07-07-2025
The Three-Question Leadership Test
Business persons talking in the office
Do you think you know your organization? Do you know who's who and who does what? Just what do you know about the personal aspects of the lives of the people who surround you?
If these things don't matter to you – or at least to any extent – please just stop reading here. This will neither interest nor amuse you. If, on the other hand, I've aroused your interest, here comes a lesson from the 'What-They-Didn't-Teach-You-In-Business-School' Primer.
The Leadership Test Backstory
From 2003 to 2018, I taught a graduate leadership course at Fairleigh Dickinson University's Metro Campus in Teaneck/Hackensack, New Jersey. For the most part, students were well into their careers: seeking advancement through advanced degrees while working full time and raising families. There were the younger, twenty-somethings, too, and an occasional sixty-something grandpa who just couldn't imagine not being a student.
Once the course was under way for a couple of weeks, I would start a class by announcing a three-question 'test', which made everyone nervous because I was known for not giving tests, in favor of performance-based evidence of growth. In any event, on my instructions, everyone took out a blank sheet of paper and braced for the test. And here it was, three simple questions.
Leadership Question #1
What is the name of the president of this university?
Answer: J. Michael Adama (Michael, universally beloved, died in 2012.)
Range of correct answers: 50% to 88%.
Leadership Question #2
What is the name of the person sitting next to you?
Answer: Varied, of course.
Range of correct answers: 72% to 93%.
Leadership Question #3
What is the name of the guy at the front security desk in this building?
Answer: Carmine.
Range of correct answers: 0% to 9%.
That's right: Damn near nobody.
So I offered a bonus extra credit question:
Tell me something else about any of the three of them.
Range of correct answers: 32% to 62%. (Mostly, networking questions about employers.) Predictable, no?
So here's my question to you: What do you know – that you should but probably don't – about your organization. There are so many obvious questions that can and should follow, but I'm going to let you deal with them. They're that obvious.
In the meantime, Carmine's son had earned his business degree about 10 years ago, which I had helped him select (on my own time). He took a moment to send me an 'I'm thinking about you' email, and to let me know about his further plans. And there have been three presidents since (one interim and two permanent).
I suggest that's all I need to say for now.
