These days, there’s an online test for nearly every facet of human behavior, and your skill as an inovation leader is no exception. These tests all have a similar structure.

First, they ask you a series of multiple-choice questions designed to reveal various facets of your personality.

• Are you a risk taker or are you a dedicated conservator of value?
• Do you enjoy delegating, or would you rather do things yourself?
• Does innovation make you uneasy, or do you embrace it?

Then your answers are scored and a personality profile is generated. From this, you learn your self-reported strengths and weaknesses.

The HBR Eight-Minute Leadership Test

The Harvard Business Review offers a self-assessment test for leaders. I found it introduced in an article by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman entitled “The Eight-Minute Test That Can Reveal Your Effectiveness as a Leader.” The survey, written by the authors and accessible by clicking on a link, takes you about eight minutes to complete, after which you receive a feedback report comparing how you’ve rated yourself relative to comparable self-scores of 45,000 leaders in their global database. The survey says it also measures “your current level of engagement and satisfaction in your leadership role.”

The authors caution that an eight-minute self-assessment is not as reliable as a more thorough review including unfiltered feedback from a dozen of your colleagues, but “it will help you understand which of the sixteen leadership competencies we measure—such fundamentals as thinking strategically, displaying integrity, focusing on results, taking initiative, developing others, championing change, exhibiting expertise—are your likely strengths.”

As with most surveys, you’re presented with a series of questions. They include:

• Is a role model and sets a good example for his/her work group.
• Finds ways to improve new ideas rather than discourage them.

After each question, you click on one of six responses:

1. Outstanding Strength: Exceptional performance – performs this behavior much better than most others (Top 10%).
2. Strength: Above average performance – performs this behavior better than others (Top Quartile).
3. Competent: Performs this behavior at an average level or about as well as most others (Good Performance).

4: Needs Some Improvement: Performs this behavior below average or sometimes does it poorly (Inconsistent Performance).

5. Needs Significant Improvement : Rarely or never performs this behavior well, or rarely or never attempts this behavior (Poor Performance).
6. Don’t Know – Not Applicable: Don’t have enough information about or experience with this person to rate performance on this behavior.

Despite the fact that the questions and answers are in the third person, the end result is that you get an idea of your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. You can use this knowledge to sharpen your innovation leadership skills and help your organization stay in front of the innovation race.