Scoring Your Manager’s Relationship Skills

Managers’ relationship skills have a direct impact on their ability to build teams. How these skills impact each employee will vary.

As follow up to 16 Leadership Team Building Activities, here is a related tool that assesses managers’ relationship skills. It does so from the view of a particular employee. It is based on the team building activities in that post. It gives an idea of the impact the manager is having on the employee.

The purpose is to focus attention on relationship skills that help improve employee performance and build a sense of team.  It is very likely that employees will have different scores for the same manager.

Following the questions is a table. It contains the point values for each answer. After the table is a scale. It grades the score that the employee came up with for manager relationship skills.

Questions about the Manager’s Relationship Skills

For all questions except #11 and #15 select the best answer. In Questions #11 and #15 multiple answers are accepted. Again, this tool asks these questions from the view of the employee.

1. How many times did manager use your name in your last extended conversation together of five minutes or more?
   1. None
   2. Once
   3. More than Once
2. Does your manager call you by your preferred name?
   1. Yes
   2. No
3. In the last five emails that you received from your manager, how many times was your name used in a salutation?
   1. None
   2. Once
   3. Twice
   4. More than Twice
4. When you were last in a conversation with manager and at least one other person, did manager reference you in conversation by name to the other person?
   1. Manager referenced me by name to other person.
   2. Manager referenced me but it was not by name.
   3. Manager did not reference me at all.
   4. It seemed as though I was not even there.
   5. None of the above
5. When was the last time your manager thanked you for your efforts?
   1. In last week
   2. In last month
   3. In last three months
   4. Long time ago
   5. Never
6. When was the last time your manager approached or called you to see how you were doing and not needing anything?
   1. In last week
   2. In last month
   3. In last three months
   4. Long time ago
   5. Never
7. When was the last time your manager gave you feedback on your work outside of a scheduled performance review (does not include compliments or reprimands)?
   1. In last month
   2. In last three months
   3. In last six months
   4. In last year
   5. Never
8. When was the last time your manager shook your hand?
   1. In last three months
   2. In last six months
   3. In last year
   4. Never
9. When was the last time your manager held a meeting, teleconference or videoconference to bring everyone on your team up to date on the team’s activities and the company’s?
   1. In last three months
   2. In last six months
   3. In last year
   4. Never
10. In your last three conversations of five minutes or more with your manager, how many times did your manager ask you open-ended questions soliciting your thoughts, ideas or opinions?
    1. None, manager was basically telling me what I needed to do
    2. 1 time
    3. 2 times
    4. 3 times
    5. More than 3 times
11. Which names does your manager know (circle all that apply)?
    1. Knows your name but misspells it at least 10% of the time
    2. Spouse, Partner or Significant Other
    3. One or more children’s names
    4. One or more parents’ names
12. When was the last time your manager asked if there was anything he or she could do to help?
    1. In last week
    2. In last month
    3. In last three months
    4. Long time ago
    5. Never
13. When was the last time your manager complimented you on some aspect of your work or talents?
    1. In last week
    2. In last month
    3. In last three months
    4. Long time ago
    5. Never
14. When did your manager last ask about your family, a vacation or other significant personal event without coupling it with needing something work related?
    1. In last month
    2. In last three months
    3. In last six months
    4. Long-time ago
    5. Never
15. Has your manager ever acknowledged appreciation of your work to (circle all that apply and if none circle none)?
    1. Spouse, Partner, Significant Other
    2. Other family member
    3. Friend
    4. Customer
    5. Another person you value outside of work
16. When was the last time your manager acknowledged your efforts in front of your team or company when it was not part of a formal recognition program?
    1. In last three months
    2. In last six months
    3. In last year
    4. Never

Point Values for Answers

This table gives the point values for each answer to the above Relationship Skills Questions. Please note that Questions #11 and #15 can have multiple answers. Tally all points for all answers to these two questions.

Point Value Table

Relationship Skills Scale

The Relationship Skills Scale gives a sense as to the impact the manager is having on the employee from a relationship view. We will see this impact in the employee’s own work and the employee’s help in working on a team.

In other words, the higher the score for managers across all employees on their teams, the more likely they using relationship skills that are helpful in team building.

Scale

• Over 85 points = Inspirational
• 71-85 points = Motivational
• 56-70 points = Influential
• 41-55 points = Effective
• 25-40 points = Neutral
• 0-24 points = Ineffective
• Below 0 points = Corroding

Note: There are 120 maximum points and -50 minimum points.

Relationship Skills and Leadership

Relationship skills play a key role in leadership. That plays a key role in team building. There are other factors that help both. Without good relationship skills though we need even more of these factors to help us. It is hard to see a team work well without good relationships. They are the mortar in teams and business cultures.