1) Eyes: My organization;

a) Has a clearly articulated (3- 5 year) vision that we reference often for decision making purposes in leadership meetings.

b) Has a vision statement that staff were involved in creating, it is referenced sometimes in decision making, but not often.

c) Has created a vision statement, but, we never talk about it or discuss it.

d) Has never created a vision statement.

2) Eyes: My organization;

a) Is in touch with the skills needed to succeed in the future and supports training and planning to insure that staff are prepared for the future.

b) Seems to understand the skills necessary to succeed in the future, but, has no training structure in place to make sure staff are prepared for the future.

c) Does not discuss future skill needs, but does support personal development training.

d) Does not formally support training or skill development to prepare staff for the future.

3) Ears: My organization;

a) Encourages leaders and staff to meet with clients and stakeholders regularly to ask for feedback and responds to feedback with new services or adjustment to services.

b) Actively solicits feedback from stakeholders and occasionally will make adjustments to programs and services as a direct result of this feedback.

c) Has a mechanism like a client satisfaction survey, but we never really do anything with the information.

d) Does not solicit feedback from stakeholders.

4) Ears: My organization;

a) Has organizational structures in place top, middle and bottom, that encourage input and allow decisions to be made closest to the problem.

b) Allows for input from the top level of management, but, does not have structures in place to allow for input from the middle and lower levels of the organization.

c) Sometimes asks for feedback from staff, but, rarely attends to the information.

d) Has no provision for input in decision making.

5) Nose: My organization;

a) Is virtually always at the table whenever a new program or service opportunity is available.

b) Is often at the table for new service opportunities.

c) Is only sometimes at the table for new service opportunities.

d) Is rarely at the table for new service opportunities.

6) Nose: My organization;

a) Encourages networking, committee participation, and relationship building within the field as part of its expectation for leadership.

b) Encourages some of its staff members to participate in networking or relationship building within the field, but not all.

c) Allows minimal networking and relationship building activities for certain people.

d) Does not encourage or allow networking and relationship building activities.

7) Mouth: My organization;

a) Has careful and extensive communication structures in place to insure that all important messages are communicated well, characterized by high inclusion and input.

b) Has a fairly good system for communicating important information, but, could use a lot of fine tuning, medium high inclusion and input.

c) Is not planful enough about how it communicates important messages and constantly uses the wrong method for the message, only average inclusion or input.

d) Is haphazard about its communication, staff feel out of the loop a lot, and has low inclusion and input.

8) Mouth: My organization;

a) Has a leadership message or theme that is clear and concise and gives us needed direction.

b) Has a leadership message that seems to change frequently, but, still provides us with guidance.

c) Has messages that seem to be driven by each individual leader, nothing that seems to be the driving force for the organization.

d) Has no articulated leadership message for future direction at all.

9) Neck: My organization;

a) Is providing new programs and   services that require different skills all the time, we are always looking for ways to improve or meet unmet needs. We have created several new programs or services in the last 18 months.

b) Is sometimes looking for opportunities to try new things and learn new skills, we have created at least one new service over the last 18 months.

c) Is doing the same kinds of services that we have been doing for a long time, but, we are talking about doing new things.

d) Is doing the same kinds of services that we have been doing for a long time, and we are not’t planning to do anything new.

10) Neck: My organization;

a) Partners with other organizations all the time and are currently offering many collaborative services.

b) Has partnered with at least one outside organization and created a new service with them in the last 18 months.

c) Is talking with other service providers with the intention of partnering in the future, but, we have not taken this step yet, and have not created any new programs or  services with other organizations yet.

d) Does not actively partner with outside organizations, because we like to handle opportunities alone. We are opposed to partnering with other organizations because they are competitors.

11) Heart: My organization;

a) Has a clear set of guiding values that all staff can articulate and are used regularly to guide decision making.

b) Has a fairly clear set of guiding values that at least the leadership could articulate and are sometimes used in decision making.

c) Has written the guiding values somewhere, but they are rarely, if ever referenced or used in decision making.

d) Has not declared a set of guiding values.

12) Heart: My organization;

a) Has a set of guiding values that is evident even to our clients and stakeholders, they could tell you what our guiding values are.

b) Has an image that communicates our values, some of our stakeholders could articulate our guiding value.

c) Knows its guiding values but, our stakeholders probably would not be able to articulate them.

d) Has not identified guiding values enough for our own staff to know them, let alone any outside stakeholders.

13) Shoulders: My organization;

a) Is seen as one that can handle heavy service commitments with capability and without complaining, and have as our policy that we accept such challenges, (for example, we have a no eject no reject policy).

b) Can handle additional requests and requirements from outside referral sources as much as possible, but, not always.  We accept these challenges more often than we refuse.

c) Can only sometimes handle extra requests, we refuse about as often as we accept.

d) Refuses such requests far more often than we accept and often complain to the referral organization when they request.

14) Shoulders: My organization;

a) Has an organizational climate that is confident, we are a "can do" organization.

b) Has an organizational climate of capability, but can come off as slightly overwhelmed.

c) Has an organizational climate of heavy ladened and burdened, yet, we are able to cope adequately well. Our turnover is somewhat high due to the pressure.

d) Has an organizational climate that is completely overwhelmed, our turnover is high because the work load is intolerable.

15) Brain:  My organization

a)   Whenever we are faced with a significant problem or challenge, we examine if from many angles and carefully check if the problem is deeper than it appears.  We intervene systematically whenever possible.

b)   Whenever it is obvious that the problem is systematic, we intervene systematically.

c)   We sometimes discuss the possibility of a problem being systematic, but almost always solve only the problem that we are presented with at the time.

d)   We are crisis managers, and solve only the crisis problems as they arise, we don't have time to look for deeper problems.

16)  Brain:  My organization

a)   We use creative brainstorming techniques and other creative problem solving tools to help make sure that  our ideas are new, fresh and different on the team as a matter of course.   "Thinking outside of the Box" is widely encouraged on our team.

b) We occasionally use creative thinking techniques to help us to "think outside of the box".  These are usually at retreats or other "extra curricular" type functions.     We may do this a few times per year.

c)   Creative ideas are supported, but, we don't have a regular format that will encourage them.  Therefore, we really don't have that many instances of creative problem solving opportunities on the team.

d)  Creative ideas or solutions are not sought actively.  We do things the way we always have for the most part.

17)  Hands:  My organization

a)    The role of our leadership team is to insure that the staff succeed.   Leaders are in service to the staff so that they may accomplish organizational goals.  Leaders are careful to know the support needs of the staff by asking and offering to help support their work and learning all the time.   Leaders advocate for the support needs of their staff as a matter of course.

b)   Leaders only sometimes ask what support needs the staff have and advocate on behalf of staff needs.    Mostly, staff are responsible for insuring that leaders understand their support needs.

c)  Staff are responsible for communicating their support needs to leaders.  Leaders rarely attend or advocate for those needs when they are communicated.

d)   The role of our leadership team is to tell the staff what to do.  The staff are in service to the leadership team so that they may accomplish organizational goals. It is more important that the staff understand the needs of the leadership.

18)  Hands:  My organization

a)    Empowering the staff to make decisions as close to the problem is the norm.   Staff are solving their own problems without the need of leadership intervention most of the time.

b)  We want the staff to take care of their own problems, and sometimes they do, but, sometimes leadership needs to step in and take care of a problem.  Staff are solving their own problems slightly more often than leadership intervention is necessary.

c)   Staff are empowered to solve their own problems only after their solution is run past leadership.  These ideas are sometimes approved and sometimes leadership offers a completely different solution.  Leadership has the final word on most decisions.

d)   Staff need to run all problems by the leadership.  The leadership makes the decisions that effect the day to day work of the staff.

19)  Legs:  My organization

a)   Leaders demonstrate the highest standard of respectful behaviors such as: listening to others, being on time, honoring others opinions and following through with commitments.

b)  Leaders are conscious that they are to set the example for respectful behavior, and more often than not, they succeed in behaving respectfully.

c)  Leaders are not conscious that their behavior is impacting the tone of the workplace.  Sometimes they are respectful, but, often they are not.

d)  Leaders are the worst offenders when it comes to acting respectively towards others.   Their poor example contributes  to a disrespectful work atmosphere.

20)  Legs:  My organization

a)   Leaders are very accountable, take deadlines seriously and follow through with their commitments almost always.

b)  Leaders try to be accountable, attend to deadlines and follow through with their commitments, most of the time.  There is a sincere desire to set a good example, but, they don't always keep these commitments.

c)  Leaders are not that accountable and don't often keep their commitment promises.   They often expect more from the staff than they are willing to do themselves.

d)  Leaders are the least accountable group of all.  They do not respect deadlines and often do not follow-through on their own commitments.   As a result of this example, deadlines are not respected and no-one is really accountable.

21)  Stomach:  My organization

a)   Leaders are able to face the harsh realities of change and make the tough decisions that will insure the viability of the organization.  They have the courage to take the risks needed to lead the team through uncharted waters.  The leadership is proactive about change management and decisions reflect that proactively.

b)   Leaders are aware of the tough decisions that need to be made and sometimes have the courage to make those decisions.   They will usually make the decisions more reactively rather than proactively.  But, they are able to make the decisions needed to keep the organization viable.

c)   Leaders are more reactive than proactive.  They typically do not take risks, even if they think that those risks could better position the organization for change.   Only when absolutely necessary do leaders take risks when decision making for the organization.

d)   Leaders never take risks or try anything new.  They make sure all decisions keep them safely in the comfort zone of how we have always done things.

22)  Stomach:  My organization

a)   Leaders are able to admit their own contribution to a problem, apologize if necessary and confront negative behavior directly and respectfully  most of the time.   These behaviors are typical characteristics of the entire leadership team.

b)   Some of the leaders are able to admit their own contribution to a problem, apologize if necessary and confront negative behavior directly and respectfully.    This is more a matter of individual leaders' personal style rather than a characteristic of our leadership team.

c)  Only occasionally would a member of the leadership team admit their own contribution to a problem, or apologize to another staff.  Negative behaviors may be addressed directly, but not always respectfully, or not addressed at all.

d)  Leaders never admit their contribution to a problem or apologize to staff.  Negative behaviors are usually ignored or permitted, or handled disrespectfully.

You may submit this form below and receive specific feedback about your assessments via e-mail or phone call.  Or, you can self score this survey and draw your own conclusions about the developmental implications.  If self scoring is your preference, please print the entire survey and follow the scoring instructions below.  Thanks!

Scoring:

Add up the scores using these numeric values:

A= 4.5        B= 3.75         C= 3         D= 2

90-99:    Excellent job!  Your organization is doing a great job leading change and seems to be balanced in the skill areas.  Keep up the good work!  Please contact us so we may highlight your organization and share some case story information with others on the web!

80-89:  Your organization is doing a fairly good job of leading change.   Look at the patterns of your answers for a place to begin honing some of the skills that seem to be dropping below the top.  Using the questions featured in the article, you can stay keep the skills part of your strengthening organizational culture. 

70-79:  Your organization could use some leadership skill development.   Look at the patterns of your answers, did you find that any skill combinations scoring lower than others?  If so, these are the skill areas to begin your focus.   The questions posed in the article sections are a good place to start to think through a plan for addressing these issues.   If all of your scores fall into the average category, a full blown skill development plan may be in order. 

69-below:  Your scores indicate a low level of skill readiness for managing change.  One suggestion would be to have the entire leadership team read the article and take the assessments together.  See if you agree that the team needs some skill development in these areas. 

 

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