Every leader dreams of building a high-performing, connected team of 3s, 4s, and 5s, where people show up not just because they have to, but because they want to. It’s like imagining a world where everyone actually reads your weekly newsletter. Wild, I know, but a leader can dream. Figuring out who’s thriving, who’s struggling, and who’s just coasting can feel like solving a puzzle where the pieces constantly shift.
In smaller teams or communities, you probably rely on your intuition to identify your fully engaged Level 5 Leaders or the disengaged Neutrals. Relying on intuition might work when your team is small, but as your group grows, so does the complexity of human dynamics, because let’s face it, humans are messy. We’re the only species that can turn a casual Slack message into a three-day HR debacle!
Research shows that humans are prone to cognitive biases, like the halo effect, which leads us to overvalue certain traits while overlooking others. As your group grows, this kind of gut-level engagement mapping becomes less reliable and more difficult to scale.
What you need is an objective, actionable way to map out where everyone falls on the Engagement Pyramid, from the disinterested Neutrals to the fully engaged leaders at Level 5.
Through endless research, testing, and refining, we’ve taken our Competence and Contribution Framework that I introduced at the start of the prior chapter, and converted it into a 20-question assessment that will qualitatively evaluate and identify where someone falls on the Engagement Pyramid.
A Critical Distinction
Before you pick up a pencil, we need to revisit something from the previous chapter. Remember the Competence-Contribution Framework and its four quadrants? Three of those quadrants are where Negative Nellies live: the Duds and Deadbeats, the Friendly Failures, and the Culture Crushers. The fourth quadrant, the upper right, is where both Competence and Contribution are positive. That’s the quadrant this assessment is designed for.
This assessment will not identify Negative Nellies. It was never meant to. If you have someone on your team who is actively disengaged, someone who is poisoning the well, tanking morale, or producing work that creates more problems than it solves, this quiz won’t identify them as a Negative Nellie. That person needs the three-step framework (Confront, Decide, Fix and Assess) from the Negative Nellies chapter, not a score on the Engagement Pyramid.
Think of it this way: this assessment measures where someone is on the journey from Neutral to Level 5. The worst outcome is someone who lands at the bottom of the pyramid as a Neutral, someone who’s checked out but not causing damage. They’re standing on the edge with their arms crossed, but they’re not setting the building on fire. There’s a massive difference between disinterested and destructive. Disinterested, or disengaged, we can work with. Destructive needs to be dealt with first.
So if you’re reading this and thinking about a particular person on your team, ask yourself one question before you continue: Is this person in the upper-right quadrant? Are they someone whose Competence and Contribution are at least neutral or positive, even if barely? If yes, this assessment is built for them. If no, flip back a chapter. Handle that situation first. Then come back here.
Because you can’t measure where someone is on the Engagement Pyramid if they shouldn’t be on your team in the first place.
A Quick Refresher
Competence and Contribution are the two key dimensions for measuring someone’s level on the Engagement Pyramid. They help you understand not just what someone is doing in your organization, but why they’re doing it, and how their actions and mindset align with the organization’s success.
Competence and Contribution work together to form a complete picture of engagement. Plotting these dimensions onto the Engagement Pyramid creates a framework that’s easy to understand, objective, and actionable.
At the base, you’ll find people with low Competence and low Contribution, the Neutrals who are disengaged, disconnected, and just barely getting by. And at the peak, you’ll find the Level 5 Leaders: people who not just excel at their job, but also in caring for the whole organization.
How to Use This Assessment
You can use this assessment in a few different ways. You can run it for each person based on your own knowledge of them. You can have each person take the assessment themselves. Or, and this is my favorite option, you can both take it independently for the same person and then sit down together to compare notes. That conversation alone is worth more than most performance reviews, because you’re not arguing about vague impressions. You’re looking at the same 20 data points and asking, “Where do we see this differently, and why?”
Let’s start with one person. Pick someone on your team you’re genuinely curious about. Not the person you already know is a 5. Not the person you’re pretty sure is checked out. Pick someone in the middle, someone you’re not quite sure about, because that’s where this tool is most useful.
Once you have that person in mind, grab a sheet of paper and set it up like this: three columns, 20 rows, with a box at the bottom for the total.
The Engagement Assessment: 20 Questions
You’ve built the score card. You picked one person to assess. Now it’s time to take the quiz. On your score card, find the column labeled “Your Rating.” Below are 20 questions. For each one, think about the person you selected and rate them on the following scale:
- 1 = Never
- 2 = Rarely
- 3 = Sometimes
- 4 = Often
- 5 = Always
Write your rating for each question in the “Your Rating” column. Don’t overthink it. Go with your gut. If you find yourself debating between two numbers, that hesitation is data too, but for now, just pick the one that feels closest and keep moving.
- How consistently does this person meet or exceed the expectations of their role?
- How often do they offer to help colleagues or team members without being asked?
- When given a task, how likely are they to complete it on time without reminders?
- When a team member struggles, how likely are they to step in and provide support?
- How often do they come to meetings prepared with ideas, solutions, or updates?
- How much do they align their daily work with the organization’s overall goals and values?
- How proactive are they in improving processes or solving problems within their role?
- How often do they volunteer for initiatives outside their core responsibilities?
- How often do they fail to meet deadlines or deliver work that needs corrections?
- When working on a team project, how often do they put their own recognition above the group’s success?
- How effective are they at managing their time and priorities?
- How likely are they to mentor or coach a colleague if given the opportunity?
- When they face challenges, how often do they take initiative to find solutions?
- How often do they avoid interacting with colleagues outside of their immediate tasks?
- How often do they resist or ignore constructive feedback from others?
- When new team members join, how often do they actively help them feel welcome?
- How would their colleagues rate their dependability?
- How likely are they to suggest or implement ideas that benefit the organization as a whole?
- How much do they focus on personal growth or skill development in their role?
- When a task or opportunity arises that benefits the team but doesn’t directly impact them, how willing are they to take it on?
All 20 rated? Good. Now let’s calculate the results. In Part 2, I’ll walk you through how to calculate your results, find out where your person lands on the Engagement Pyramid, and reveal a hidden layer inside these 20 questions that will change how you lead them. Stay tuned for Part 2 next week.
