According to Gallup, manager engagement worldwide fell from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025, and the steepest drop came in the last year, five points at once (State of the Global Workplace, 2026 report). The figure matters because the direct manager accounts for at least 70% of the variance in engagement between teams within the same company (Beck and Harter, Gallup Business Journal, 2015). When the manager wears out, the team notices.
Most managers get the job because they did their previous one well, and they learn to lead as they go. Over the years they build up habits, some very useful and others nobody has ever pointed out to them. This self-assessment is a way to stop for ten minutes and take an honest look at how you are leading today, whether you have been in charge of a team for three months or for fifteen years.
Who it is for
For anyone with a team: the newly appointed manager, the head of department with years of experience, the founder leading a team without ever having had a role-model boss. Leadership and HR can also use it as the basis for a development conversation with each manager.
To see where your company stands on organisation, roles and team management, take the free HR maturity assessment: 15 questions, 3 minutes and a profile showing what to sort out first.
How to do it
- Set aside ten minutes without interruptions.
- Answer thinking about what you do today, with concrete examples from recent weeks in mind. It is the best defence against the idealised answer.
- Score each statement from 1 to 5, where 1 is “strongly disagree” and 5 is “strongly agree”.
- Add up each block. Each one ranges from 3 to 15 points.
The eighteen statements
Clarity and priorities
- Everyone on my team knows their three priorities for this quarter.
- When priorities change, I explain it to the team, with the reasons, within days.
- My team knows the criteria I use to assess their work.
Conversations and feedback
- I have a one-to-one conversation with each person on my team at least every two weeks.
- In the last month I have given each person a specific comment on something they do well and another on something they can improve.
- I ask my team to tell me what I can do better as a manager, and I act on what they say.
Delegation
- I delegate complete outcomes and leave room to decide how to achieve them.
- My diary leaves time to think and anticipate, beyond putting out fires.
- If I am away for two weeks, the team keeps working and making decisions.
Developing people
- I know what each person on my team wants to learn or where they want to grow.
- In the last six months, each person on my team has taken on something new that has helped them grow.
- I have identified at least one person who could take on part of my responsibilities.
Trust and team climate
- My team raises problems and disagreements with me early, while they can still be fixed.
- When someone makes a mistake, the conversation focuses on what we learn and how we fix it.
- I address conflicts between team members as soon as I detect them.
Self-management
- I know the situations that make me lose my composure and I have a way of handling them.
- I treat the team consistently, regardless of how my day is going.
- I have someone to test my difficult decisions with: a mentor, a peer or a coach.
The downloadable template (in Spanish) includes the eighteen statements with space to score them, the scoring sheet, an action plan for the next month and the version for your team.
Free template (in Spanish) Self-assessment for managers, eighteen statements The statements with space to score them, the scoring sheet, an action plan for the next month and the version for your team. In PDF, ready to print. Download the template (PDF) →How to read your result
13 to 15 points in a block: it is a strength. Keep it and share it with other managers.
9 to 12 points: an area to work on. There is a foundation, with clear room for improvement.
3 to 8 points: a priority for the next three months.
Start with the block with the lowest score and choose a single behaviour to change this month. A specific behaviour, such as “a one-to-one conversation every two weeks with each person”, is far easier to sustain than a general resolution such as “communicate more”. After a month, score that block again.
What changes depending on your stage
First year as a manager. It is common to score lower on delegation and development, and that makes sense: you are still moving from doing the work to getting others to do it. Focus on clarity and conversations, which are the foundation for everything else.
Between two and five years. The typical risk at this stage is becoming your team's bottleneck. Look closely at delegation and development: if every decision goes through you, your growth and your team's stall at the same time.
More than five years. The risk here is autopilot, with habits that worked in their day and that nobody questions any more. Look at trust and self-management, and compare your answers with your team's.
Compare your result with your team's view
Your score is half the picture. To complete it, ask three people on your team to answer the same statements thinking about you. The template includes a version already written from their point of view.
So that they can answer freely, use an anonymous form or ask someone you trust from outside the team to collect the answers. Then compare their average with yours, block by block. The differences between the two views are the most valuable part of the exercise: where you see yourself as strong and your team sees you as weak lies your first pending conversation.
The next step: one-to-one conversations
If your lowest block is conversations and feedback, on Monday 2 November we are publishing a guide to preparing and holding one-to-one conversations with each person on your team.
Frequently asked questions
How often should you repeat the self-assessment? Every six months, with the same statements, to see how you are progressing. If you are working on a specific block, you can score just that block again after a month.
Can I use it with my company's managers? Yes, as the starting point for a development conversation with each of them. It works better as a reflection tool than as an evaluation, because as soon as it is used to grade people, answers easily become complacent.
What if I score low on almost everything? It is valuable information, especially in your first year. Choose a single block, work on one behaviour for a month and measure again. Having a mentor, a peer or a coach helps you progress faster.
Is it also useful for founders? Yes. Many founders lead their team without ever having had a role-model manager, and the delegation and self-management blocks deserve particular attention when the team grows fast.
Judith Ruiz de Esquide Fernández is the founder of DO'IN TALENT, a people leadership firm based in Madrid. She brings 26 years in people leadership and general management: 16 years of HR at L'Oréal and Air France/KLM, 10 years as General Manager of technology startups and scaleups, 6 years teaching digital transformation at IE Business School and 10 years as an executive coach and leadership speaker. Law and Psychology graduate, PADE from IESE and board education from ESADE. Full professional profile.
HR Maturity
If you want to know what to sort out first in your company, start with our people and organisation assessment. It is 15 questions and 3 minutes.
Take the assessment →If you want to work on your result, or use this self-assessment with your company's managers as the starting point for a development plan, start with a free diagnostic session. We come away with a first map of priorities for your team.
Book your diagnostic session →