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4. Operations Management & Measurement. Are your company's sales, profits, production, quality, safety, and customer satisfaction heading in the right direction? Are you maximizing your resources? What is the state of "rework," "call-backs," and "looking for stuff"? Are you tracking production, material use, vehicle maintenance, etc. and are your people aware of what mistakes cost the business in terms of dollars and reputation?

5. Non-Company Relationships. How well do you engage customers, suppliers, bankers, competitors, etc.? Are you respected in your market area? Do others call you for support, advice, ideas, etc.?

You can assess for yourself that the questions posited for each area of review should be fully examined and will depend on others for answers. But how to get such feedback?

You can certainly ask employees and suppliers some of these questions, but some folks might be a bit timid or shy, especially employees or suppliers who don't want to lose their jobs or source of income. However, some people will tell it to you straight. So ask those folks who you know to be straight shooters.

A more indirect method of getting feedback is to observe how others perform, behave, and communicate. This takes a bit more time but over the course of a few weeks you can often determine how clear your instructions to your crews have been based on the number of questions they either ask or do not ask or the number of mistakes that might be made. The same method of indirect observations can be applied to almost every category. Certainly the "measurements" that you maintain for your company speak of your leadership.