Playboy's Executive Quiz

Sorry, but no one really knows what makes a successful executive. Good managers spring from such differing backgrounds and succeed (or fail) with such a startling array of personalities and approaches that any generalization about executive potential is fraught with exceptions. Batteries of psychological questionnaires are widely used in the hiring process and management heeds at least some of the results in making its selection. But once a man is hired, most executives are greatly disturbed when psychological testers suggest (as they frequently do) that testing be (continued on page 278) Playboy's Executive Quiz (continued from page 187) expanded to play a role in promoting him as well. Promotions, top management insists, should be based on something more solid than test scores.

The main criterion is past performance, as judged by executives who themselves have been promoted over the years. The men who grant promotions like to think they have good evidence to support their decisions, but, since a promotion means elevating a man to a new and more difficult job, evidence from the past is never conclusive. When all is said and done, the decision to promote is made on the basis of a gut feeling in those who do the promoting. They call this feeling business instinct.

Successful executives are perhaps the only people who know what business instinct is, and even they have trouble defining it, though they'll tell you that they know it when they see it. And for them, that's quite enough. But the concept of an occult business instinct raises the hackles of the psychological-testing community. With some justification, the testers feel that any behavioral trait, if accurately enough defined, can be measured on a properly constructed psychological test. If such tests haven't worked in the past, the reasoning goes, either top management has failed to define its terms adequately or the test has not been refined to the necessary degree of sophistication.

Testers being what they are, it's not surprising that they tend to blame the top echelon. If the firm's key man had a degree in behavioral science, then surely he could tell the testers precisely what he was looking for. But, of course, if he had such a degree, he'd be evaluating Rorschach tests in the personnel department instead of running the company. The argument is circular and, therefore, endless. Most likely, it will continue to be resolved in favor of management, which, after all, can always fire its testers, but testers can seldom reciprocate.

Even though management usually remains unwilling to rely on such tests in its promoting process, this hasn't prevented the testers from using them on captive job applicants. The results have been surprising. Nowadays, in addition to testing an applicant's suitability for the job he's applying for, the testers can make eerily accurate judgments about his potential for future advancement--measuring, in effect, whether he has the skills to qualify him for higher positions.

The quiz that follows was developed by Playboy's own industrial psychologist. It's based on one that has been in use for a number of years and has shown a high degree of accuracy in predicting management performance. It is as authoritative as any brief questionnaire can be, at this date, and we have checked its validity in a survey of 150 executives whose scores have been compared with ratings given them by their superiors.

Of course, you will not achieve an accurate self-evaluation unless you answer all questions with ruthless honesty. No person from personnel will be interpreting the results, and your boss would most likely ignore them anyway, so there's no reason not to be candid.

1. How much anxiety or discomfort have you felt when speaking before a large group?

a. very little

b. little

c. some

d. much

e. very much

2. In the past, how often have people misunderstood your writing?

a. never

b. rarely

c. sometimes

d. often

e. very often

3. How often have people misunderstood what you have said to them?

a. never

b. rarely

c. sometimes

d. often

e. very often

4. How much difficulty have you had writing reports over the past several years?

a. very little

b. little

c. some

d. much

e. very much

5. How often have you found it difficult to sell ideas to your superiors?

a. very seldom

b. seldom

c. sometimes

d. often

e. very often

6. Based on past experiences, how self-confident would you say you are?

a. extremely, sometimes to an unrealistic degree

b. very

c. somewhat more than average

d. about average, and realistic about it

e. not very

7. How often have you set difficult goals for yourself but still attempted to reach them?

a. very often

b. often

c. sometimes

d. seldom

e. never

8. Over the past year, how often have you taken risks?

a. generally

b. frequently

c. sometimes

d. seldom

e. hardly ever

9. How comfortable have you been in new places and situations?

a. very comfortable

b. comfortable

c. sometimes comfortable, sometimes uncomfortable

d. uncomfortable

e. very uncomfortable

10. How have you usually reacted to new opportunities?

a. have taken advantage of all

b. have generally tried to take advantage of all

c. have taken advantage of some and not others

d. have not had many opportunities, but have taken advantage of the ones you've had

e. have failed to take advantage of many

11. How often have you found that working with others interfered with getting your own job done?

a. never

b. rarely

c. sometimes

d. often

e. very often

12. Which of the following comes closest to describing you?

a. friendly and outgoing, with many friends

b. very jolly, life of the party

c. have a few really close friends and a number of acquaintances

d. difficult to get to know, but friendly after a time

e. mostly enjoy being alone

13. Your favorite jobs have been those in which you:

a. interact with many people

b. work with a medium-sized group

c. work with a small group

d. work closely with one person

e. work by yourself

14. On social occasions, when you have encountered a stranger, you have generally:

a. introduced yourself immediately and tried to start a conversation

b. introduced yourself immediately and carried the conversational ball

c. introduced yourself and waited for him to respond

d. waited for him to make the first move

e. avoided such encounters

15. How often have you found that working with others increases tension or destroys your concentration?

a. never

b. rarely

c. sometimes

d. often

e. very often

16. In the past, you have handled your personal finances by:

a. closely budgeting yourself and keeping exact records of what you spent

b. keeping records and spending according to a general plan

c. not keeping records but planning your expenditures

d. trying to watch budgets and keep records but without much success

e. playing it strictly by ear

17. How do you feel about tasks requiring routine operations and repetitious calculations?

a. rather enjoy them

b. don't mind them once in a while

c. indifferent, can take them or leave them

d. dislike them but would undertake them if well paid

e. don't like them under any circumstances

18. To what extent do you keep regular hours and run your life by a schedule?

a. to a great extent

b. considerably

c. somewhat

d. slightly

e. not at all

19. If something in your home needs fixing, you typically:

a. attend to it immediately

b. put it off until a few important matters are cleared up

c. put it off until you have most other things out of the way

d. let it go until absolutely necessary

e. call in a repairman

20. How well organized do you consider yourself?

a. extremely

b. largely

c. moderately

d. slightly

e. not at all

21. How much have red tape and administrative rules and regulations bothered you on previous jobs?

a. not at all

b. very little

c. somewhat

d. quite a bit

e. tremendously

22. How do you feel about economic success?

a. it's the most important thing in life

b. it's important

c. it's nice to have

d. it's not important

e. it makes no difference at all

23. How often have you tried out wild or experimental ideas on your business associates?

a. never

b. rarely

c. sometimes

d. often

e. constantly

24. How much have you enjoyed discussing commonplace topics with conventional people?

a. very much

b. often

c. sometimes

d. rarely

e. not at all

25. How do you rate your creativity compared with that of your associates?

a. not creative

b. slightly creative

c. average

d. more creative than most

e. very creative

26. How much has it bothered you to be notified at the last minute of work to be done?

a. not at all

b. little

c. somewhat

d. considerably

e. very much

27. How would you describe your capacity for tolerating ambiguity, frustration and confusion?

a. very great

b. greater than average

c. above average

d. about average

e. probably less than average

28. In the past, when you were in the midst of a problem, an interruption:

a. didn't bother you at all--you even enjoyed it.

b. didn't bother you much

c. bothered you only a little, but you preferred not to be interrupted

d. annoyed you, but not extremely

e. annoyed you very much

29. You have generally preferred to work on:

a. so many things that you can't finish them all

b. many things simultaneously

c. several things at a time

d. a couple of things at a time in order to remain interested in your work

e. one thing at a time so you can do a thorough job

30. When you have thought deeply about something and reached a conclusion, how difficult has it been for someone to change your mind?

a. nearly impossible

b. very hard

c. quite hard

d. somewhat difficult

e. not difficult

31. When you're out with friends, how often are you the one who suggests where to spend the evening?

a. almost always

b. frequently

c. about as often as anyone else in the group

d. rarely

e. never

32. How long have you generally persisted in pushing to have an idea or a project accepted?

a. as long as possible

b. a long time

c. for a while

d. not very long

e. not at all

33. When in school, you were:

a. extremely ambitious

b. quite ambitious

c. about average in ambition

d. not very ambitious

e. not at all ambitious

34. How displeased have you been when your suggestions were ignored?

a. very much

b. much

c. some

d. little

e. very little

35. In dealing with a new person, have your initial impulses been cooperative or competitive?

a. very competitive

b. largely competitive

c. about half and half

d. largely cooperative

e. very cooperative

36. Which of the following was most typical of your school relationships?

a. You were usually a leader.

b. You were sometimes a leader.

c. Everyone was about equal.

d. You usually followed someone else's lead.

e. You generally tried to conform.

37. In the past, how have you usually behaved in conferences or on committees?

a. You felt free to express your views and easily swayed others.

b. You felt free to express your views, but others didn't always share them.

c. You were reluctant to express your views, but they were usually well received.

d. You were reluctant to express your views and unsure of their reception.

e. You usually didn't participate.

38. When you were in school, how much did you influence other people?

a. very much

b. much

c. some

d. little

e. very little

39. Compared with others, how do you think you have rated as a supervisor?

a. in the top one percent

b. in the top ten percent

c. in the top 20 percent

d. in the upper half

e. in the lower half

40. In past group discussions, to what extent have you tried to make others see your point of view?

a. to a great extent

b. to a large extent

c. to a moderate extent

d. to a slight extent

e. not at all

41. If a subordinate challenges your decision, you are willing to listen closely and change your mind on the basis of new facts:

a. never

b. seldom

c. sometimes

d. usually

e. always

42. You allow subordinates to participate in decision making, but you make the final decision yourself:

a. never

b. seldom

c. occasionally

d. usually

e. always

43. If an employee does an unsatisfactory piece of work, you keep an eye on him:

a. so management won't get uptight

b. until he begins to show improvement

c. until he shows moderate improvement

d. until he shows considerable improvement

e. until he achieves excellence

44. You think it is very important to see that your staff gets a fair deal from higher management:

a. strongly disagree; it's up to higher management to decide what's fair

b. disagree

c. it depends

d. agree

e. strongly agree

45. You have private conferences with employees to help them improve:

a. never

b. seldom

c. now and then

d. often

e. at every opportunity

46. When you appraise a subordinate's performance, you discuss both his strong and his weak points, indicating ways he can improve:

a. never

b. seldom

c. sometimes

d. usually

e. always

47. You believe in promotion only in accordance with ability; seniority should not be considered:

a. strongly disagree

b. disagree

c. it depends

d. agree

e. strongly agree

48. You feel it is necessary to increase your subordinates' knowledge of the company so that they can relate their work to corporate objectives:

a. not at all

b. very slightly

c. somewhat

d. in most cases

e. always

49. You are confident that your subordinates will do satisfactory work without constant pressure from you:

a. strongly disagree

b. disagree

c. it depends

d. agree

e. strongly agree

50. You try to let your staff handle their own jobs even when they make mistakes:

a. never

b. seldom

c. sometimes

d. usually

e. always

51. You are as interested in keeping employees happy as in getting them to work hard:

a. not at all

b. very slightly

c. somewhat

d. in most cases

e. always

52. When the quality or quantity of departmental work is not satisfactory, you warn subordinates that your own superiors will crack down unless there is an improvement:

a. never

b. seldom

c. sometimes

d. usually

e. always

53. You want to know what your employees do on their own time:

a. never

b. seldom

c. sometimes

d. usually

e. always

54. You feel that grievances are inevitable and you try to smooth them over as best you can:

a. never

b. rarely

c. sometimes

d. usually

e. almost always

55. You disapprove of unnecessary conversation among your subordinates during working hours:

a. very strongly

b. strongly

c. somewhat

d. slightly

e. do not object at all

56. You don't feel that employees need to understand the reasons for doing a job:

a. strongly agree

b. agree

c. depends on the situation

d. disagree

e. strongly disagree

57. For the sake of harmony, you'll overlook violations of petty or unimportant rules:

a. never

b. seldom

c. sometimes

d. often

e. always

58. Problems among your workers will usually solve themselves without interference from you:

a. strongly disagree

b. disagree

c. it depends

d. agree

e. strongly agree

59. You encourage subordinates to generate their own projects rather than wait for orders:

a. never

b. seldom

c. occasionally

d. frequently

e. very frequently

60. Other things being equal, all workers on the same job should receive the same pay:

a. strongly agree

b. agree

c. it depends

d. disagree

e. strongly disagree; merit should be rewarded

61. You give the most difficult jobs to your most experienced workers:

a. always

b. usually

c. sometimes

d. seldom

e. never

62. You hesitate to make a decision that will be unpopular with your subordinates:

a. never

b. seldom

c. sometimes

d. usually

e. always

63. You watch work closely and criticize whenever necessary:

a. always

b. usually

c. sometimes

d. seldom

e. never

64. If an inexperienced subordinate has trouble with a difficult job, you put him to work on something else:

a. never

b. seldom

c. occasionally

d. usually

e. always

65. You give broad assignments and let subordinates do their own planning:

a. never

b. seldom

c. occasionally

d. usually

e. always

66. You are very concerned that your subordinates are content and that they have the things they need:

a. not at all

b. to a slight extent

c. somewhat

d. usually

e. almost always

Scoring

The first 40 questions measure characteristics in eight broad categories directly related to management success. Add up your score for each category, counting each A answer as 5, B as 4, C as 3, D as 2 and E as 1.

Communication

Total for questions 1--5 _____

Self-Confidence

Total for questions 6--10 _____

Sociability

Total for questions 11--15 _____

Work Habits

Total for questions 16--20 _____

Management Orientation

Total for questions 21--25 _____

Flexibility

Total for questions 26--30 _____

Initiative

Total for questions 31--35 _____

Leadership

Total for questions 36--40 _____

Total for questions 1--40 _____

Communication involves the clarity of your thinking, your ability to convey it precisely in both speech and writing and your composure when dealing with others. The better managers in our sample group generally scored above 16.

Self-confidence measures how you face new places and people, how you relate to others, how you take advantage of opportunities, how willing you are to take risks and your own view of yourself. (A poor self-image almost always indicates correspondingly mediocre performance.) Good management men score above 19.

Sociability indicates how you conduct yourself with others--whether you act aggressively in social situations or follow the crowd, and how much you enjoy working with other people. The better managers score above 18.

Work habits bespeaks your ability to be a self-starter and self-organizer, as well as to cope with the detail work that is usually involved in carrying a job through to completion. A good score exceeds 17.

Management orientation simply shows how well you like managerial tasks. Lone-wolf professional or creative types score especially low in this category. The better managers score above 15.

Flexibility is a measure of your capacity to handle a variety of projects at one time, to tolerate confusion and disorder and to keep your cool when confronted with last-minute reversals and interruptions. Also included in this section are your reaction to rigid schedules and your preference for a job that keeps you in motion. The best executives score above 15.

Initiative indicates high ambition, competitiveness, persistence and the extent to which you believe in your ideas. Good management men score above 19.

Leadership measures your past and present influence over the people you have met, your ability to keep your head while under fire and your willingness to accept responsibility. A good score is above 20.

A total of more than 125 for all eight characteristics strongly indicates good executive performance and good potential. If you scored this high overall but dipped below the good scores in a few categories, those are areas in which improvement will help you become a better manager.

If your total is below 99, you've flunked the test. You are not just inadequate management material, you probably are not management material at all. But before considering yourself a failure as a human being, hang in a bit longer. First, add up the totals for the first five categories--communication, self-confidence, sociability, work habits and management orientation. Solid research has shown that many characteristics of successful managers are conspicuously absent in creative people. The man of fertile and inventive mind has often had an unhappy childhood and has been somewhat antisocial ever since. He frequently underestimates his talents, resents working on any schedule but his own, rebels against authority, tends toward extremes in both thought and action and simply cannot fit the moderating role that comes so easily to the successful executive.

With a total score under 75 in the first five categories, you would be deluding yourself to expect much success in a management career. You'd be miserable if you tried and, given the increasing sophistication of today's personnel-testing apparatus, you'd have a tough time getting there in the first place. Prospective corporate employers don't want you, because you don't want them. Instead, strive to work on your own, in whatever creative field most appeals to you. Rather than being a corporate staff engineer, set up your own office. Or, depending on your interests, you might belong in medicine, architecture, show business, education, the arts, law, you name it. An organization man you aren't. Thoreau would have scored perhaps 30 in these five categories, and Michelangelo and Da Vinci wouldn't have done much better. Count your blessings, but ignore the rest of your score.

• • •

The remaining 26 questions measure the style and effectiveness of your executive leadership. For these questions, A answers count 1; B, 2; C, 3; D, 4; and E, 5. Add up your total for questions 41 through 51 and then compute your total for questions 52 through 66.

Step One

Total for questions 41--51 _____

Step Two

Total for questions 52--66 _____

A high score on step one--anything over 45 or so--indicates that you are capable of getting maximum performance from your subordinates by achieving a fine balance between strictness and permissiveness that fosters a work environment neither authoritarian nor anarchistic. You are fair and open-minded and you can expect the work of your subordinates to reflect these good qualities. The best executives in our sample averaged 44 on step one; if your score was near that (or, especially, above it), you are blessed with the psychological make-up of a first-rate manager. A score substantially under 44, however, indicates that you have a problem, and step two may help you find it.

Step two measures deviation from the ideal norm wherein the manager neither drives his workers mercilessly nor lets them trample all over him. The perfect score for step two is 45. In our sample, almost all the good executives clustered between 40 and 50. A score that deviates significantly from this range, whether higher or lower, indicates a manager who is not getting maximum performance from his employees. He has, in fact, committed the basic error described by both Confucius and Aristotle: straying from the middle path.

If you scored above 50 on step two, you are probably too lenient. Executives who rate exceptionally high here are often criticized for being "overly democratic." They place great emphasis on friendship with their employees--so much so that performance suffers. If you fall into this category, you shy away from criticizing employees even when they need it, you waive the rules so frequently that you can't rule the waves and you hesitate to hand out difficult assignments, perhaps preferring to do them yourself. (One of the unarguable factors in executives success is not the ability to do a job well but the ability to get others to do it well.)

With a score well below 40, you have gone too far in the opposite direction. Your department is not achieving maximum productivity, because the staff worries more about your unfavorable reaction than about doing its job. In extremis, your employees are paralyzed with fear. Executives of this type are overly domineering, insensitive to the needs of subordinates and run their departments the way Victorians ran homes for wayward girls. Such managers usually claim to be preoccupied with production. Actually, they are sabotaging production by failing to take advantage of their workers' individualism. If you find yourself in this category, loosen up.

One final word: A corporation is a social matrix in which many personalities meet and merge. If social psychology has demonstrated any proposition beyond doubt, it is that interpersonal networks tend to reinforce themselves. If an executive is too permissive, the reason is not totally his own personality; it is partly a creation of the matrix itself. He may, for instance, be reacting to an overly dominant superior or to a professionally oriented boss who is so creative as to ignore management problems, or even to a boss who is himself too people centered. Whatever the case, each person in the web is subtly and unconsciously maintaining the habits, good and bad, of all the others. A worthwhile use for this quiz, therefore, is as a group project. A brain-storming session afterward might shed surprising light on how defects in some executives are actually responses to those above and below them. This is well worth learning. No failure is incurable unless everyone involved tacitly agrees to treat it as such.