Working Wounded Blog: The Keys to Becoming the Boss

May 31, 2006 — -- Are you finally ready for that corner office and a reserved parking spot? Tired of waiting for your boss to die? As a service to you, my readers, I'm going to give you a much easier path to a fancier office, bigger paycheck and higher-quality headaches.

Take the following quiz, and you'll immediately know if you've got what it takes to be a leader. The only thing that will then hold you back from making that magical leap from being the delegatee to being the delagator is to convince the management that this test is much cheaper than the extensive evaluations used in determining the "keepers" of your company. But then again, Ms. or Mr. UpWardlyMobile, this is a small price to pay for a potentially huge jump up the corporate ladder.

The answers, and what your score means to your career, appear at the bottom of the column.

1. Define "Management by Objective," "Reengineering" and "Theory Y Management." 10 points

2. What is the No. 1 employee complaint? 10 points

3. What is your company's vision statement? 25 points

4. What is the most precious resource for your company? 15 points

5. Multiple choice: Which best describes your approach to leadership? 15 points
a. I deserve my obscene paycheck and options, because I make the tough decisions
b. If indicted, I'm ready to claim that I really didn't know what was going on
c. All of the above

Answers and scoring, and what your score means for your career:

1. Give yourself 0 points if you have any clue about what "Management by Objective," "Reengineering" or "Theory Y Management" means. If you have no idea, give yourself 10 points. You should know by now that old fads are not worthy of the bandwidth of an up-and-coming executive.

2. The No. 1 employee complaint: "It's too cold." The second most common employee complaint: "It's too hot." These answers came from a study by the International Facility Management Association. Give yourself 10 points if you got either of those answers correct. But give yourself 15 points if you refused to answer the question, because the only employee complaints that should concern you are those of your people.