MarkFord
Just One Thing: Are You a Grower or a Tender?
Take This 10-Question Quiz and Find Out
If you want your business to run smoothly, manage it well. Tend to the details. Think in terms of people, protocols, and production.
If you want your business to grow, forget about all that. Put someone in charge of it who is capable of creating growth.
Growers are rare birds. It’s quite possible that – other than you – your business doesn’t have a single grower in its employ.
Or maybe it has one or two, but they are not being given the liberty they need to do what only they can do. In that case, their superpowers are negated.
It’s also possible that you are not a grower – that once you were but now you are a tender.
Here’s a quick test to find out. Take it yourself, give it to someone else, or take it on behalf of someone you supervise.
Management Personality Test: 10 Questions Based on the Common Impulses and Characteristics of Growers
- What do you care more about – quantity or quality? Would you rather have a bakery known for being the best in the city… or a factory selling more baked goods than anyone else in the state?
- What do you typically think about at work? How to solve problems… or how to boost sales?
- Do you welcome new marketing and sales ideas? Do you see them as exciting opportunities… or as extra work that will just screw thing up and slow things down?
- Would you describe your management personality as understanding or impatient?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how competitive are you?
- Are you fair about the expectations you have of your fellow employees and subordinates? Do you demonstrate that fairness… or do you frequently indicate that you’d like things done faster?
- Do you care about other people’s workloads or problems? Or do you care only about getting your own agenda done ASAP?
- When someone suggests a new product, protocol, or plan to increase sales, do you endorse it immediately… even though you are not sure it will work?
- Do you understand the need for bureaucracy? Or do you have zero patience for it?
- With respect to your career, what’s more important: being admired for your character… or venerated for your success?