Your Leadership Calendar
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 extend leadership learning beyond the workshop.
How the author has used this exercise: This exercise is a good follow up or homework activity.
Activity Description: Ask the participants to mark twelve different days on their calendar spread out over four or six months. At the end of each marked day, participants should write down some leadership behavior (either positive or negative) that they exercised during that day. Each behavior should be followed by a reaction statement that answers two questions: “How did I feel about my action or behavior?” and “How does this action or behavior jive with what I know about leadership best practices?”
Options: On each marked day, the participant can send his or her personal leadership comments to a selected partner from the original workshop. This is a good method for accountability and feedback.
Added thoughts or considerations: I almost always use the strategy in the Options section above. When people leave the workshop, they get caught up in daily maintenance and frequently don't get around to doing the follow up exercises. By having them contact a selected partner from the workshop, it puts a little pressure on them to follow through.