What to Put on a Leader Report Card

If you really want to get better and refine your leadership skills, you have to get a little vulnerable and ask for feedback from your team. Develop a simple leader report card to distribute to them, and adopt a learner’s mindset when receiving the results. Thank the team for their courage to comment on your professional development, and let them know (after some reflection) on what you’ll put in your own growth plan.

Suggestions for items on the report card could be: How well do I…

• Declare the vision for where our organization/team is going?
• Build relationships with team members?
• Find ways to make the workplace fun?
• Affirm/praise/recognize positive contributions by teammates?
• Follow-through on commitments I’ve made?
• Lead collaborative meetings?
• Deal with troublesome distractions to team unity?
• Develop/stretch teammates to grow forward?
• Delegate to teammates so that the load is shared?

You can ask for literal report card grades, a numeric rating scale, or simple short-answers to make it easy for direct reports to comment. Get up the courage to find out how you are perceived with a leader report card to keep Growing Forward! Check out my new podcast The Tri-Cities Influencer on Facebook or at www.paulcasey.org for leadership and self-leadership interviews with local leaders.