Ê
• Investigate how you can incorporate the alternative into how you already work.
• Scream "You cannot be serious!", throw your racquet, and get your own talk show.

15] What procedures do you use to choose between conflicting proposals?

• Don't steer the direction, just let the consensus emerge through a series of votes.
• Work backward, establish criteria to score each proposal, and persuade everyone to agree with the objective evidence.
• Let Trump decide in the boardroom.

16] A team member violates the company's ethics code in making a sale, but it helps the team. What do you do?

• No harm, no foul.
• Rescind the sale under those circumstances, punishing the violator for ignoring the code.
• No pizza for a month.

Risk >> The courage to trust

17] Bob's employer wants each salesperson to share leads with the rest of the team. Bob's the top seller. How should he respond?

• "Sure, just give me a cut of every deal."
• "If this helps the company serve its clients better, then everyone will get more business."
• "Oops! Lost my Rolodex."

18] A teammate wins an accolade, one you thought you deserved. What do you do?

• Determine why your teammate received the acclaim so you can get it next time.
• Be happy for your colleague and vicariously share in her success as part of the team.
• Plot that person's demise.

19] How much time do you invest in really getting to know whom you work with?

• "I don't suffer fools gladly."
• "A ton. If we don't know each other, then how will we be able to function well together?"
• "I have coworkers?"

20] A big project is coming up in a rookie teammate's area of expertise. Do you:

• Give it to the star, snubbing the young turk?
• Go with the young turk, ruffling the star?
• Propose a bake-off, ripping the team in two?

Key

Give yourself 1 point for every a answer, 2 points for every b answer, and no points for every c answer. 35-40 points: Congratulations! You're a courageous leader. You take into account how you generate courage as well as your own actions. Think about any non-b answers and work on those areas. 20-35 points: You're a high achiever, but you generally haven't thought about how your me-first actions affect the courage of your team. Brush up on your weak spots. 0-20 points: You can come out from under your desk now. The bogeyman is gone.

If You Need to Improve...

Candor

Why is John McCain considered courageous today? Yeah, there's the Hanoi Hilton stuff. But the real answer lies in his willingness to speak the truth. A free exchange of ideas and opinions is the essential building block of courage. Don't play high-school-style games of not saying anything while everyone squirms, knowing the unpleasant truth. Speak up. What's going to happen? You'll get fired? As long as you're tactful, you'll always get another gig.

Much harder is the ability to hear the truth about yourself. If you have a rep for shutting down dissent, you can't just start asking for feedback and expect to get it. You have to make it safe for people to express themselves. Communicate your desire to have everyone participate, and ask people from outside your inner circle to keep you in line. Respect and accept difficult feedback, and people will criticize you to your face more often. Isn't that going to be great?

Purpose

Anyone can have a vision, but what's courageous is getting others to believe in it, fight for it as passionately as you will, and be accountable for seeing it through. Most people don't care if their employer -- or you in particular -- makes more money. But if they're part of creating a better tomorrow, for themselves and for the community at large, they're in.

Break down the larger dream in clear terms so everyone has specific, measurable goals. Post the performance metrics so everyone can track his progress. If even the janitor sees how keeping the lobby clean impresses visitors, then you've succeeded in getting everyone to see a higher purpose in work. Call it Zen and the art of trash pickup.