Blog Updates
Thinking About Leadership: An Exercise
Posted on May 02, 2010
A few weeks ago I tweeted a picture (above) of the results of a leadership exercise I like to do in my agile project management classes. That stimulated some great discussion and even inspired a blog post on leadership by Esther Derby.
Here’s the exercise:
It follows a speed-dating format. I ask class participants to stand up, find a partner, and introduce themselves to one another. I give them two minutes, then ring a bell, signifying that it’s time to find another participant they haven’t met yet. After three rounds of this, I then ask them to not only introduce themselves, but to also share the answer to a question I will ask for the next several rounds:
Rounds 1-3: Introduce yourself.
Round 4: Who is/was your favorite boss and why?
(at this point I start providing a buffer of 30 seconds while people search their minds for the answer and try to find someone in the room they haven’t met yet)
Round 5: Who was your favorite teacher and why?
Round 6: Who is your hero and why?
Round 7: Who views you as their hero and why?
The number of questions and rounds varies depending on the number of people in the class, but these are the typical questions I like to throw in the mix.
The participants are then invited to return to their seats, and I’ll ask them some more questions:
(1) Why do you think I asked you those questions?
(2) Was it hard or easy to come up with the answers?
(3) What characteristics did these bosses, teachers, and heros have?
(4) What is a leader? What is a manager? How are they different/the same?
We’ll end by talking about what connotations we have around the words “leader” and “manager,” and how the class will continually refer to the notion of the importance of leadership in agile projects, and what it means to become agents of organizational change.
This is a good exercise even for individuals to ponder. Think about how you would answer these questions, and how you can adopt the characteristics that you so admire in others.
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Howard Sublett said:
May 03, 2010 at 3:31 am
Thanks for “leading” this discussion. It is always an excellent reminder to lead by example/influence, not out of authority/position.