The "Manager Mindset" Quiz

Instructions: Answer "Yes" or "No". If you answer "No" to more than 5, you might be stuck in "Individual Contributor" mode.

1. Did I spend more time listening than speaking today?

2. Do I know the primary professional goal of every person on my team?

3. If I took a week off unexpectedly, would the team know exactly what to do?

4. Did I give specific positive feedback to someone in the last 48 hours?

5. When a mistake happened, did I ask What in our process failed? instead of Who failed?

6. Did I refuse to solve a problem today and instead ask the team for the solution?

7. Do I know the names of my team members' partners, kids, or pets (if they are open about it)?

8. Have I clearly communicated my expectations for communication (e.g., Slack vs. Email)?

9. Did I facilitate a decision rather than making it myself?

10. Did I share credit for a win publicly this week?

11. Did I take the blame for a failure publicly this week?

12. Am I protecting my team from irrelevant organizational noise?

13. Have I asked for feedback on my own management style in the last month?

14. Do I view 1:1 meetings as their time, not my status update time?

15. Do I trust my team enough to let them do the work their own way?

16. Am I hiring or promoting people who are smarter than me?

17. Did I help remove a specific blocker for the team today?

18. Am I calm under pressure, or do I transfer my stress to the team?

19. Do I celebrate small wins, not just the big project completions?

20. Do I wake up thinking about people problems more than technical problems?