Introducing the Authority Drift Index, A Free 5 Minute Leadership Self Assessment Edge of Possibilities, Liz Murray Category, Leadership Development Reading time, 4 minutes
Jun 13, 2026Most leaders are operating below their actual authority and don't know it.
Not because they're failing. Not because they lack skill or effort.
Because authority drift is silent. It builds gradually, beneath the surface, in the small decisions, behaviours, and patterns that accumulate over months and years. And by the time a leader notices something is off, their team has usually felt it for a while.
The Authority Drift Index is a free five minute quiz designed to change that. It gives you a clear, specific picture of where your leadership authority stands right now, and exactly where to focus if you want to strengthen it.
Here's everything you need to know.
What is the Authority Drift Index?
The Authority Drift Index is a self assessment tool that measures your leadership authority across four key pillars. It takes around five minutes to complete and gives you an immediate, personalised result.
Unlike generic leadership quizzes that give broad, one size fits all advice, the Authority Drift Index is designed to surface your specific pattern, your particular strengths, and the exact areas where your authority may be quietly eroding.
It was built for leaders who are capable, hard working, and genuinely invested in their teams, but who sense that something isn't quite landing the way it used to, without being able to name what.
The four pillars of leadership authority
The Authority Drift Index measures your leadership across four areas. Each one plays a distinct role in how your team experiences your leadership, and each one can either build authority or quietly erode it.
Decision Discipline
This pillar looks at how clearly and consistently you make decisions, and whether you stand by them. Leaders who second guess themselves, revisit decisions repeatedly, or avoid making calls altogether often see their authority slip here first, even when their judgement is sound.
Pressure Behaviour
This pillar examines how you show up when things get hard. Under pressure, do you lead from the front, or do you withdraw, react, or become someone your team doesn't quite recognise? Pressure reveals pattern, and your team is always watching how you respond when the stakes are high.
Standards Enforcement
This pillar measures how consistently you hold the line on what matters. Are your standards steady regardless of mood, workload, or circumstance, or do they shift depending on the day? Inconsistent standards send a message, even unintentionally, that expectations are negotiable.
Responsibility Boundaries
This pillar looks at where responsibility actually sits in your team. Are you holding people accountable for their own outcomes, or are you quietly carrying their work, solving their problems, and wondering why nothing changes? This is one of the most common areas where capable, hands on leaders unknowingly erode their own authority.
How the results work
Once you complete the Authority Drift Index, your responses place you into one of four bands, ranging from Eroding Authority through to Controlled Authority.
Each band comes with a personalised result that goes well beyond a simple score. You'll get specific, honest feedback on what you're already doing well, and a clear picture of exactly where the drift is happening, so you know precisely where to focus your energy.
This is not generic leadership advice. It's your pattern, named clearly, with your next move made obvious.
Why this matters right now
If you're a leader heading toward the end of the financial year, this is a particularly useful moment to take stock.
New financial year planning often focuses on budgets, targets, and strategy. But your leadership patterns don't reset on 1 July. Whatever has been quietly building or eroding in how you lead will carry forward into the new year, unless you take the time to name it first.
Five minutes now can save months of operating with a gap between your intentions and your impact that you can't quite see.
Take the Authority Drift Index
The Authority Drift Index is completely free and takes around five minutes to complete.
👉 https://www.edgeofpossibilities.com.au/authority-drift-index-take-the-quiz
If your result shows there's work to do, there are options to go deeper, from a focused thirty minute Authority Reset Debrief, through to a comprehensive Executive Authority Recalibration Intensive for leaders ready to rebuild their authority from the ground up.
But start with the quiz. It's free, and it's the clearest five minutes you'll spend on your leadership this year.
ABOUT LIZ MURRAY
Liz Murray is an Executive Leadership Advisor with over 20 years experience. She works with leaders and high performers who are ready to stop managing and start leading, with clarity, presence, and authority.
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