So You Think You’re a Grown-Up?
When it comes to emotional maturity, age is irrelevant. You can’t just spot adolescents by their trendy clothes and haircuts. Many pass by you everyday, hair coiffed to perfection, decked in expensive business suits with newspapers tucked under their arms.
Whether age 15 or 50, you may be a perpetual teen, trapped in adolescence. This quiz will help you assess whether you harbor adolescent residue despite your adult resolve.
1) In this group of employees, who would land your choice assignment?
a) Chris, a competent and driven worker who put in long hours to prepare the proposal leading to the project and spent weeks researching its feasibility.
b) Dana, a colleague you play hoops with on weekends but who lacks experience in this particular area.
c) Ashley, a slacker who reminds you of yourself at that age but brings you great mementos from trips abroad.
2) Which of these workplaces would you consider to be professional:
a) The organization’s hierarchy is clear; employees work well together and are encouraged to advance within the company. Desk clutter and gossip are kept to a minimum. Businesslike conduct--mutual respect, clear communication and focus on the company’s objective--is the norm.
b) Folks generally get along, although there are cliques. The atmosphere is a bit relaxed, but borders exist between management and staff. However, employees seem to consider every social occasion as a chance to position themselves for advancement.
c) Co-workers playfully toss crushed paper balls at one another and keep fun gadgets at their workstations. They often exchange humorous verbal jabs and sitcom-style banter. Meanwhile, below the surface conviviality lurks political posturing that breeds competition among employees.
3) Morale is low after a series of changes from higher up. An employee offers some unsolicited suggestions on how to improve the work environment. You:
a) Take a deep breath, gracefully thank the person for the assessment and plan to look into how others perceive the workplace.
b) Say morale and environment aren’t your concern--getting things done properly is. Besides, you feel pretty good about the way things are going, and no one else has said anything.
c) Spend the rest of the day plotting ways to slam the person come evaluation time.
4) You plan to launch a program that will require workers to adjust their routines. You:
a) Tell everybody about the upcoming changes, but delay the start date to work out some problems in the process before mobilizing anyone. You ask for input on which is the clearest path and are sure to give credit.
b) Tell everyone about the program in order to generate excitement about it, but scrap the whole thing before the start date without telling employees.
c) Go ahead and deploy the troops--you just want this program started and can tweak the process along the way. We’re all figuring things out as we go anyway, so employees should just go with the flow.
5) In staff meetings, fielding questions means:
a) You can gauge sentiment and understanding and have a chance to clarify company positions on matters.
b) The meeting is going to drag on, and you’ll have to stay until the end of the day to get everything done. But at least you won’t have to put out a memo about it.
c) You get the chance to put people in their place with your wisecracks.
6) How would others describe your temperament:
a) You have the emotional range of Kevin Costner--generally unchanging and unimposing.
b) You are mild-mannered but have an occasional outburst. When your temper does flare, you recover well and manage to mend any rifts.
c) You have as many swings as the city playground. Before employees approach you, they do a “whether” report, exchanging notes on whether the coast is clear or a tempest is brewing.
7) Strategic planning in your company means:
a) Creating short-term and long-term goals for your department.
b) Filing away innovative ideas from your staff in case you need them later.
c) Creating a plan for cutting your workday to get to the beach.
8) If a generally strong employee continues to make the same error, you:
a) Make a note to discuss the problems with the worker later, when you’re less irritated about it. Since this isn’t the first time, you want to make sure the two of you figure out the problem and how to prevent a recurrence.
b) Ignore the worker most of the day, until he makes another minor mistake and go off on him. Later, you graciously apologize and explain your irritation.
c) Fire off another angry memo to the staff. You’re tired of dealing with the same nonsense. Really, can’t these people do anything right?
9) Delegating is best used to:
a) Get tasks accomplished and give others some ownership of the project.
b) Tell people what to do. After all, that’s what a leader is supposed to do.
c) Lighten your workload and an effective way to get tasks accomplished without having to lift a finger and still get credit for the project.
10) Team-building is:
a) A way to motivate employees to care about their work, win big accounts and mobilize for important projects.
b) How you can hold others accountable without having to blame one person.
d) Putting together a squad to play softball with a rival company.
If your answers to most of the questions fell under the letter:
“a”: You’ve mastered this area and should be considered an adult. Your teenager within stays in check, at least from 9 to 5.
“b”: Although you’re not quite a perpetual adolescent, you’re mostly a “tween”--lingering on the border of late adolescence and adulthood. You might want to work on communicating better and becoming less self-involved and more decisive.
“c”: Child, you may want to focus on growth potential--namely yours. What most consider adult behavior seems to evade you, while many afflictions attributed to adolescence--mood swings, impetuousness and immaturity--appear to be your style. Remember, although it may be considered therapeutic to nurture the inner child, it’s often hellish for others if we indulge the teenager inside.
