Test 19 · Senior leaders
Ripple
At your level, a bad mood becomes the day’s policy.
The short answer
Ripple is a free calculator for how many people a leader’s mood and decisions reach in a normal week. Enter your direct reports, the people in their teams, the peers you work with weekly and the customers or partners your area touches. You get one shareable line, “My bad Monday reaches N people”, and the breakdown.
Drafted with AI for Jay Sampat, Chief Mirror Holder · coach review pending
- Who it’s for
- Directors and VPs who suspect a tense Monday meeting travels further than they think.
- What you get
- “My bad Monday reaches N people”, as text you can copy, with the breakdown by group.
The calculator
How many people your mood and decisions reach
Your ripple
My bad Monday reaches 81 people.
- Your direct reports
- 6
- The people in their teams
- 40
- Peers you work with weekly
- 5
- Customers or partners your area touches
- 30
46 of them work in your own area, and see your mood first-hand or through their manager by the end of the day. Before your next hard Monday, decide what you’ll say in the first meeting, and say less than you feel.
The sigh in a Monday meeting that the whole floor had heard about by lunch.
Try a question now
I take the heat from above so my team doesn’t feel it.
A question from The 42 Test that touches this topic.
Ripple
Why count how far your mood travels?
Because at your level, a bad mood becomes the day’s policy. A sigh in a Monday meeting reaches your direct reports, then their teams, then the peers and customers they deal with that afternoon. You rarely see it happen, so it’s easy to underestimate. A number makes the reach concrete.
Use the calculator: four numbers, about a minute.
How does the calculator work it out?
It adds four groups, using your own estimates:
- Your direct reports.
- The people in their teams, everyone below your direct reports at any level.
- Peers you work with weekly.
- Customers or partners your area touches in a normal week.
The total is the line you can share: “My bad Monday reaches N people.” There’s no multiplier and no benchmark in the sum. The starting numbers are examples; put in your own.
What should I do with the number?
Plan your first hour after a bad weekend. Read how a leader’s mood spreads through a team for what research says about it, see what it costs when good people leave with Cost of a Bad Boss, and check how you come across in the rooms that matter with Presence Check. Every tool for this stage is on the Senior leaders page.
Drafted with AI · coach review pending
Questions people ask
- How does a leader’s mood affect the team?
- It spreads. People read a senior leader’s mood closely, pass it on to their own teams and adjust what they’re willing to raise. Ripple doesn’t measure the effect, but it shows how many people are in its path.
- Why is it a plain sum, with no multiplier?
- Because it uses only your own numbers. Some people will feel your mood more than others, but we haven’t built in a weighting we can’t source. The count shows who is in reach, not how much each person feels.
- What should I do with the number?
- Use it before your next hard week. Decide what you’ll say in the first meeting, say less than you feel, and tell people when your mood has nothing to do with them.
- Is anything I type saved or sent?
- No. The calculator runs in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere, and the page forgets everything when you close it.
More tests for senior leaders
- 20Presence CheckLive
- 21Cross-Team TrustLive
- 22Change LoadLive
- 23Talent MagnetLive
- 24Cost of a Bad BossLive
From the Question Library
Question 33 of 42
I notice when someone is overloaded before they tell me.
Drafted with AI · coach review pending