Management Style Assessment*

Finding your Personal Management Style

The following exercises will help identify management styles and the typical behaviors that
accompany each. Completing the exercises will help you characterize your personal management
style.
Instructions: Using a five-point Likert type scale of 1-5, where 1 means very uncharacteristic
of me and 5 means very characteristic of me, describe to what extent the 40 attributes below
characterize your management style or preferred method of project completion. If you are
unclear on an attribute, ask 1-2 people close to you how they view your style.
Quality
1. decisive

I
Score
3

II
Quality
2. people-pleasing

Score
4

5. exhorter
9. controlling

4
3

6. spontaneous
10. informal

4
3

13. competitive

17. demanding

14. sharing &

participative
18. sensitive

21. perfectionist

25.
confrontational
29. results-focused

22.
accommodating
26.
procrastinating
30. emotional

33. powerconscious
37. dominating

34. conflictavoiding
38. contemplative

Total Score

2
29

Total Score

4
3
4

16. visionary

20. nontraditional
24. questioning

7. efficient
11. politically
sensitive
15. closureoriented
19. concern for
routine
23. planner

IV
Quality
4. changeoriented
8. innovative
12. persuasive

27. formal

31. detached

35. informationfocused
39. detailintensive
Total Score

28. long-run
focused
32.
experimental
36. activist
40.
controversial
Total Score

5
42

III
Quality
3. organized

Score
5

3
38

Score
4
3
3

3
3

Enter your total score for columns I-IV. The style with the highest points total signals your
dominant, or preferred, management style. The higher the score for your preferred style relative
to the other three styles, the more that style probably dominates your behavior. More than one
high score among the four shows you have a broad managerial-style repertoire the capacity to
utilize more than one style.

*Adapted from Leadership Handbooks of Practical Technology by James D. Berkley

31

Style Matrix
Consider the following descriptions of management styles:

Style I: Commanders
(decisive, exhorter, controlling, competitive, demanding, perfectionist, confrontational, resultsfocused, power-conscious, dominating)
Commanders combine the directive interpersonal style with a strong relationships orientation,
they like being in the drivers seat and thrive on using legitimate power to achieve ministry
results.
Style II: Shepherds
(people-pleasing, spontaneous, informal, sharing and participative, sensitive, accommodating,
procrastinating, emotional, conflict-avoiding, contemplative)
Shepherds are relational like commanders, but they prefer to facilitate (guide, encourage, equip)
ministry members rather than to overly direct them.
Style III: Maintenance Managers
(organized, efficient, politically-sensitive, closure-oriented, concern for routine, planner, formal,
detached, information-focused, detail-intensive)
Maintenance managers use formal, official policies and procedures to efficiently direct ministry
activities in a way that permits independent action and decision-making, minimizing the need for
group deliberation and participative management. They favor orderly, routine operations run by
the book.
Style IV: Entrepreneurs
(change-oriented, innovative, persuasive, visionary, non-traditional, questioning, long-run
focused, experimental, activist, controversial)
Entrepreneurs like to operate independent of organizational bureaucracy with an eye toward
facilitating change and innovation. They yearn to start projects hooked to a tantalizing vision of
ministry progress.

Management Style Situational Effectiveness

Which of the four ministry styles is most effective? Well that all depends on circumstances. Each
style has unique strengths and weaknesses, depending on the needs of the particular ministry.
The table below provides insight into the situational effectiveness of each style for the ten most
common managerial challenges.
Jolting productivity
Defusing conflict
Fostering change
Bolstering moral
Implementing routine work
Implementing new projects
Building relationships
Managing a crisis
Goal setting
Keeping in touch with peoples feelings

Commander
A
A
D
A
B
C
D
A
B
D

Shepherd
D
B
B
B
C
D
A
D
D
A

Maintenance
B
C
C
C
A
B
C
B
A
C

Entrepreneur
C
D
A
D
D
A
B
C
C
B

A = Style of greatest potential

B = Style of second greatest potential
C = Style of third preference
D = Style with least potential
Management-style flexibility is a virtue. We need to strive to utilize our preferred style in as
many situations as possible that benefit from its strengths. We should also use any strong
subordinate styles in a similar fashion.
Its important to know where our style strengths are relatively ineffective and seek out
partnership opportunities with other leaders who hold complementary style strengths.