41 Self-Leadership Assessment Questions

Gauges, thermometers, controls, and dials — instruments tell us whether a system is functioning as it should.

But how do we monitor and report on an abstract concept like self-leadership?

Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.

H. James Harrington

Self-leadership training is increasingly common in workplace development programs and is also appearing in personal development curricula. Organizations and individuals invest in these programs to help people develop the skills to lead themselves more effectively.

This article explains how to measure whether self-leadership training actually produces the intended results by using validated self-leadership assessments.

Assessing Self-Leadership

To determine whether a program delivers on its promises, you need reliable measures of the intended outcomes. Self-leadership workshops are often delivered to groups and, frequently, to large audiences. That makes simple, scalable, and cost-effective measurement methods especially valuable.

Self-report questionnaires are a popular choice: they are inexpensive, easy to distribute, and minimally invasive. Questionnaires can be given on paper or electronically, scored automatically, and provide quick feedback to participants. The main challenge lies in deciding what to ask. Building a psychometrically sound self-leadership questionnaire requires careful theoretical grounding and extensive validation work.

The historical development of the questionnaire

High-quality measurement instruments rest on theory and demonstrate reliability and validity. In the case of self-leadership, early instrument development began in the late 1980s. Charles Manz and Henry Sims created an initial set of items based on theory, observation, and interviews. Their prototype included 21 items intended to capture behavioral, cognitive, and motivational self-leadership strategies.

Over time the concept of self-leadership evolved: researchers came to emphasize the skills and strategies individuals use to motivate and regulate themselves when working toward goals. Several instruments were developed and refined, including later instruments that combined and improved earlier scales. Notably, the Revised Self-Leadership Questionnaire (RSLQ) and the Abbreviated Self-Leadership Questionnaire (ASLQ) emerged as psychometrically tested tools that are widely referenced in empirical studies.

2 Helpful Questionnaires

Today, the Revised Self-Leadership Questionnaire (RSLQ) and the Abbreviated Self-Leadership Questionnaire (ASLQ) are the most commonly cited, psychometrically supported self-leadership measures.

The Revised Self-Leadership Questionnaire (RSLQ)

The RSLQ was developed by refining earlier instruments: weak items were removed, some items reworded, and additional items were incorporated from prior scales. Factor analysis supported a structure that captures cognitive, behavioral, and motivational strategies. The questionnaire contains 35 items that span nine dimensions, such as goal setting, self-reward, self-observation, visualizing successful performance, self-talk, and evaluating beliefs and assumptions.

Respondents rate how accurately each statement describes them on a 5-point Likert scale, from 1 = not at all accurate to 5 = completely accurate. The RSLQ has been validated in multiple studies and is appropriate for evaluating training impact when a more comprehensive measure is needed.

The Abbreviated Self-Leadership Questionnaire (ASLQ)

The ASLQ is a shorter instrument that selects the strongest-loading items from the RSLQ. It contains nine items, structured into three factors interpreted as behavioral awareness, task motivation, and constructive cognition. Like the RSLQ, items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The ASLQ offers a concise option for settings where brevity is essential while still providing a valid snapshot of key self-leadership strategies.

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Additional Determinants of Effective Self-Leadership

Self-leadership is multifaceted. Beyond the core strategies captured by self-leadership questionnaires, other traits and resources can influence how effectively someone leads themselves. Research is ongoing into related constructs—such as strengths, psychological capital, and other personal resources—and training programs vary in which elements they emphasize.

To build a more complete evaluation of training impact, it is useful to supplement self-leadership measures with assessments of related traits. Two commonly recommended additions are measures of conscientiousness and grit.

Assessing conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is one of the Big Five personality domains and reflects diligence, organization, reliability, and self-control. Evidence suggests that people higher in conscientiousness tend to be more effective at self-regulation and self-directing behaviors. A variety of Big Five instruments are available; several short, validated scales measure conscientiousness and can reveal whether participants’ baseline personality traits may influence their response to self-leadership training.

The Grit Scale (Grit-O)

“Grit” refers to perseverance and sustained passion for long-term goals. It captures the tendency to persist despite setbacks and to maintain effort over extended periods. Although grit is not formally part of traditional self-leadership theory, it is highly relevant to long-term goal pursuit and sustained self-leadership. The Grit-O scale is a validated 12-item measure that assesses perseverance and consistency of interest. Adding a grit measure can help trainers understand participants’ long-term persistence alongside their self-leadership strategies.

41 Questions to Ask Your Clients

Below are practical items you can use to assess self-leadership, conscientiousness, and grit. These questions are drawn from the ASLQ, Goldberg’s trait markers for conscientiousness, and the Grit scale.

9 Questions assessing self-leadership (ASLQ)

Instructions:

Read each statement and decide how true it is of you now.

Score:

1 = Not at all accurate
2 = Somewhat accurate
3 = A little accurate
4 = Mostly accurate
5 = Completely accurate

Statements:

1. I establish specific goals for my own performance.
2. I make a point to keep track of how well I’m doing at work.
3. I work toward specific goals I have set for myself.
4. I visualize myself successfully performing a task before I do it.
5. Sometimes I picture a successful performance in my mind before I actually do a task.
6. When I have successfully completed a task, I often reward myself with something I like.
7. Sometimes I talk to myself (out loud or in my head) to work through difficult situations.
8. I try to mentally evaluate the accuracy of my own beliefs about situations I am having problems with.
9. I think about my own beliefs and assumptions whenever I encounter a difficult situation.

Average the item scores to compute an overall self-leadership index.

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20 Questions assessing conscientiousness

The items below are trait descriptors used to measure conscientiousness. For each trait, indicate how accurately it describes you using the nine-point scale provided.

Score:

1 = Extremely Inaccurate
2 = Very Inaccurate
3 = Quite Inaccurate
4 = Slightly Inaccurate
5 = Neither Inaccurate nor Accurate
6 = Slightly Accurate
7 = Quite Accurate
8 = Very Accurate
9 = Extremely Accurate

Traits:

1. Organized
2. Systematic
3. Thorough
4. Practical
5. Neat
6. Efficient
7. Careful
8. Steady
9. Conscientious
10. Prompt
11. Disorganized*
12. Careless*
13. Unsystematic*
14. Inefficient*
15. Undependable*
16. Impractical*
17. Negligent*
18. Inconsistent*
19. Haphazard*
20. Sloppy*

*Reverse-score these items. Average item scores to obtain an overall conscientiousness score, with higher values indicating greater conscientiousness.

12 Questions assessing grit

The 12-item Grit scale assesses perseverance of effort and consistency of interests over time. Respondents rate how characteristic each statement is of them:

Score:

1 = Not like me at all
2 = Not much like me
3 = Somewhat like me
4 = Mostly like me
5 = Very much like me

Sample items:

1. I am a hard worker.
2. I finish whatever I begin.
3. My interests change from year to year.

Average the items (reverse-scoring where appropriate) to compute a grit score; higher scores indicate greater grit.

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Further Reading: PositivePsychology.com’s Resources

For more background on self-leadership theory, models, and competencies, consult resources that summarize the historical development of the field and integrate perspectives from positive psychology. Related topics include the Big Five personality model—where conscientiousness is one of the core traits—and practical guides on developing resilience and grit.

If you want to expand assessment beyond self-leadership, explore validated tools for personality and grit alongside the RSLQ or ASLQ to provide a fuller picture of participants’ self-regulatory capacity and long-term persistence.

A Take-Home Message

Helping clients develop better self-leadership skills is rewarding. For individual coaching, client satisfaction is an important indicator of success. In organizational settings, however, trainers are usually expected to present stronger evidence of impact.

Using established instruments such as the RSLQ or the ASLQ allows trainers and coaches to measure changes in cognitive, behavioral, and motivational self-leadership strategies cost-effectively. Complementing these measures with assessments of conscientiousness and grit offers a broader understanding of who benefits most from training and which areas to target for development.

Applied thoughtfully, these measures enable practitioners to demonstrate measurable improvements and to tailor interventions that equip people to meet today’s demanding work and life challenges.