Leadership Dance Card
Author: Tom Siebold is a writer and consultant in Minneapolis. He is also co-owner of Collegegrazing.com--a site to help college bound teens to learn more about what they need and want in a college.
Objective (s): To encourage participants to talk to one another about specific leadership best practices
How the author has used this exercise: Very simply, I use this activity to get participants to share best practices. This format will work with almost any professional topic.
Activity Description: Each leader has his or her own style of leadership. Some styles will work for you while others won’t. In this activity participants mix with the full group and sign up the names of three other participants on their “interview dance card.” Then during a set period of time (this may be done over an extended break or even a lunch period) participants seek out their "dance partners" to conduct a short leadership interview. They ask each other a set of questions provided by the facilitator and record the responses. Below are some leadership interview questions that I have used in this activity:
1.How do you motivate your reports?
2.How do you keep your reports meaningfully informed?
3.How do you maintain your team's focus on specific goals?
4.How do you set, clarify, and hold your reports accountable to your expectations?
5.How do you recognize successful work?
Note: you may want to restrict each interview to one or two questions depending on the amount of time you want to devote to this activity.
When the full group reconvenes, the facilitator asks participants to share leadership tips and strategies that they picked up in their interviews. The facilitator may want to make a master list of these to pass out later.
Options: Have the group brainstorm for interview questions to be used in the interviews.
Added thoughts or considerations: This activity serves many purposes: it gets the participants moving around, it connects people, and it is an efficient strategy to share best practices.