Manager self-assessment
For: Any manager who wants an honest baseline on themselves
Thirty questions on what you actually decided, said, delegated, noticed, and avoided last quarter — not your abstract strengths. The deep self-assessment baseline.
- 30 questions
- 5 areas
- ~60–90 min
- Self
Most self-assessment forms come from HR, built to compare employees and populate review software — so the questions stay vague, and vague questions get vague answers. This one is the opposite. Thirty questions about specific moments from the last quarter, organized around the five things you actually do as a manager: decisions, communication, delegation, observation, and avoidance. You can't honestly rate your 'leadership skills,' but you can remember exactly what you decided, said, and avoided.
How it works
Run it on yourself — there's no peer side; this is the baseline you build before you ask anyone else. Block 60–90 minutes, ideally away from a screen, and don't answer all thirty at once; 8–12 per session, finished within a week, beats phoning it in. For each question pick a specific moment, not a pattern, and write it down — for you, not for HR. Don't fix anything yet; just see clearly. Save your answers: the real value is comparing this quarter's to next quarter's.
What's inside — 30 questions across 5 dimensions
What you decided
the shape of your decision-making last quarter — what you're proud of, what you rushed, what you delayed, and what your team never accepted
What you said
the communication gaps the speaker rarely remembers the way the listener does
What you delegated
where most managers' self-image diverges most sharply from what their team actually experiences
What you noticed
whether you've genuinely been paying attention, or confusing 'things seem fine' with 'I haven't checked'
What you avoided
the hardest section — the real cost of what you've been postponing
The questions, in full
Every question is included below. You answer them yourself first, then send the same set to the people who've seen you work.
What you decided
- Q1Open answer
What's the most important decision you made in the last three months that you're still proud of?
- Q2Open answer
What's a decision you made too fast — and what would you do differently if you could rewind?
- Q3Open answer
What's a decision you delayed past the point where it would still help?
- Q4Open answer
What's a recurring decision you keep making the same way? Should you?
- Q5Open answer
When did you make a decision and not communicate the reasoning behind it?
- Q6Open answer
What's a decision your team is still re-litigating because they never really accepted it?
What you said
- Q7Open answer
What's something true you should have said in a meeting this quarter but didn't?
- Q8Open answer
What's a phrase you keep using that might not land the way you mean it?
- Q9Open answer
When did you give an answer that was technically correct but unhelpful?
- Q10Open answer
What's a difficult feedback conversation you've been postponing — for how long now?
- Q11Open answer
When did you talk too much in a meeting instead of letting silence work?
- Q12Open answer
What did you promise out loud that hasn't happened?
What you delegated
- Q13Open answer
What's something you're still doing yourself that someone on your team could do — maybe better?
- Q14Open answer
What's something you delegated and then secretly redid because it wasn't done your way?
- Q15Open answer
Who on your team is underused, and why are you holding back from giving them more?
- Q16Open answer
What did you delegate badly — without context, scope, or follow-up — and how did it land?
- Q17Open answer
What are you afraid would happen if you let go of one specific thing right now?
- Q18Open answer
What's an area where your team is more capable than you give them credit for?
What you noticed
- Q19Open answer
What's the team's mood been like in the last 30 days — and what shifted, if anything?
- Q20Open answer
What conflict between two team members are you choosing not to mediate?
- Q21Open answer
Who hasn't said much in your meetings lately? Do you know why?
- Q22Open answer
What's a complaint your team has voiced more than once that you haven't addressed?
- Q23Open answer
Whose work on your team do you not actually understand well enough?
- Q24Open answer
What's a pattern in your 1:1s that's started to surprise you?
What you avoided
- Q25Open answer
What feedback have you been avoiding hearing?
- Q26Open answer
What conversation have you been avoiding having?
- Q27Open answer
What learning are you avoiding because it would invalidate something you've publicly said?
- Q28Open answer
What's a skill you've been "going to develop" for over a year — what's actually stopping you?
- Q29Open answer
What's an honest assessment of your performance that doesn't match how you'd describe it externally?
- Q30Open answer
What would the version of you 12 months from now wish you had started doing today?
The research behind these questions
Built on one principle: you can't accurately rate your traits, but you can recall your behavior. It draws on Tasha Eurich's research showing most people badly overestimate their self-awareness, the Dunning–Kruger finding that we're least accurate exactly where we're weakest, and McKinsey's leadership work showing leaders' self-view — especially of how they delegate — rarely matches what their teams report. Every question targets a specific, recent moment rather than an abstract strength.
References
- — Tasha Eurich — Insight (2017)
- — Justin Kruger & David Dunning — Unskilled and Unaware of It (1999)
- — McKinsey & Company — leadership research
Ready to run this round on yourself?
Sign up, pick this template, answer it about yourself, and send the same questions to the people who've been in the room with you. The gap between your view and theirs is where the actual learning lives.