The Leadership Institute’s Questions Which Can Accumulate Evidence of Excellence in Employees Character

Do they tell the truth and neither exaggerate the good news nor conceal the bad news?

Do they avoid using our organization’s resources for their personal benefit?

Do they behave personally in ways which will not bring scandal to our organization?

JudgmentDo they show good judgment in their routine activities?

Do they react quickly and with good judgment when faced with unexpected problems?

Do they distinguish well among bad ideas, good ideas, and the best ideas?

Do they understand that unexpected problems frequently arise and therefore set and keep realistic deadlines for completion of their projects?

Do they clearly understand the difference between a prudent test of a new idea and betting the ranch?Are they careful in their expenditures of our organization’s funds, spending no more of donors’ gifts than is appropriate to achieve good results?

Do they keep in mind, in all they do, their responsibility to our donors?

Do they wisely decide what constitutes good value for funds expended?Do they achieve worthwhile reductions in spending without hurting effectiveness?

Do they clearly understand how very expensive staff time is?

Do they intelligently, promptly, and faithfully follow instructions from supervisors?

Do they keep their supervisors out of trouble by respectfully calling their attention to potential mistakes?Do they accept constructive criticism well and gracefully accept supervisors’ decisions not to implement some of their ideas?

Do they have good judgement in knowing when to make decisions themselves and when to refer to supervisors for decisions?

Do they treat their subordinates respectfully?Do they avoid ever being officious or petty?

At work and away from work, do they communicate only positive information about our organization and neither spread malicious gossip nor generate intra-office resentment and strife?

Do they understand what would endanger the tax status of our organization and make sure that their actions and the actions of their co-workers would not trigger such problems?

Both at work and away from work, are they solidly committed to the conservative position on all the public policy issues important to movement conservatives?

If they are not enthusiastically conservative on every significant issue, do they cheerfully help conservatives with whom they disagree on some issues?

Diligence and Work Habits

Do they show initiative and do valuable things for our organization beyond what they are specifically directed to do and beyond the minimum required by their job descriptions, rather than do only what they have to do?

Do they keep track of their work assignments and seldom let anything “slip through the cracks”?

Do they set priorities well in doing their work?

Are they personally well-organized as they do their work?

Do they take no longer than they should to do specific tasks?

Are they always well-dressed and well-groomed?

Do they keep their work space clean and organized?

Do they arrive to work punctually and cheerfully stay longer hours when necessary to get projects completed on time?

Do they use their time well and not spend too much time on personal phone calls, sending out personal emails, or imposing on co-workers’ valuable time with chit-chat?

Have they “documented” in writing how they do their work so someone else could benefit from their experience and so our organization would suffer the least possible loss of their portion of our institutional memory if they get run over by a cement truck tomorrow or leave for any reason?

Interpersonal Cooperation

Do they demonstrate a positive attitude and contribute to good morale in our organization?

Do they recognize and praise excellence in others?

Do they work pleasantly with others in their department and facilitate teamwork which helps them do their jobs better?

Do they work pleasantly with those in other departments and facilitate teamwork which helps our organization and helps them do their jobs better?

Do they promptly and accurately report financial and/or programmatic data and other information useful to their supervisors and to development staff and programs staff?

Do they go out of their way to treat well our donors, students, faculty, grads and co-workers?Are they polite even to those who are not polite?

Do they acquire working knowledge of the other departments, communicate to other departments what they are working to accomplish, and coordinate their activities well with people in those departments?

Do they accept and act in accord with our policy that other conservative organizations are our allies, not our rivals, and help us build ever-better relations with those organizations?

Mission AchievementDo they fully understand and support the mission of our organization?

Do they have a passion for helping conservatives become more effective activists and leaders in government, politics, and the media?

Do they achieve things for conservative principles outside of the work they do for our organization?Do they fully understand their own duties and responsibilities at our organization?

Do they understand the duties and responsibilities of others at our organization sufficiently to go to the right person to get specific things done?

Do they handle well the most challenging aspects of their current responsibilities?

Do their actions enhance the reputation of our organization?

Do they achieve short-term goals and do all that is necessary to achieve long-term goals.Are they good mentors to newer, younger, or less-experienced co-workers?

Do they help and teach interns, enable their interns to work at their full capacity, treat them with respect, and give them neither too much nor to little to do?

Do they avoid letting any personal problems they have negatively affect their effectiveness at work?

Do they identify and follow up with our outstanding students to advance our graduates’ public policy activities?

If their work requires writing, have they proved capable of regularly producing text which doesn’t require heavy re-writing by others?

Good, Better, Best

Do they learn from their mistakes rather than repeating them?

Do they recognize their weaknesses and work as best they can to correct them?

Do they continue to improve their skills and increase their value to our organization through observation of others, formal training, and personal study?

When they don’t know how to complete a task for which they are responsible, do they seek out help and learn how to do it rather than burdening a co-worker with that work?

Do they work constantly to upgrade the quality of the materials and procedures used here, rather than stolidly recycling old things which might be improved?

Do they avoid making changes only for the sake of change and accept the proven value of old things which work well?

Do they “think outside the box” and, regarding their own work and our organization as a whole, generate well-thought-out, creative, clear, and useful ideas which can be implemented with few or no amendments?