Manager Ownership Diagnostic

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Get a Clearer View of How You Lead

Answer 25 practical workplace scenarios to explore how you respond across five areas of everyday leadership. You’ll receive:

an overall Leadership Capability Score
a separate assessment for each Leadership Area
your strongest relative area
your greatest development opportunity

Time to complete: approximately 10–15 minutes.

Before you begin

There are no right or wrong answers. For each scenario, choose the response that best reflects what you would most likely do — not what you think the ideal response should be.

Area 1: Lead Yourself

1. You have been under considerable pressure for several weeks, with deadlines increasing, priorities constantly changing, and your team frequently approaching you with additional requests. What are you MOST likely to do?

Work with greater personal discipline and organize your schedule better to manage the increasing workload.

Focus on completing the most urgent priorities first while adjusting other activities when time allows.

Reassess priorities, communicate expectations clearly, and protect time for the highest-value activities.

Increase your personal availability temporarily to support the team until the pressure decreases.

Please select an answer.

2. Following a difficult meeting, you realize that one of your comments negatively affected a colleague. What are you MOST likely to do?

Be more careful in future interactions while allowing some time for the situation to naturally improve.

Reflect on your behavior, initiate a conversation, and seek to rebuild trust.

Explain your original intention if the topic comes up again to ensure there was no misunderstanding.

Continue demonstrating positive behavior in future meetings to rebuild confidence over time.

Please select an answer.

3. You have recently been promoted into a leadership position, and your former colleagues are now your direct reports. Some continue treating you as a friend rather than their manager. What is the MOST appropriate leadership response?

Maintain the existing relationships while gradually adjusting expectations as situations occur.

Create more professional distance to help everyone adapt to the new leadership relationship.

Build professional relationships by establishing clear expectations while maintaining respect and trust.

Allow relationships to evolve naturally while focusing mainly on achieving team objectives.

Please select an answer.

4. A senior manager provides constructive feedback on one of your recent decisions. Although you initially disagree, you recognize that some of the feedback is valid. What are you MOST likely to do?

Review the feedback carefully and consider whether adjustments may be needed in similar future situations.

Accept the feedback professionally and continue monitoring whether changes are necessary.

Discuss the feedback with others to gain additional perspectives before deciding what actions to take.

Reflect on the feedback, identify improvements, and apply the learning to future decisions.

Please select an answer.

5. You have been leading your department for six months. Performance has improved, but you have become involved in almost every important decision, employees regularly seek your approval before taking action, and although results remain good, your workload has become unsustainable. As the department manager, what should you do FIRST?

Continue supporting important decisions while gradually encouraging employees to take more initiative.

Create clearer processes and reporting routines to ensure decisions remain consistent.

Delegate more responsibilities while remaining closely involved until employees demonstrate readiness.

Develop employee capability through coaching, clearer decision boundaries, delegation, and accountability so the team becomes increasingly self-sufficient.

Please select an answer.

Area 2: Lead People

6. One of your employees regularly comes to you for answers instead of solving problems independently. What are you MOST likely to do?

Provide guidance when needed while encouraging the employee to gradually become more confident.

Suggest possible solutions and ask the employee to select the approach they believe is best.

Coach the employee by asking questions that help them develop their own solutions.

Give the employee more responsibility so they gain experience through solving problems independently.

Please select an answer.

7. An experienced employee suddenly becomes quieter during meetings and contributes fewer ideas than usual. What are you MOST likely to do?

Observe the situation for a short period to understand whether this is a temporary change.

Arrange a private conversation to understand what may have changed and how you can support them.

Encourage the employee to participate more actively during future meetings.

Review recent performance and workload indicators to identify possible reasons for the change.

Please select an answer.

8. Your team has completed an important project successfully, and one employee contributed significantly more than the others. What would you MOST likely do?

Recognize the strongest contributor while reminding everyone of the importance of teamwork.

Celebrate the overall team achievement to reinforce collaboration and collective success.

Celebrate the team's success while recognizing individual contributions fairly and specifically.

Personally thank key contributors and discuss development opportunities with them individually.

Please select an answer.

9. Two employees disagree strongly about how a customer issue should be resolved, and the disagreement is beginning to affect the rest of the team. What would you MOST likely do?

Listen to both perspectives and then make the final decision to maintain progress.

Encourage both employees to discuss the situation directly and take ownership of the solution.

Facilitate a constructive discussion focused on facts, shared goals, and finding the best solution together.

Review the available information independently before deciding the most appropriate next step.

Please select an answer.

10. You have been managing the same team for over a year, and performance remains good. However, employees rely heavily on your decisions, very few team members volunteer for additional responsibility, future supervisors are not emerging, and you often feel you are carrying too much of the team's workload. As the manager, what would you MOST likely do FIRST?

Continue providing strong leadership while gradually encouraging employees to take more ownership.

Introduce new objectives and challenges to motivate employees to demonstrate greater initiative.

Rebalance responsibilities across the team to provide broader exposure and development opportunities.

Develop a structured coaching and delegation plan that gradually builds capability, confidence, accountability, and future leadership within the team.

Please select an answer.

Area 3: Build High-Performing Teams

11. You notice that most important decisions within your team still depend on you, even though your employees are experienced and capable. What are you MOST likely to do?

Continue supporting key decisions while gradually encouraging employees to contribute more recommendations.

Encourage employees to take more initiative by involving them earlier in discussions and decision-making processes.

Clarify decision-making boundaries, increase delegation, and coach employees to make appropriate decisions independently.

Create clearer decision processes to ensure consistency and alignment before decisions are finalized.

Please select an answer.

12. Your team consistently achieves its targets, but employees rarely support one another and prefer working independently. What are you MOST likely to do?

Maintain the current approach while encouraging stronger cooperation when business needs require it.

Recognize strong individual results while creating more opportunities for employees to share knowledge.

Create opportunities that strengthen collaboration, shared accountability, and collective success.

Allow individual working styles while ensuring that overall team objectives continue to be achieved.

Please select an answer.

13. A new employee joins an experienced team, and although everyone is professional, the new employee rarely contributes ideas during meetings. What would you MOST likely do?

Give the employee time to build confidence while continuing to provide support and encouragement.

Ask experienced team members to actively include the employee and share their knowledge.

Create opportunities for participation while encouraging an environment where everyone feels comfortable contributing.

Provide additional guidance and onboarding to help the employee better understand team expectations.

Please select an answer.

14. Several employees have recently expressed frustration because responsibilities between team members are becoming unclear, leading to duplicated work and occasional misunderstandings. What would you MOST likely do?

Encourage employees to discuss responsibilities together and agree on improved ways of working.

Clarify roles, responsibilities, accountability, and expected ways of working together.

Introduce more structured progress updates to improve communication and coordination.

Observe patterns further to understand where the biggest coordination challenges occur.

Please select an answer.

15. You have been leading the same team for nearly two years, and the team consistently achieves its objectives. However, collaboration with other departments remains inconsistent, team members rarely challenge existing ideas, employees hesitate to take initiative without your encouragement, and improvements tend to come from you rather than from the team. As the team leader, what would you MOST likely do FIRST?

Increase expectations by encouraging the team to take more ownership for improvement and innovation.

Establish regular improvement discussions and collaboration meetings to generate more ideas.

Maintain the current successful approach while gradually introducing improvement opportunities.

Create a team development strategy that strengthens ownership, psychological safety, cross-functional collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Please select an answer.

Area 4: Excel at Execution

16. Your team consistently works hard, but deadlines are frequently missed because priorities change throughout the week. What are you MOST likely to do?

Increase personal involvement and provide additional support to help the team manage workload peaks.

Review priorities regularly, communicate changes clearly, and focus the team on the highest-value activities.

Encourage the team to become more flexible and adapt faster when priorities change.

Introduce more frequent progress updates to improve visibility and identify delays earlier.

Please select an answer.

17. An important project begins falling behind schedule because responsibilities between team members are unclear. What are you MOST likely to do?

Provide additional support and guidance to help the team complete the project successfully.

Organize a project review meeting to understand the causes and discuss possible solutions.

Clarify ownership, expectations, deadlines, and follow-up responsibilities immediately.

Increase communication frequency to ensure everyone remains aligned until completion.

Please select an answer.

18. Your department has several improvement ideas but limited time and resources to implement them all. What would you MOST likely do?

Launch the initiatives that are easiest to implement quickly to create immediate progress.

Prioritize initiatives based on organizational value, available resources, and expected impact.

Allow the team to collectively select the initiatives they believe will generate the strongest engagement.

Begin with smaller improvements first while preparing larger initiatives for a later stage.

Please select an answer.

19. During a weekly review meeting, the discussion focuses primarily on explaining why tasks were not completed rather than agreeing on future actions. What would you MOST likely do?

Spend additional time understanding the barriers preventing successful execution.

Encourage greater transparency by allowing team members to openly discuss challenges.

Refocus the meeting on decisions, accountability, deadlines, and next actions.

Review previous commitments in more detail to identify where execution gaps occurred.

Please select an answer.

20. Your department consistently meets most operational targets. However, priorities frequently change, projects are regularly delayed, team members are unclear about ownership, and problems are solved repeatedly instead of permanently. As the department manager, what would you MOST likely do FIRST?

Increase expectations around ownership and encourage employees to take greater responsibility for execution.

Introduce clearer tracking routines and reporting mechanisms to improve performance visibility.

Become more involved in critical activities to identify execution challenges earlier and remove obstacles.

Build a structured execution system with clear priorities, ownership, accountability, regular reviews, and continuous improvement.

Please select an answer.

Area 5: Lead Change & the Business

21. Senior Management announces a significant organizational change that will affect your department over the coming months. What are you MOST likely to do?

Gather available information first and prepare your communication once more details become clear.

Communicate early, explain the purpose of the change, and help employees prepare for the transition.

Maintain operational focus while gradually introducing change-related discussions with the team.

Encourage employees to remain adaptable while waiting for clearer direction from senior leadership.

Please select an answer.

22. You notice that your team consistently solves today's problems but rarely discusses future improvements. What are you MOST likely to do?

Maintain focus on current priorities while encouraging improvement ideas when opportunities arise.

Introduce efficiency targets to encourage employees to find better ways of working.

Schedule regular discussions focused on innovation, future opportunities, and continuous improvement.

Collect improvement suggestions periodically and evaluate which ideas should be implemented.

Please select an answer.

23. Your department has been asked to reduce costs while maintaining customer satisfaction. What would you MOST likely do?

Reduce staffing immediately.

Review processes, eliminate unnecessary work, and improve efficiency while protecting customer value.

Reduce customer service standards.

Delay action until next year.

Please select an answer.

24. Employees express concern about an upcoming organizational change because they do not understand how it will affect them. What would you MOST likely do?

Tell employees to remain patient.

Wait until more information becomes available.

Communicate openly, answer questions honestly, and involve employees throughout the change process.

Refer all questions to Human Resources.

Please select an answer.

25. Your department has performed well for several years. However, customer expectations are changing, technology is evolving rapidly, experienced employees are approaching retirement, and Senior Management expects greater innovation and collaboration. As the department manager, what would you MOST likely do FIRST?

Focus only on maintaining current performance.

Increase operational targets.

Wait until change becomes unavoidable.

Develop a long-term department strategy that strengthens capability, succession, innovation, collaboration, and readiness for future change.

Please select an answer.

Your diagnostic is complete.

Based on your responses, we've evaluated your leadership approach across five Leadership Areas and prepared your personalized Manager Ownership Diagnostic Report.

Your full report will include:

your overall Leadership Capability Score,
your personal Leadership Profile,
the Leadership Area with your strongest relative performance,
the Leadership Area that needs the most attention, and
personalized insights for each of the 5 Leadership Areas.

Enter your details below to receive your full report by email.

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