Successful Leadership, 30 Practical Exercises

Leadership is a key skill of managers. This set of 30 practical exercises will help participants to fully understand this challenge. You'll have 30 practical exercises dealing with improving leadership that are:

• tried, tested and easy to use
• ideal for short timeslots
• packed with fresh ideas for dealing with key issues

You'll have pages and pages of ready to use practical exercises that you can slot straight into your training.

List of Activities: 

1. What is leadership?

How easy is it to be a good leader? How can the task of
leadership be improved? How can participants become good leaders? This opening exercise questions and clarifies, through discussion and feedback, the role of the leader in today’s organisations.

2. Defining leadership

This exercise aims to prove that ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ by encouraging participants to visually represent their views of leadership. Artistic talent is not required here – just an open mind and the desire to agree a working definition of the role of leaders.

3. Leadership styles

Autocratic, participative or democratic? Groups are encouraged to think about these three styles of leadership, then list their advantages and disadvantages. An all-embracing discussion tackles themes on how work teams react to these styles and how these styles can be altered.

4. Style uses

Participants take part in a group exercise to establish when (and when not) to use each of the three styles of leadership in the workplace. They look at the impact of incorrect use on their work teams and consider the benefits of a flexible approach.

5. What (leadership) style

Individuals complete a worksheet about the styles of leadership they use with their team members. They consider how these individuals react to their styles and how a change of style could improve working relationships.

6. Motivation

Participants work in small groups to consider all the motivators they use in the workplace, plus any others they can think of, to arrive at a top five list. They share their list with others and explain why they think the motivators they have selected work best.

7. Motivate your team

This exercise requires individuals to list what motivates and demotivates members of their workteams, then troubleshoot, in groups, for improved solutions.

8. Motivation in action

Three workplace situations are considered for an improved outcome through motivation. Groups work together to agree solutions, while the trainer provides suitable models that can be implemented to resolve similar situations.

9. Leading a new department

How does an existing workteam feel when a new leader
takes over? What kind of problems is this new leader likely to encounter? This very real workplace situation is considered in groups and a system of approaches arrived at for minimum disruption.

10. Leading a new employee

We’ve all had a ‘first day at work’. But we may not all have had the best experience of this situation. Participants discuss and feed back on a range of leadership ideas that best integrate a new person into a team and helps a team to become familiar with the new person.

11. Implementing change

A change is most certainly not as good as a rest when it
comes to organisational restructure that impacts on a team’s work. This exercise encourages leaders to think about an approach that instils confidence in their teams and allows all those involved to commit positively to the changes.

12. Clarifying objectives

This group task establishes the importance of clarifying
objectives, asking questions and properly briefing a team to achieve a successful outcome. An observer takes notes throughout the proceedings, and feeds back on what went well and what could be improved.

13. Clear communication

Observers witness, as group leaders are given a brief for
a group task that is destined to fail unless they communicate clearly all points and with everyone involved. A review establishes how these processes can be improved.

14. Mapping leadership skills

Small task groups are selected, and their leaders given a brief and the resources with which to carry it out. The objective is to succeed in the task, but success is down to how the leader manages it. Participants later review what went well and what could be improved. Observers witness and comment on all parts of the process.

15. Outcomes vs. objectives

A new twist to the age-old game of noughts and crosses forms the focus of this exercise, as leaders practise their skills. They endeavour to lead their groups to successful completion of this task – which includes others testing the game to make sure it meets the criteria.

16. Creative leadership

Small groups are selected, with one person appointed
leader and another observer. Group leaders practise their skills by clearly guiding their group through the initial brief to a successful outcome. Observers note down on a checklist all the relevant parts of this process, and feed back to the leaders.

17. Constructing feedback

A brief is issued to leaders, which requires them to utilise their task groups to build a construction to a specified size and budget. Individuals assess their part in this role through the use of a process analysis sheet, to establish how all those involved in the task felt about the leadership style and the outcomes.

18. Delegating and monitoring

This lengthy exercise requires not only a successful outcome but also the need to provide accurate information about stocks and costs at any time the trainer requires them. The task hinges on successful delegation, organisation and monitoring. Outcomes are discussed among participants.

19. Team time

Leaders are required to delegate and think creatively so that task teams successfully complete a number of tasks relating to journey times from Aberdeen to London. Observers witness how leaders planned the tasks, monitored them and managed the limited resources supplied.

20. Party planner

This exercise has a very real outcome. Leaders and their task groups are required to organise an end-of-course event to a set of criteria. If they succeed, the event takes place. If they do not … well, there’s no party for them!

21. Speed delegation

In this exercise, leaders are up against the clock to achieve a number of set tasks with their groups within a limite a time frame. What’s more, there are more tasks than group members. The leaders’ skills in delegating are assessed and discussed, and learning outcomes noted.

22. Using data

Participants get to practise the role of leadership and creative problem solving with limited resources and time. The exercise concludes with everyone understanding how leaders can cope with similar workplace situations.

23. Routes to solutions

Each member of a task group is given a brief that contains useful bits of information. When put together, these ‘bits’ make the whole. However, the leaders of the groups will need to use their skills in order to establish the links. One group is videoed throughout this task to highlight good practice and to see where improvements could be made.

24. Viewing the options

How do you get a group to agree on the TV viewing
schedule of a family of four, who each have different favourite programmes and different viewing times? That’s the challenge for leaders in this task, as they hone their skills for use in the workplace. An observer views the action.

25. Budget for success

Task groups and their leaders work to complete a task on time and to budget. Failure to meet the criteria results in a set of penalties, designed to highlight how non-completion of tasks impacts in the real world of work. Participants discuss the outcomes and agree on the importance of focused effort and monitoring performance. They also discuss the performance of one team, which was videoed throughout the exercise.

26. Deadline!

This exercise recreates a production line, in which daily targets have to be met. Leaders and their task groups are penalised for not meeting the criteria and the deadlines. The importance of planning, delegation, failure and blame are all tackled at the end of the exercise.

27. Recreation research

Leaders practise their skills, by directing a group on a large project to establish data relating to working people’s holiday entitlements and destinations. Playing to a group’s strengths, planning and control are all considered. Participants then complete a process analysis sheet to allow them to express how they felt about the task.

28. Creative conclusions

Leaders are given limited resources with which to lead their groups to the successful completion of three tasks. Observers make notes throughout the process for later feedback. A discussion takes place on the learning points and how improvements can be made in the workplace.

29. Recording learning outcomes

Leaders and their groups make a short video film on the learning outcomes of the leadership courses they have attended. Leaders must direct the group to write a script, then act it out. Each film is shown for discussion and inspiration.

30. Three Cs ending

Participants on leadership courses consider what they have learned about leadership, what they need to work on and what they can jettison. Using the three Cs, they commit to ‘continue’, ‘cease’ or ‘commence’ leadership behaviours that will ensure success.