leadership writing assignment

Your Complete Guide to Writing a Compelling Leadership Essay

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True leadership lies at the heart of human well-being and success. Every positive step humanity ever took required great and responsible leadership. Therefore, people have studied leadership for many edges to unravel its different underlying factors. 

But how do you write a great essay that demonstrates your grasp of this sacred call? This post shares practical insights on how to write a leadership essay . Keep reading it to sharpen your skills in this assignment niche. 

What Is a Leadership Essay ?

Before proceeding to see how best to draft a perfect leadership essay, let’s answer the big question, “ What is leadership essay ?” A leadership essay is an assignment that falls under student application essays. This paper provides student admission officers with insight into your previous leadership experience. 

While this assignment appears to be specific, it acknowledges that the nature and perception of leadership can greatly vary depending on context and individuals. 

Leadership Essay Ideas and Topics

Selecting the best topics for your essays on leadership is vital. When composing this paper, you will focus on two main areas revolving around your leadership style and the memorable moment when you demonstrated leadership. Please note that these two areas usually overlap because while recounting that moment you demonstrated leadership, you will also show your leadership style. 

Whichever area you choose to focus on, use anecdotal evidence that proves the idea. Here, you can freely go with what feels best for you. Just ensure that the instance you use to demonstrate leadership is a real-life experience. This way, you will be best placed to choose a topic that makes your readers enjoy your paper.

How to Write a Leadership Essay

While this paper might sound like an introduction on leadership essay , it doesn’t mean you aren’t a leader or can’t lead people. So, how do you compose a killer leadership essay that impresses student admission officials? Here are ideas on how to write leadership essay that fetches good grades and makes a positive impression of your leadership potential. 

• As earlier hinted, you must research to choose a good topic that will impress your readers and portray you as an upcoming great leader.
• When writing about a leadership concept, take notes of some credible sources of information. Find out what others have written about that topic.  
• Outline your essay to organize all the details you want to include. This way, you won’t forget to include anything your readers need. 

Alternatively, you can check out past papers written on your chosen leadership topics. This way, you will have a strong basis for further expansion of your arguments and incorporating relevant ideas into your paper. However, remember to follow intellectual property laws to avoid plagiarism.

Formatting Your Leadership Essay

Your essay about leadership requires correct formatting to ensure everything flows well. Like other types of papers, leadership essays follow a five-paragraph pattern. It has an introduction, a body section, and a conclusion, depending on its word count or page limits.  

• Introduction: This section captures the reader’s interest, defines good leadership in relation to you, and directly addresses the given prompt.
• Body paragraphs: The body section gives some background information using anecdotes to describe your leadership style or moment.
• Conclusion: This finishing section is a compelling statement about your leadership attributes and capabilities. It also shows how you hope to apply them to your life and solve other people’s problems.

Tips for Writing a Leadership Essay

Do you want tips to help you write the best leadership essays that will garner good grades? Here are tips and insights to help you compose excellent leadership essays .

Define Good Leadership First

It would be best to define good leadership before proceeding. Take time to think about the best attributes that make one a great leader. Of these qualities you have figured out, which ones do you have? Outline the qualities you demonstrated in your memorable leadership moment. These attributes could be, but aren’t limited to:

• The ability to motivate and inspire others.
• Valuing others.

Lastly, review your list and select the traits you would wish to focus on. 

Moderate Your Humility 

Humility is an invaluable virtue that needs to flow through your papers. However, don’t overdo it when highlighting your leadership moment. So, draw the line between humility and self-humiliation. Just let your readers know what you did to benefit other people’s lives—period.

Don’t Use Another Person’s Voice and Style

When highlighting your leadership abilities and experience, remember to use your personal style and voice. Admission officers want to hear your voice and “see you” in the essay. Thus, allow them to see your personality in the paper the best way you know how to put it. You can use your reasonable sense of humor without overstepping boundaries. 

Tell a Story About Your Journey 

When addressing college admission officers, use your storytelling skills to describe your leadership journey. Give them an engaging story that shows them your true leadership potential. Your story should exhibit the traits you believe are instrumental in helping you lead others. The narrative should tell the readers about the following:

• That you faced a real-life challenge.
• How you solved the problem. 
• How your leadership style and potential have grown over the years.
• Any specific challenge or moment that has helped you grow in your leadership. 

Choose a Case in Which You Played a Key Role

Your leadership doesn’t necessarily mean you are always at the help of things or people. Instead, it means that you helped solve a problem that affected others. Thus, don’t fear highlighting a moment just because you were not calling the shots. Why? Because the officials are looking for the results you helped bring to the table and not necessarily the position you occupied in the story. 

Thus, you should focus more on the improved position others found themselves in after your intervention instead of the position you occupied. Also, don’t mind more about the story’s title, especially when brainstorming. If you tell an impactful story, the title will automatically fall in place. 

Acknowledge Other People’s Contributions

We said in previous sections that you should tell the reader more about your leadership skills and journey. Up to this point, so good. However, you shouldn’t become so egoistic that you assume you aren’t an island. Your personal statement should indeed be personal, but it’s better to remember that other people still have a stake in your journey. 

So, give other people their deserved credit wherever they contributed to your success. Credit others for their loyalty, hard work, and any insights they offer. This way, you will portray your leadership as inclusive and not a one-man army that gives all the credit to one man. 

Solve Problems

Lastly, your essay should focus on solving problems. There is no point in telling a long story if it doesn’t bring out this element. Why? Because leadership essentially solves other people’s problems. If this element is missing, then you were not leading. Most likely, you were merely occupying a position or exercising authority but not leading. 

Do you remember how you solved that issue on your team amicably? Did you negotiate peace between team members whose rift was threatening to tear the team apart? Then, tell it out because that is all the admission officers are looking for in the narrative. 

Leadership Essay Example

Nothing will power your leadership writing skills like a perfect example of leadership essay . This section has three excellent excerpts from the introductions, bodies, and conclusions of leadership papers. 

• Introduction 

The floor was full of press cameras and microphones ready to capture a critical event. The venue was filled with different types of furniture, leather seats, and the who-is-who in the media industry that could change the entire media industry. Until then, I never saw myself as a leader, although I knew that this event was bigger than me, a moment that I could positively influence for the benefit of everyone present.

Gaining experience is one of the pillars of growing up in one’s leadership journey. The reason is that leadership isn’t a theory or concept captured in the heads, arguments, or counterarguments of so-called leadership gurus. Instead, it’s about practical life engagements that solve people’s problems in the real world. Thus, experience is the best tool to provide leaders with the opportunities to face and solve problems, make sound decisions, and learn from their failures and successes. All great leaders cherish such experiences and use them to grow and develop their leadership. 

• Conclusion 

In my view, leadership is about solving problems and meeting people’s needs, period. That’s the big picture, and the rest are minor details. My ability to empathize with others and give them a helping hand instead of pointing fingers at them summarizes my leadership philosophy. I hope to use this drive to be on the solution side of life, to prescribe solutions instead of just describing and decrying problems. 

Final Word 

Do you want to boost your writing skills on the topic of leadership? We’ve created this post to give you valuable and practical insights to accelerate your leadership research and writing journey. We hope you will use them to compose a perfect essay on effective leadership .

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Module 10: Leadership

Assignment: evaluating leadership, preparation.

In your readings on Leadership, you learned the difference between management and leadership, as well as traits, styles, and situations of leaders and leadership. Many modern-day leaders were profiled in the text, including:

• Warren Buffett
• Martin Winterkorn
• Carrie Toldstedt
• Ginni Rometty
• Mark Zuckerberg

In this assignment, you will research and write about a modern leader of your choice. You may not select one of the leaders listed above .  The following steps will help you prepare for your written assignment:

• Thoroughly read the Leadership module.
• Carefully consider the traits, styles, and differing situations for leadership in today’s organizations.
• Select a leader to profile in your written report. You may select one you admire, or a “good example of a bad example.”  There are numerous websites naming leaders to get you started.  A quick search on “famous contemporary leaders” revealed millions of possible lists, OR you may select a leader in your personal or professional life: your boss, a coach, a team leader, etc.
• Research your chosen leader, identifying evidence of his/her traits, styles, and leadership situations. Relate your findings to the module concepts. For example, how did your chosen leader demonstrate the trait of “desire to lead”?  Prepare examples.
• First, introduce your leader, and state why you selected him/her. Was their leadership effective or not effective?
• Next, expand upon the traits and style of your leader, including at least three properly referenced and defined terms from the module reading. For example, if you select Drive, describe what the term means in the context of leadership and how your leader demonstrates it.
• Next, describe the leadership situation your chosen leader was in, using one of the Situational Leadership Models from the module reading. For example, if your leader was charged with a group of new or low-competence employees, did they use the Selling style prescribed by Ken Blanchard?
• Finally, conclude with a short description of your personal leadership style and how effective it has been for you to date.

Your written assignment will be graded using the  Written Assignment Rubric . Please review and keep it in mind as you prepare your assignment. Each component is weighted as follows:

10% Organization and Format

Adequate: Writing is coherent and logically organized, using a format suitable for the material presented. Transitions used between ideas and paragraphs create coherence. Overall unity of ideas is supported by the format and organization of the material presented.

40% Content

Adequate: All required questions are addressed with thoughtful consideration reflecting both proper use of content terminology and additional original thought. Some additional concepts are presented from properly cited sources, or originated by the author following logic and reasoning they’ve clearly presented throughout the writing.

40% Development – Critical Thinking

Adequate: Content indicates original thinking, cohesive conclusions, and developed ideas with sufficient and firm evidence. Ideas presented are not merely the opinion of the writer, and clearly address all of the questions or requirements asked with evidence presented to support conclusions drawn.

10% Grammar, Mechanics, Style

Adequate: Writing is free of spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, allowing the reader to follow ideas clearly. There are no sentence fragments and run-ons. The style of writing, tone, and use of rhetorical devices is presented in a cohesive style that enhances the content of the message.

• Assignment: Evaluating Leadership . Authored by : Betty Fitte and Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

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• How to Structure a Leadership Essay (Samples to Consider)

Leadership is a complex concept, but it’s essential for boosting your career. That’s why a leadership essay focuses on applying the theoretical models and concepts of successful management to real-life situations. 

If you don’t know where to start writing such a paper, please read on for professional tips!

What Is Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is a paper that analyzes leadership concepts and their application to real-life situations that may involve everyday business management, crisis situations, and other scenarios. 

Every essay on leadership is about defining a concept. Then, it’s either comparing it to similar management tools or proving that it’s useful (or not).

While some students enjoy writing such papers, other learners hate them. The below samples will come in handy, no matter which group is yours.

What Does Leadership Mean to You? (Essay Sample)

It is one of the most popular topics for a leadership essay. If you need to write a paper like that, ask yourself:

• Who is a good leader?  
• What style do they use?  
• What are the situations when they might switch styles?

You may take a more personal approach to such an essay if your professor allows you to. In the example below, you will see the academic approach to this topic. It analyzes three leadership styles to discover which one corresponds to the meaning of leadership if one thinks of it as guidance and support.

Why I Want to Participate in a Leadership Program (Essay Sample)

It’s another example of a popular topic. Such papers often have a meaning beyond the classroom since they may decide whether you plan to participate in a specific program. It’s critical to make them as effective and compelling as possible.

A personalized approach is the best when it comes to essays like this. In the example below, you will see the paper that relies on individual beliefs and a personal life story to explain why it’s so important for the specific student to participate in the chosen program.

How to Write a Leadership Essay

Like every other essay, this paper has an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion summarizing your thoughts. (1) The most important part of the introduction is the final sentence,  aka  a thesis statement. That’s where you state your claim to prove or develop in your leadership essay.

Each body paragraph should correspond to the purpose of your essay. To ensure you don’t stray from the aim you’ve established in the thesis statement, write the topic sentences for all your paragraphs in the outline . In simple words, write the first sentence of every paragraph to define its development in advance and see if you cover everything you need.

And now, to the conclusion:

Its most essential element is thesis restatement or the first sentence of that paragraph. It’s not just paraphrasing your thesis; it’s also considering the new information you’ve discovered while writing the essay.

Structure :

• Introduction (End it with a thesis statement.)
• Body paragraphs (Each one starts with a topic sentence.)
• Conclusion (Start it with a thesis restatement.)

Understand the purpose of a leadership essay

When starting to write, think about why you’re creating this paper. Before you sit down and type the words, think about the ideas you want to convey and their meaning in your life:

Can this essay teach you to take responsibility? Or maybe will it help you understand how to be a leader in crisis situations? When you’ve answered the “why” question, begin outlining.

Build a strong thesis

Always start with your thesis statement. It will help incorporate your answer to that notorious “why” question into your essay. Once done, you can plan out the rest of the paper and start working on the body paragraphs as soon as you finish the introduction.

There’s another important tip —don’t rush into writing the conclusion before you finish everything else!

It might seem like a good idea to create a thesis statement and thesis restatement right off the bat. However, you’ll find yourself with more refreshing ideas after completing all the research and thinking necessary for the introduction and each body paragraph.

Decide on a structure; format accordingly

Even if your essay about leadership seems not so formal, and you can use personal pronouns, you still need a clear structure.

The best way to write any academic paper is to keep your introduction and conclusion as short as possible. (But no shorter than three sentences and four lines of text). 

Another important tip is to try making all your body paragraphs equal in length. That way, you’ll give the same attention to all the vital points of your essay.

Ready to Write Your Essay on Leadership Now?

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the most critical elements of a leadership essay. 

Remember the structure, grammar, and appropriate academic style to create a top-level paper. Please don’t forget to answer the “why” question and remember  why  you’re writing. Then you’ll impress everyone with your results!

References:

• https://lsa.umich.edu/onsf/news-events/all-news/directors-blog/writing-leadership-essays.html
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Leadership Essay

27 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author:  Richard Pircher

As a college student, you must write essays on a regular basis since the latter is one of the most common types of home assignments. All this means is that in order to get good grades and be successful with writing the papers, you need to have a sound understanding of the structure. Additionally, what you should never neglect is the variety of essay types. Indeed, your essay will significantly differ from one type to another: description essay will most likely have a structure that is slightly different from an argumentative one.

What you may have already encountered in your academic life is the work on a leadership essay. Although it sounds pretty complicated and vague, it is mostly possible to master an essay on leadership. Below is a guide for you to get an insight into this particular essay type.

What is a good leadership essay?

A good leadership essay is the one in which the essay writer has fully covered the topic of leadership and understood its core ideas. More specifically, to end up with a flawless leadership essay, you will need to indicate what makes a person a good leader. For achieving the latter, you will most likely need to conduct research and trace how a particular person reaches his or her goals. In other words, the task is to discover which actions the person undertakes, what their followers say about him or her, and how the person organizes the work. So, a leadership essay implies providing real-life success examples and further revealing them.

Above all, a good leadership essay is the one that follows a precise, clear, comprehensive structure. Structuring your essay about leadership in the most coherent way leads to a win-win situation: you have fewer troubles and barriers to writing a brilliant essay, and your teacher is able to comprehend the essay easily. This guide is what you will need to refer to to get an insight into how the flawless structure for a leadership essay looks like and how it will let you take a benefit.

How to write a Leadership essay?

To write a leadership essay that stands out, you first need to brainstorm all the ideas that you have and come up with a topic for your essay. If you are struggling with this step, you may think of some of the most influential people, read about them, and find out what makes them unique. Or, you can pick any topic which is mentioned at the end of this article. After you have chosen an issue, it is time to structure your essay appropriately.

As you already know, an essay constitutes three essential sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Below is the more detailed description of each of the parts.

Introduction

Of course, your leadership essay introduction will always vary depending on the topic of the essay. However, you can always begin by stating your vision of leadership regardless of the topic. Additionally, to motivate the reader and instantly catch his or her attention, you may use a quote of a famous leader, or simply a quote which you find relevant to the topic. Be aware that you should avoid outlining the essence and the role of the leadership in your introduction; leave it for the body paragraphs.

What you may also do in your leadership essay is ask a question, which will most likely intrigue the leader. Or it will at least give your reader an overview of what you will dwell on  in your essay.

Body Paragraphs

You will need to divide the main body into 3-5 paragraphs to make the structure more comprehensive. What you have to do at this point  is  give your reader a sound understanding of your ideas. Therefore, try to fit each idea in a single body paragraph so that you do not confuse your reader. Do not hesitate to indicate your examples to strengthen your arguments. For instance, you may explain a fact that makes a particular person you are writing about a real leader.

Also, always stick to your thesis statement and don’t forget that the body paragraphs should reveal the parts of your thesis statement.

As you may already know, you need to restate your opinion and briefly summarize all the points from the main body in conclusion. For instance, if you wrote your essay on qualities of an effective leader, state the most fundamental qualities and indicate why they matter the most. Besides, try not to copy what you have already written in the body – it is better to restate your opinion using different words. And, of course, beware adding any new and extra information; indicate only those points that you have already outlined in the text. Finally, keep in mind that it is always favorable to keep your concluding remarks short.

Leadership Essay Examples

Writing a leadership essay requires some research and time. In case you feel the necessity to go through an essay example, below is a leadership essay sample you can refer to.

Is leadership an inborn or an acquired feature?

Is everyone capable of becoming a leader, or is this ability innate? A lot of researchers have been struggling to answer this question. One assumption about leadership implies that the leader is the person who possesses particular characteristics. Another assumption claims that leaders are capable of acquiring specific features over their life span. As the evidence shows, leaders own many features that distinguish them among others and make more and more people become their followers. These might be cognitive abilities, psychological traits, professional qualities, and a lot more, and all of them will be either acquired or innate. Based on the importance of leadership qualities, such as commitment, stress resistance, and the ability to make quality decisions, it is reasonable to claim that leaders are made, not born. 

One can deem commitment as one of the top fundamental qualities of the leader. In essence, such a feature indicates that a person is passionate about the common goal, strives to be a team player, and makes every effort to reach a shared goal. As the history shows, none of the successful companies was uncoordinated by an influential, committed leader: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft – all of these companies are examples of dominant teams led by a dedicated leader. A committed leader also inspires his or her team to achieve common goals and put more effort into the shared activity. Besides, commitment is unlikely to be an innate feature; it instead comes with experience. This is so, since commitment implies dedicating oneself to the shared task, and one can reach it only via learning and continuous self-improvement.

Stress resistance is another incredibly important feature that every good leader should possess. This is because only a stress-resistant leader has sufficient capabilities to overcome any complexity and not let the anxiety and stress prevent him or her from making proper decisions. Besides, such a leader will most likely have a positive influence on the team, as long as leading by example will motivate the team members to attain the same emotional stability. What is so far familiar about stress resistance as an effective leader’s feature is that it can be either innate or attained. However, although some researchers admit that emotional stability is something one is born with, it is not entirely true; many people still put a great effort into self-improvement, changing the attitude to unfortunate situations, and so on. Therefore, being resistant to stress can be mostly attributed to a personality.

An ability to make high-quality decisions most likely determines the chances for an enterprise’s success. In particular, such quality is incredibly fundamental for a company of any size and professional orientation. Additionally, it is one of the top tasks of a good leader to make final decisions. What he or she should do implies brainstorming, discussing various opinions in the group, making forecasts, analyzing all the pros and cons. However, the leader is the one to make a final decision. Thereby, he is in charge of researching the market, discovering all the hidden truths, and analyzing the organization’s potential and capabilities to result in the most effective decision. As it flows logically from the latter, an ability to make sound quality decisions is purely a professional quality. This leads to the conclusion that one has to work hard to become a genuine leader and master the skill of making effective decisions. 

Overall, the leader may possess a multitude of different skills and master them perfectly. However, what has so far become transparent is that any leader, regardless of which team he leads, must possess three essential qualities. These qualities are commitment to the common goal, ability to handle and resist stress, and, finally, an ability to make effective decisions. All of the three qualities are most likely to be acquired over a lifetime. The statement below leads to the conclusion that even though some qualities can be innate, most are not the ones that leaders are born with. Hence, this answers an essential question: leadership feature is acquired, and not necessarily inborn.  

20 leadership essay topics

When coming up with your next leadership essay topic, it is imperative to brainstorm ideas and think of what leadership might be related to. If you are struggling with a topic of the importance of leadership essay or any relevant type of essay, you may quickly take a look at some of the possible topics we prepared for you:

• What are the main qualities of the leader?
• Successful Time Management as a feature of an effective leader
• The role that rhetoric plays in leadership
• The most exceptional leader in the history of the 20-th century
• The role of female leadership
• What are the challenges of the leader of the 21-st century?
• How college helps students develop leadership skills?
• Qualities of the leader that motivate people to follow them 
• Top things to avoid doing to become a team leader
• Examples of effective and ineffective leadership in the history
• Top techniques for developing leadership skills
• The interconnection of creativity and leadership 
• Is a university’s role fundamental in developing leadership skills?
• Dictatorship as an anti-example of leadership
• Liberal vs Authoritative leadership: which one works better?
• The influence of the leader’s role model on the followers’ mindset
• Main difficulties that the new leader may face in a new team
• Leadership of today vs leadership of the past: what has changed?
• Reasons why I want to become a member if the leadership program
• The role of cognitive abilities for the leader 

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A Full Guide On How To Create Good Leadership Essay

Attempting a leadership essay isn’t such a daunting task, provided you have a grasp of the necessary information needed for a leadership paper. To write this special essay, you’ll need to redefine what exactly an essay on leadership is, how to choose the perfect topic, what should be in the content, and how to organize and structure the paper. Let’s delve deeper!

What Is A Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is a well-formatted, organized and specialized type of formal writing which elaborates on a generic leadership topic or a superior human figure exercising a great influence on people and transmitting desire and optimism to achieve goals.

What Makes A Good Leader Essay?

There are some peculiarities needed to infuse in your write-up if, for example, you’re trying to learn how to write a leadership essay about yourself.

Also, if you’re just trying to produce leadership essays for college, then you’d first and foremost, learn  how to structure an essay , among other skills needed for this type of essay. Here are some qualities which can be found in a good essay about leadership.

• Choose a creative topic
• Avoid the passive voice (the active voice sounds stronger)
• Search for and study leadership essay examples
• Follow the appropriate essay style
• Focus on the essay structure
• Review the essay

How To Choose A Topic And Make A Great Title?

To choose a topic for a paper on leadership, you need to do some research on the concept of a leader (whether in the corporate industry, political society or even in the criminal world). You have to know the current leadership tendencies in organizational groups or society. You can choose to make a leader the point of your reference by explaining the consequences of their leadership abilities or inabilities.

In the body of your essay, don’t forget to mention several types of leadership styles and point out which one the subject portrays. Finally, you should not rule out making comparisons of famous leaders in the modern world or in history. An example of a great prompt for a leadership essay that deploys the comparison technique would be the leadership styles of President Trump and The Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte as both leadership styles have been subjected to political reviews in recent times since their emergence as president of their respective countries.

Outline For A Leadership Essay

When writing a college or professional essay such as -long and short essays on leadership, planning is the key to perfection. The general outline for any essay, including leadership papers, include an introduction, the body paragraphs (which must be properly linked with transition words and/or phrases) and a recapitulating or finding-based conclusions. Here’s what your outline should look like:

Introduction

Knowing how to start a leadership essay depends on your introduction writing ability. The introduction is the gateway to the essay. Aided by punchy opening words, which are the hook, the purpose of the introduction is to draw the reader’s attention. The introduction presents the thesis statement and leaves the body paragraphs to sustain the reader’s interest.

Body Paragraphs

Having informed the readers of the topic of the essay in the introductory paragraph(s), the body paragraphs follow immediately.

Here, you can elaborate on the concept of leadership and do a meaningful interpretation of the subject – the topic or the thesis statement. Don’t forget to talk about your leadership philosophies and leadership experience in whatever capacity you might have found yourself in. Remember, people are more interested in personal experiences. They are great in helping to sustain readers’ attention.

Remember to state a thesis or hypothesis in the opening paragraphs – which is the intro. In each of the body paragraphs of the essay, try to relate your points to the thesis and use each point to prove its validity.

The conclusion is the end part of any well-structured essay. Its purpose is a no-brainer. You don’t want to leave your reader hanging by ending the essay cold turkey. Any standard essay without a conclusion is just as useless as an essay with no purpose. However, be careful not to present new ideas not mentioned in the body.

As mentioned, the conclusion serves to summarize the developed points, restate the thesis and/or present the findings. It is your last opportunity to create an impression on the reader, and this is where they take the message away. If your conclusion is weak, then we might say the essay’s objectives are not achieved.

What To Include In A Leadership Essay?

Here are some tips on what your leadership essay should include.

Your Definition Of A Good Leader And Why He Or She Is Important

Since your essay revolves around leadership and the traits of a good leader, you’ll need to define what it takes to be one. You may also take this opportunity to trash some common myths on what a leader is (i.e., a manager being confused for a leader).

For reference purposes, the concepts of leadership and being a good leader are explained:

Leadership is the quality of a leader and is that person capable of exercising a great influence on people and transmitting desire and optimism to achieve goals. A leader is a guide; someone with ideas and goals that can spread to a large group of people who still believe he or she can lead them in the right direction.

There are many types of leaders and therefore, of leadership since people generally always look for a person or group that shows them a direction to follow. You can find religious, political, social, or philosophical leadership. Leadership can be exercised in a traditional way. In many countries, there is a monarchy. The king or queen is a leader with limited political power, at least in western democracies, but still have the respect and consideration of the people. Their words continue to be heard and taken into account, especially in problematic times. There are other types of leadership that are not given by birth, such as legitimate leadership exercised by, for example, political leaders freely chosen by their people, or charismatic leaders.

In a way, charismatic leaders are what many understand as leaders since they are people who, by their way of behavior and characteristics, get many people to follow and adhere to their ideas. Some charismatic leaders can become legitimate leaders if they choose the path of politics. A traditional leader can also be charismatic. There have always been kings loved by his people more than others. But it can also be a person who prefers independent movements outside of power.

Charisma is the personal magnetism a person has. It is something very difficult to define but makes one capable of convincing others without too much effort, making people follow and trust the leading figure. Charisma can be used positively or negatively. The leaders of the most destructive sects are very charismatic people that are capable of convincing their followers of the eeriest ideas, including donating all their belongings or committing collective suicide.

Examples Of Your Leadership Style

In the content of your essay, you may consider giving an interpretation to your (or your chosen leader’s) leadership traits. Below are some examples of leadership qualities that separate a good leader from a bad leader.

What qualities are necessary for leadership

• Communication
• Emotional intelligence
• Strategic thinking
• Commitment and passion
• Knowledge and experience
• Leading by example
• Active listening
• Ability to enhance talent
• Setting goals and expectations
• People investment
• Discernment
• Concentration
• Positive attitude
• Problem-solving
• Self-discipline

Leadership Essay Example

To know how to do essay fast, you’ll need some ready-made essay examples for the sake of guidance and inspiration. You may find below a leadership essay written by Oliver Smith useful in your leadership paper.

Writing a leadership essay should be easy. A good essay on leadership starts from the hook, and the thesis statement in the introduction. The points developed in the body paragraphs help affirm the hypothesis. Finally, the conclusion offers the reader a summary through the restatement of the essay’s main idea.

As required for every essay type, your essay on leadership has to follow a definite style and format. Examples are MLA, APA, Chicago and AP styles. Take your time in choosing a creative but new topic and also in writing the content. By following this guide, everything should be as perfect as possible.

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10.5: Assignment- Evaluating Leadership

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• Lumen Learning

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Preparation

In your readings on Leadership, you learned the difference between management and leadership, as well as traits, styles, and situations of leaders and leadership.

In this assignment, you will research and write about a modern leader of your choice. You may not select one of the leaders discussed in the course. Carefully consider the traits, styles, and differing situations for leadership in today’s organizations.

• Select a leader to profile in your written report. You may select one you admire, or a “good example of a bad example.” There are numerous websites naming leaders to get you started. A quick search on “famous contemporary leaders” revealed millions of possible lists, OR you may select a leader in your personal or professional life: your boss, a coach, a team leader, etc.
• Research your chosen leader, identifying evidence of his/her traits, styles, and leadership situations. Relate your findings to the module concepts. For example, how did your chosen leader demonstrate the trait of “desire to lead”? Prepare examples.
• First, introduce your leader, and state why you selected him/her. Was their leadership effective or not effective?
• Next, expand upon the traits and style of your leader, including at least three properly referenced and defined terms from the module reading. For example, if you select Drive, describe what the term means in the context of leadership and how your leader demonstrates it.
• Next, describe the leadership situation your chosen leader was in, using one of the Situational Leadership Models from the module reading. For example, if your leader was charged with a group of new or low-competence employees, did they use the Selling style prescribed by Ken Blanchard?
• Finally, conclude with a short description of your personal leadership style and how effective it has been for you to date.

In addition to the text, you are encouraged to research leadership and your chosen leader, using reliable and properly cited Internet resources. You may also draw from your personal work experience with appropriate examples to support your references.

Contributors and Attributions

• Assignment: Evaluating Leadership . Authored by : Betty Fitte and Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

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Help with writing assignments

You can improve your skills at writing assignments for your subject area in a number of ways: 

• We have a wide range of self-service online resources that will help you develop your writing and study skills and support your assignment work: Learning Hub Skills Guides. 
• We run workshops on academic writing, as well as on other types of writing (including critical writing and reflective writing).  See Succeed@Tees workshops  for more information, including a list of dates and times.

Guidance on academic writing

Evidence-based.

• Bringing it all together
• Finally ...

• Writing an assignment takes time, more time than you may expect.  Just because you find yourself spending many weeks on an assignment doesn’t mean that you’re approaching it in the wrong way.
• It also takes time to develop the skills to write well, so don’t be discouraged if your early marks aren’t what you’d hoped for.  Use the feedback from your previous assignments to improve.
• Different types of assignments require different styles, so be prepared for the need to continue to develop your skills.

We’ve broken down TIME into 4 key elements of academic writing: Targeted, In-depth, Measured and Evidence-based.

• What is an academic piece of work

Your assignment needs to be targeted .  It should:

• Be focused on the questions and criteria
• Make a decision
• Follow an argument
• How to be targeted
• Academic keywords or clue words

Your assignment needs to be in-depth .  You should consider your questions and criteria thoroughly, thinking about all possible aspects, and including the argument both for and against different viewpoints.

You should:

• Identify topic areas
• Plan your assignment
• Think about your introduction and conclusion
• How to be in-depth
• How to read quickly

An academic writing style is measured. By this, we mean that it’s:

• Emotionally neutral
• Formal – written in the third person and in full sentences
• How to be measured

Your assignment needs to be evidence-based . You should:

• Reference all the ideas in your work
• Paraphrase your evidence
• Apply critical thinking to your evidence
• How to be evidence-based
• How to paraphrase

Once you’ve found all your evidence, and have decided what to say in each section, you need to write it up as paragraphs.  Each paragraph should be on a single topic, making a single point.  A paragraph is usually around a third of a page. 

We find Godwin’s (2014) WEED model very helpful for constructing paragraphs.

W is for What

You should begin your paragraph with the topic or point that you’re making, so that it’s clear to your lecturer.  Everything in the paragraph should fit in with this opening sentence.

E is for Evidence  

The middle of your paragraph should be full of evidence – this is where all your references should be incorporated.  Make sure that your evidence fits in with your topic.

E is for Examples

Sometimes it’s useful to expand on your evidence.  If you’re talking about a case study, the example might be how your point relates to the particular scenario being discussed.

D is for Do

You should conclude your paragraph with the implications of your discussion.  This gives you the opportunity to add your commentary, which is very important in assignments which require you to use critical analysis. 

So, in effect, each paragraph is like a mini-essay, with an introduction, main body and conclusion.

Allow yourself some TIME to proofread your assignment.  You’ll probably want to proofread it several times. 

You should read it through at least once for sense and structure, to see if your paragraphs flow.  Check that your introduction matches the content of your assignment.  You’ll also want to make sure that you’ve been concise in your writing style. 

You’ll then need to read it again to check for grammatical errors, typos and that your references are correct.

It’s best if you can create some distance from your assignment by coming back to it after a few days. It’s also often easier to pick out mistakes if you read your work aloud.

• How to proofread

Online support for academic writing

We have a skills guide dedicated to academic writing , with an online tutorial and an  Adobe visual guide  to support you.

School Guidelines for Academic Writing and Presentation of Assessed Written Work

• School of Health & Life Sciences Student Guidance for the Presentation of Assessed Written Work (2021)

Tutorials for academic writing and study skills support

Academic Writing and Study Skills Tutorials are available to all students. They are a confidential one-to-one or small group appointment with a member of the Library Team lasting up to 30 minutes. They are available in person on campus, via Teams and email.

In order to ensure that the students who need them most have access to a tutorial, we will support you to engage with our online services and drop-ins before we make you a tutorial appointment.

Requesting a tutorial

• Tutorials are booked for you by our Learning and Skills Development Team. To request skills support email: [email protected]
• Our Team will help you to define what support you need and will initially guide you through our online materials and encourage you to engage with our Study Skill Drop-ins
• If after trying out this support for yourself, you would like further support you can email us again at [email protected] and we will make a tutorial appointment for you
• We will refer you for up to three appointments per semester (1 appointment per assignment)
• Appointments could be with a range of library staff so be aware that you may not see the same adviser at each one-to-one
• Depending on demand there may be a waiting list for one-to-one appointments

What can a tutorial help you with? We can help you to develop your own independent study skills in many aspects of academic writing. This could be helping you to develop your own skills to:

- Understand your tutor’s feedback on a marked assignment and act upon that feedback for future assignments - Understand your School’s Assessment Criteria for an assignment - Improve your time management and plan for your assignment submission dates - Structure your assignment - Develop your critical thinking and writing - Develop your independent proof-reading skills and the skills for you assess that your work is of a quality appropriate  for submission

You can bring your assignment plan or a piece of work with you as an example and we will use it to inform our advice on how to develop the independent skills that will improve your confidence and performance.

What tutorials are not able to help with and why

• We cannot read your work ahead of a tutorial, however, you can bring a piece of work with you to your appointment for us to refer to in the session
• As your work needs to be entirely your own, we will not check draft assignments for you in order to approve their quality before submission but we will support you to develop these skills for yourself
• In order to protect your academic integrity we cannot proof-read your work for you i.e. check the content, structure, spelling or grammar, but we will help you to develop the valuable skills to successfully proof read your own work
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5 Steps to Creating a Successful Leadership Development Plan

• 27 Nov 2019

Leadership development is a key initiative for many businesses. Organizations not only try to recruit candidates with leadership potential but cultivate their current employees’ leadership skills.

In a survey by global research and advisory firm Gartner , 60 percent of human resources executives said they’ll focus on cultivating leader and manager effectiveness for their company in 2023. In doing so, they intend to nurture the professional development of potential leaders by developing specific leadership qualities, such as authenticity, empathy, and adaptiveness—representing a new kind of “human” leadership.

Additionally, a report by the World Economic Forum projects leadership and social influence to be among the fastest-growing workplace skills through 2022, which ties into a burgeoning trend for all workers to become lifelong learners to address emerging skills gaps.

For motivated professionals who want to advance their careers and assume leadership positions, creating a leadership development plan is vital to staying ahead of the curve and rising to the demands of the job market. According to Harvard Business School Professor Ethan Bernstein, the path to effective leadership is more fluid now than in the past.

“Once upon a time, you would enter a leadership development program in a company that might put you on a 20-year track to becoming an executive,” Bernstein says. “Many of us can’t even fathom that today. But that should be freeing in that it gives us license to develop ourselves and create our own individualized leadership development plans.”

As you plot your career trajectory and consider how you can maximize your professional influence and impact, here are five steps to creating a successful leadership development plan.

How to Design Your Leadership Development Plan

1. assess where you are professionally.

Mapping your leadership development starts with understanding yourself and where you stand professionally. Taking stock of your strengths, weaknesses, and workplace tendencies can help identify areas for improvement and anticipate pitfalls that could arise on your journey to becoming a more capable leader.

“In the process of identifying how what you’ve done before may or may not make you successful going forward, you raise your awareness about how what you already know will contribute to, or undermine, your capacity to successfully lead others in the future,” Bernstein says.

Completing an assessment can be a valuable way to reflect on your motivational drivers and limitations and gain a more holistic view of your personal leadership style . Pairing self-reflection with a 360-degree assessment enables you to solicit feedback from colleagues and peers, which can provide greater insight into how others experience you. In turn, you can build and leverage a keener sense of emotional intelligence throughout your leadership development journey.

Related: 4 Tips for Developing Your Personal Leadership Style

2. Set an Attainable Goal

Goal setting is an essential component of any leadership development plan.

“Just like anything else: If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably not going to get there,” Bernstein says. “It sounds overly simplistic, but that summarizes why goals are important."

Bernstein teaches the PACE model, an acronym for:

• Pick a leadership goal
• Apprise others in your inner circle of the goal
• Collect specific ideas on how to improve
• Elicit feedback on how you’re doing

PACE is employed by learners to select leadership development goals and chart a course of action for achieving them. The first step in the process, Pick, is centered on identifying and prioritizing a goal you can strive toward to boost your professional effectiveness. When setting this goal, take an agile approach and consider both the short and long term.

“You can’t lose sight of where you’re trying to go over the span of a decade—or even a career—which is why making long-term goals is important,” Bernstein says. “But we can’t, as human beings, make progress if we make the milestones so grand and far away that they seem unachievable. A little bit of progress each day keeps the frustration at bay.”

As you define and establish your key goal, consider how you’ll measure progress along the way to ensure you stay on track.

3. Engage in Leadership Training

Leadership training can benefit you no matter your career stage. Beyond the opportunity to gain and practice the technical skills needed to empower employees and influence others , you’re exposed to faculty and peers you can lean on for support and learn and grow from. It can also equip you for future leadership roles.

According to Bernstein, honing your leadership abilities in a classroom setting is advantageous because it provides a low-risk environment for reevaluating and fine-tuning goals when you encounter setbacks.

“It’s helpful to have a group of people—we call it your ‘inner circle’—who’ve heard and embraced your leadership goals, and whose conversations helped inform how you would go about achieving them,” Bernstein says. “In moments of challenge and relapse, you can go back to them for encouragement and courage. You can revise your goals in a safe environment because you have a level of openness and vulnerability with those people built into the course.”

4. Interact with Your Network

A professional network is one of the most valuable resources in any leader’s arsenal, so make it a point to grow yours . Throughout your leadership development journey, connecting with like-minded peers can have a positive impact by providing opportunities to employ the knowledge you’ve gained and receive feedback on your progress.

These kinds of interactions are core tenets of the online course Leadership Principles , in which learners practice delivering feedback through video exercises that allow them to evaluate their effectiveness in various business scenarios.

“Ensure your leadership development includes some interaction with other learners and also with the people who are benefitting and suffering from your current capabilities as a leader,” Bernstein says. “We try to teach people to be good protégés, as well as good leaders. It’s an ongoing process. That interaction is important in making things that seem very theoretical ultimately become very practical.”

5. Hone Your Soft Skills

Effective leadership requires a unique blend of characteristics and skills .

“There are skills you need as a leader that you don’t necessarily develop in any other context, at least in a focused way,” Bernstein says. “These include communication; career planning; knowing how to create and evaluate authentic change in a person, including yourself; and negotiating career transitions. These are things you typically won’t do many times in your career, but they will be very important to continuing your leadership trajectory.”

As you chart your leadership development plan, consider how you can bolster essential soft skills like actively listening , practicing empathy , and creating value in a negotiation to ensure you’re prepared to tackle any organizational challenges that come your way.

Developing Your Leadership Skills

Striving to become a strong, capable leader is a commitment you can make at any stage of your career —although doing so sooner means you can reap the benefits longer. By assessing where you are professionally and thinking deeply about where you want to go, you can design a leadership development plan that enables you to channel your passions and build the skills needed to be more impactful in your role.

Do you want to enhance your leadership skills? Download our free leadership e-book and explore our online course Leadership Principles to discover how you can become a more effective leader and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

This post was updated on December 21, 2022. It was originally published on November 27, 2019.

About the Author

627 Leadership Essay Topics & Examples

Looking for leadership essay topics to write about? Being both an exciting research area and a practical skill, leadership is definitely worth exploring!

• 🔝 Top 10 Essay Topics

📃 Leadership Essay: How to Write

• 🏆 Best Essay Examples
• 👍 Interesting Essay Topics
• 🎓 Simple & Easy Essay Titles
• 📌 Controversial Title Ideas
• 🥇 Good Topics to Write

✍️ Leadership Essay Topics for College

❓ leadership essay questions.

In your leadership essay, you might want to take a look at the sphere of government or elaborate on the role of leadership in business organizations. Here we’ve gathered most catchy leadership title ideas together with leadership essay examples. There are also useful tips on writing your introduction, conclusion, and formulating a thesis statement.

🔝 Top 10 Leadership Essay Topics

• Leadership as a research area and a practical skill
• Theories of leadership
• Functional leadership theory
• Autocratic and democratic leadership styles: compare and contrast
• Task-oriented leadership style: the key features
• Measuring leadership: the main approaches
• Gender and leadership in Western countries
• The concept of leadership: myths and misunderstandings
• Emotional intelligence and leadership: the connection
• Leadership in non-human animals

While writing a leadership essay, you may struggle with the subject, structure, titles, and other components. Don’t worry – these tips will help you to write the best leadership paper!

Tip 1. Choose your subject area first. If your professor did not provide specific topics, you would need to select one on your own. In order to do this, you may focus on an area of leadership that sounds interesting to you.

For example, if you consider working in the hospitality sector in the future, write about leadership in hotels or restaurants. Alternatively, you can browse leadership essay topics online and see if that gives you any clarity.

Tip 2. Narrow down the topic. To ensure that your essay earns high marks, you should avoid choosing an area of leadership that is too broad.

A college level paper should offer enough details and depth to receive an excellent grade. For instance, instead of overviewing a bunch of leadership styles, focus on how certain styles impede or facilitate teamwork. This will give you enough to talk about while limiting the scope of your essay.

Tip 3. Don’t confuse leadership with management! This is a common mistake that students make while writing leadership essays. Although the two concepts overlap, leadership is more about beliefs and vision, whereas managerial work is focused on specific tools and techniques.

Thus, a leader may or may not be a manager. To get more familiar with the subject of leadership, research various leadership styles, such as transformational, autocratic, and servant leadership.

Tip 4. Pay attention to the structure. In a great essay, ideas are always well-organized and follow one another in a logical sequence. First, write an introduction where you present your topic and thesis.

Then, write the main body, where you explain the key concepts and the relationships between them by reviewing relevant research evidence.

Lastly, write a conclusion summarizing your key points. A good leadership essay conclusion should also show how the information can be applied in practice.

Tip 5. Seek to answer any questions that readers might have. For your essay to show excellent depth, you need to address the points that might be interesting to readers in connection with your subject area.

For example, if you are reviewing a particular leadership style, you might want to discuss in which settings it would be useful and what are some of its limitations.

To make this part easier, you could search for leadership essay questions online to clarify what kind of answers readers expect you to cover.

Tip 6. Explain the importance and relevance of your paper. Because leadership is focused on effective strategies that can be applied in real life, you need to provide examples of how your essay may be used to support future practice and research.

Can leaders use the information you provided to improve their relationships with other employees? Can the proposed strategies influence performance?

Think about the potential uses of your research, as well as any gaps that are yet to be studied. Highlighting areas for future research will show your tutor that you are genuinely interested in the subject while also helping you plan for future essays.

We hope that these leadership essay tips will make it easier for you to write an outstanding paper! Make sure to check our website for sample essays on leadership!

🏆 Best Leadership Essay Examples

• Nelson Mandela Leadership Style Mandela’s fight for democracy and fulfilment of the majority will was also seen in his efforts to reconcile Libya with the rest of the world.
• Reed Hastings’ Leadership Style: Netflix CEO’s Strategy Since the work of a leader is crucial for the performance of the whole enterprise, it is essential to analyze the leadership style of a particular business leader through the perspective of his or her […]
• Transformational Leadership Essay This requires the transformational leader to have the right communication skills to be able to relay the vision they have to a point of winning the willingness of the followers such that they too are […]
• Google Democratic Leadership Style – Compared to Amazon Applying behavioural leadership style theories in Bezos and Schmidt’s case reveals that the Amazon CEO is an autocratic leader while the Google CEO is a democratic leader.
• Leadership Case Study This is mainly achieved through setting a pace in serving as a role model and creation of a working environment that allows members of the organization or employees to feel honored as part of the […]
• Frederick Douglass Leadership Personality Traits Report (Assessment) The book was so humorous that he feared that he would be enslaved again for the weaknesses that he portrayed in the American lifestyle and how he was able to trick them with the attire […]
• Barack Obama’s Charismatic Leadership In Obama’s Case, the sparkle and invisible energy as defined by Rao pushed him to the presidency and continues allowing him some loyal following albeit the fact that some are being disappointed by the slow […]
• Teamwork and Leadership From diversity to team hierarchy, many factors influence the eventual output of the team, affecting the leader, team members’ performance, and client’s satisfaction.
• Bernard Arnault’s Leadership One of Arnault’s leadership styles entails identifying brands that are preferred in the market and working on enhancing the quality of these brands. Bernard Arnault is a visionary leader who has helped LVMH to attain […]
• Google Company’s Situational Leadership The current CEO of Google, Larry Page, is a considered a great leader because of his ability to apply situational leadership skills in resolving some of the problems that threaten the success of the company.
• Mahatma Gandhi’s Leadership This report is an analysis of the behaviour and leadership style of Ghandi, the transactional and transformative aspects of his leadership and the way he used the power he had to help India gain Independence.
• Foundations of Army Leadership BLC This paper examines the foundation of Army leadership, focusing on its levels and leaders’ characteristic features.
• Starbuck Company Case: Howard Schultz Leadership Style Hence, he spends a lot of time with staff and guarantees that the company helps employees to grow both financially and intellectually.
• Esther’s Leadership Qualities Essay The book of Ester narrates the story of a young Jewish woman who rose to the thrones of power but also reveals the life of the Jews under the Persian reign.
• Leadership in Organization Leadership is applicable in the nurturing and development of constructive behavior patterns and organizational culture. Charismatic leadership is appropriate for the development of followers.
• School Leadership The multi-levelled pedagogic school leaders highly determine the mode of teaching students in schools and the effective application of the learning process.
• Foundation of Army Leadership Essay The Army leaders therefore, need to be swift, adaptive, and multi-skilled both in the country and across the world. This ensures obedience of the Army to the authority of the President and his authority from […]
• Ken Lay’s Leadership and Enron Company’s Downfall An analysis of Lay’s ethical conduct outlined below is conducted through the prism of Kidder’s ethical checkpoints, the principles of moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, moral character, as well as the CEO’s power and […]
• Management and Leadership: Nokia Corporation The approach of the company is to have an innovative and outstanding teamwork; though the company has a departmental approach, the company ensures that it has teams in all sections that are mandated and empowered […]
• Nelson Mandela’s Leadership in the “Invictus” Film The film “Invictus” is a 2009 drama and biography that depicts the challenging initiative of Nelson Mandela to unite the country with the help of sport.
• Ethical Leadership: Martin Luther King All individuals were expected to consider his actions and embrace the idea of morality. Through the use of a positive community culture and empowerment tactics, King managed to model such desirable behaviors.
• Mercedes Company: Leadership and Management Essentials The idea behind theoretical investigation is to obtain enough background information on leadership styles, which might be applied to analysing the performance of Mercedes Benz in the light of the theory’s implications on the practice […]
• Comparison of Leadership and Management In leadership, the leader uses his charisma and influence to elicit the help and support of the followers to achieve goals.
• Toyota’s Culture and Leadership Strategy Toyota’s Leadership and Culture Irrespective of numerous difficulties, the company is still one of the leaders of the industry. To understand the essence of the lean leadership, it is crucial to consider some peculiarities of […]
• Nigerian Poor Governance and Leadership In the paper under consideration, we will examine the concepts of the good governance and leadership, the problems concerning the implementation of these concepts in the Nigerian government; then we will investigate the history of […]
• Conrad Hilton Leadership Styles and Principles Leaders in this category want to transcend the basic needs of a human being and to have a sense of life success.
• King T’Challa’s Leadership in “Black Panther” However, because Black Panther needed the help of the Jabari, he had to suppress some feelings of pride and act in the interest of his people.
• Developing Leadership Skills Bearing in mind the fact that the leader is tasked with marshaling the organization’s resources to accomplish some organizational goal, it can be rightfully stated that part of the role of the leader is to […]
• Warren Buffett’s Leadership in Berkshire Hathaway The analysis is conducted within the appropriate business context after the examination of the history, structure, and organizational culture of Berkshire Hathaway.
• The Leadership of Mao Zedong For example, the Great Leap Forward policy resulted in a food crisis that led to the death of many Chinese people. Mao was assertive in the development and implementation of his policies.
• Leadership: Portfolio Project I will start by conducting a comprehensive analysis of my background in order to understand the factors that might have defined my leadership qualities in one way or the other.
• Leadership Self-Assessment Essay To a butcher, the organizational goals of increased productivity, the input of both the individual and groups in the organization remains invaluable. To this end, the strengths and weaknesses that are inherent in my style […]
• Leadership Evaluation: Sir Richard Branson By the early 1990s, the airline had become the centerpiece of Branson’s interests and the capital needs of the airline made it necessary for him to acquire more capital.
• Leadership in General Electric The third impact of good leadership at GE is that the ability of the organization to retain its employees would be increased.
• Marriott International Leadership This paper aims to present the analysis of the prevalent leadership style typical of executives and directors in Marriott International; to discuss the connection between the leadership style and ethical practices; to determine possible ethical […]
• Leadership and Management Practice The efficacy of a decision to either lead or manage will base on the closeness of how the insight of the knowledge, expertise and talent of persons trying to pursue the goal matches with the […]
• Howard Schultz’s Leadership Style: Strengths and Weaknesses These results are in a large part due to his leadership style which can be characterised as transformational, the strengths of which are openness to new ideas and creativity, and among the weaknesses can be […]
• Democratic Leadership Style Self-Analysis Democratic leadership style is a participative and consensus-based approach to decision-making in which the leader encourages input from all members of the team and makes decisions that reflect the group’s best interests.
• Leadership Style: Reflection and Analysis The concept of leadership is an essential part of the modern world due to the fact that it is one of the key determinants of successful management.
• Bill Gates’s Leadership and Impact on Organization This problem grew out of the practice that was common in Microsoft to challenge the ideas of one another, doubt them, and put them to the test.

🎓 Simple & Easy Leadership Essay Titles

• Leadership Styles in Nigeria, America and China It is important to note that most of the African nations are said to have a high power distance, and Nigeria is not an exception.
• Strategic Leadership and Organisational Transformation of Walmart In the first quarter of the 2020/2021 fiscal year, the company recorded a financial performance that exceeded the projections of analysts who had predicted poor performance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Healthcare Leadership and Economic Models This is further amplified by Priore who argues that the personnel who encourage their peers to question and identify the possible sections that could use research, development, and acceptance and implementation of changes to implement […]
• Educational Leadership and Management Team leadership is “the ability to solve every problem affecting a given group”. I have understood why every educational leader should use the best leadership styles.
• Leadership Issues: The Case of CEO Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines One of Gary’s key strengths as chairman and CEO of Southwest Airlines is predicated upon the capacity to use servant leadership style to foster organizational growth and development.
• Relationship between Leadership and Management Additionally, it is apparent that the only constant in the business world is change, and for this reason, for employees to be sure of coping with such changes, there is need for them to acquire […]
• Leadership in the hospitality industry His success in business has been attributed to the manner in which he attends to details such as research and collection of information, provision of clean and high quality products and services, and the logical […]
• Astro Airlines: Burton’s Leadership Style While the company had every chance to be transformed from a small-scale business into a large corporation, Burton did not use the opportunities that he had as the head of the company.
• Nursing: Leadership Development Plan I utilize the nursing process and evidence-based practice to work collaboratively with the core team, including the patient, staff members, primary care provider, registered nurse care manager, and patient support technician, and expanded team, including […]
• Elon Musk’s Leadership Style and Accomplishments His business acumen is exemplified by his massive successes that he has achieved, mainly as the CEO of Space X and Tesla Motors, as well as other businesses, including Neuralink, the Boring Company, and Open […]
• Development and Curriculum Leadership: Advanced Curriculum Models This book is of great assistance to educational leaders who want to explain curriculum concepts, analyze and understand the hidden curriculum, explain the contracting nature of curriculum elements and unfold strategies to develop and implement […]
• Mark Zuckerberg’s Leadership Style Shareholders have complained about his leadership and failure to increase the stock price of Facebook, and others have claimed he is socially inept and too young and immature to be a CEO of a multi-billion […]
• Does Gender Affect Leadership? The number of women who are reaching top positions in the management of an organization is very less, though nowadays there is some change in this fact and so many women are holding top leadership […]
• John Terrill’s Leadership Style at DGL International The strength and need for these leadership effects on subordinate’s motivation will vary depending on the structure of the work task, the subordinate’s psychological and skill attributes, the workgroup norms, and the organization environment.
• General Leadership Style: Norman Schwarzkopf According to the Katz model of leadership, the leader with human skills can leverage the power of the group. When the young Schwarzkopf visited his father in different parts of the world, he had the […]
• Democratic Leadership Styles and Patient Outcomes Democratic leadership positively impacts patient outcomes as it influences nurses to participate in all processes of the organization and contribute to its development.
• Charismatic Leadership The transformational leaders focus on changing the organizations or the leaders, while the charismatic leader has a focus on commitment and devotion both to the persona values as well as those of the group members […]
• Leadership and Personality Traits of Hovard Schultz Schultz was able to look at the business from the client’s point of view and considered the client’s needs when expanding Starbucks across the globe.
• Delta Airlines: Corporate Governance and Leadership Issues The shareholders elect the members of the board to represent their interest in maximizing their wealth and improving the efficiency in the operations of the company.
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Malcolm X’s Leadership Styles Thesis: Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were both charismatic leaders, but the latter was more of a transformational leader as well because of his idealistic views and his ability to inspire his followers to […]
• Mark Zuckerberg: Leadership Style on Practice Mark Zuckerberg is a bright example of how young people can become good leaders using their passion, desire to work, and attention to the details and people and prove that transformational leadership is a unique […]
• The Model of Primary Leadership Skills Theo was more successful in the role of manager of the new facility’s development than he was as the operations director because he needed to lead various groups of people that would help him to […]
• Orpheus Orchestra’s Leadership and Organizational Practices The orchestra satisfies the needs of every member. This permanent leadership encourages every member to be part of the orchestra.
• Leadership Motivation: Anita Roddick, Founder of Body Shop Specifically, the treatise adopts a reflective research in exploring the components of leadership and management such as transformational leadership, amanagerialism’, and organizational realities in the management style of Anita Roddick who founded the Body Shop.
• Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility A fundamental theme of corporate governance is the nature and extent of responsibility and accountability of specific individuals in the corporation’s hierarchy, and mechanisms that attempt to eliminate or mitigate the problems that arise due […]
• Colonel Novak’s Effective Leadership Behavior In the case of Colonel Novak, he strived to spent time with the individuals in his unit at work and when off duty portraying consideration as effective leadership behavior. In addition, effective leadership is the […]
• Leadership in “The Hunger Game” Movie Moreover, the archery skills of Everdeen her earned power to the extent that players saw her as a big threat in the game.
• The Leadership and Communication Style of Angela Ahrendts She is famous for her leadership and communication style that is characterized by energy, availability, belief in teamwork and the power of intuition.
• Mountain West Health Plans Company’s Leadership Styles The strengths of Evelyn Gustafson’s leadership style include the ability to strike a balance between creativity and participatory skills to serve competing interests in the relatively changing economic landscape, following the rapid growth of the […]
• Blanchard and Fiedler Leadership Models In the latter theory, Ken Blanchard is of the opinion that an interaction between the maturity of the leader and the requirements of a task are important in establishing a superb leadership style.
• Leadership of Jerry Yang, Co-Founder of Yahoo The creation of Yahoo is the story of the hobby and knowledge of two Yang people who wanted to make the Internet more convenient.
• Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore’s Leadership Hal Moore’s courage to fight on despite the odds that had afflicted his men was the major driving factor that led to the victory of his group over the Vietnamese.
• James Madison’s Leadership Qualities It is only through humble submission as evidenced by the willingness to listen to the admonition and suggestions of a superior that the qualities of a good leader can be established in the person’s heart […]
• JC Penney & Ron Johnson: The Failed Leadership Following the failure of Ron Johnson’s vision and strategy, the new CEO, Ulman, faced the challenge of attempting to incorporate and revert to the strategy that had been in place before Ron Johnson’s tenure.
• Nelson Mandela: Speeches and Leadership Nelson Mandela is, undoubtedly, one of the strongest and the most inspiring political leaders of the 20th century, the embodiment of the human spirit’s limitless possibilities.
• Leadership at YouTube: Susan Wojcicki Educated at Harvard and the University of California, Wojcicki was involved in the founding of Google and was the person behind Google’s acquisition of YouTube in 2006.
• Red Bull Project’s Effective Leadership Measures However, the product failed to create wave in the market as expected and it is believed that the main cause of the failure was lack of proper leadership.
• The Action-Observation Model: Leadership Discussion In the beginning, I tried to persuade some volunteers to agree with their assignments since they were helping to spread awareness of a good cause; however, as arguments started occurring, I decided that the best […]
• Jim Jones Leadership Traits In essence, Solomon says that the core element of leadership is trust, which can make the group members to increase their commitment and devotion to the group.
• Leadership Style of Bill Clinton: What Can We Learn? To have a good understanding of Bill Clinton, we shall have a review and a brief description of his biography in order to understand about the background of Bill Clinton right from the time he […]

📌 Controversial Leadership Title Ideas

• Leadership and Management In the analysis of leadership and management approach within the non-for-profit sector, success in management and leadership revolves around complex approaches to the management of human services.
• Leadership and Motivation – Carlos Ghosn The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion of theories and concepts of leadership in current multinational businesses using the leadership style of Carlos Ghosn as a benchmark for effective leadership in the […]
• Leadership Styles, Traits in a Nursing Professionals The leadership styles that are being utilized by my group members are servant leadership, charismatic leadership and transactional leadership.
• Mark Cuban’s Leadership Style in a Basketball Team Leadership is the process of influencing people through acts of motivation and providing the employees with the course and the organizational goals.
• Leadership Theories in the Automotive Industry At the same time, the changes in the industry and the economic environment of the recent years have led to the situation where the leaders of the field lost their definitive advantage and faced a […]
• Ursula Burns Leadership Style in Xerox Company By suggesting that color printing should be made more affordable, as well as reconsidering the company’s organizational behavior and putting a very strong emphasis on the relationships between the managers and the staff, Burns has […]
• Leadership Style of Richard Branson This means then they should have the will to use the power they possess together with the employee to execute innovative ideas brought forwards by the employees According to Branson, another quality of a leader […]
• Thyressa Williams’ Leadership Interview One of the most important aspects of leadership, according to the interviewee, is the ability to recognize and acknowledge talent amongst the people a leader is working with.
• Leadership Skills of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s It is possible to argue that Sheikh Mohammed was trained to be a leader because this is one of the traditions adopted in such dynasties.
• Proactive Leadership: Importance and Characteristics This paper will focus on proactive leadership, the importance of proactive leadership, and the characteristics of proactive leaders. For example, when a team leader is late on product shipment or delivery of products, they try […]
• Effective Leadership: What It Means It is very imperative to bring a change in the organization and only successful leaders can bring this change in their organization and their team.
• Leadership at The New York Times Newspaper Wisdom comes in handy when the leader is balancing the interests of shareholders such that the leader’s actions lead to the common good.
• Leadership Theory and Practice via an Account of BP’s Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill From the perspective of a rig operator, one of the morality issues that seem to be inherent at BP is the failure to follow the right procedures in making the rig machinery.
• The Charismatic Leadership of Steve Jobs at Apple In this form of leadership style, leaders have full control over the operations of an organisation and have clear visions that they communicate to their followers. In conclusion, ethical leadership is necessary for the success […]
• Leadership and Organizational Psychology of Vince Lombardi The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator is one of the most renowned personality tests an individual can use to assess one’s leadership journey.
• James D. Sinegal’s Leadership Analysis The present report aims to analyze Sinegal’s leadership from the perspective of traits theories and leadership and skill-based models. In their work, Judge, Bono, Ilies, and Gerhardt tested the use of the Big Five personality […]
• Level 5 Leadership, Humility, and Will A Level 5 leader has the ability of the initial levels of leadership. Collins describes the humility of a Level 5 leader has the ability to give credit to others.
• Hatshepsut’s Leadership and Accomplishments She was the leader of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt and ruled with the help of the two-year old Thutmose III.
• Importance and Role of Leadership in Globalization Leadership can be considered to be the provision of a vision to the people whom one has authority over and pushing through the understanding of the vision and the achievement of its goals for the […]
• The Impact of School Governance on School Leadership The traditional school system in most states and territories took the form of the old public administration with school governance highly centralized in the Ministry of Education and the Education Department.
• Leadership and Diversity Discussion A transformational leader should be ready to lead initiatives that make the organization work significantly different than it was before and convince the rest of the members and leaders to adopt them.
• Leadership Concepts in the “Seabiscuit” Drama Film The movie is the adaptation of the book about Seabiscuit, the thoroughbred racehorse that remains a legendary manifestation of the American dream.
• Reflective Practice in Leadership This model has made me understand that I need to orient myself to the organisational culture and values cherished by my subordinates to enable me to have beneficial exchanges with my subordinates.
• Leadership Through Effective Communication At the phase of implementation of the business strategies, effective communication is essential in helping leaders to control and monitor the implementation of strategies to meet the desired goals and objectives.
• Critical Examination of Strategic Leadership Guided by these introductory statements, this research paper aims at exploring the concept of strategic leadership with particular interests in exploring the characteristics of strategic leadership, the contextual factors, both internal and external that has […]
• The leadership of Amazon This is essential in counteracting the effect of competitors and adopting products and services that address the needs of customers and the market exhaustively.
• Leadership Style and Employee Motivation: Burj Al Arab Hotel How effective and sustainable is the current leadership approach within the Burj Al Arab in the management of the level of employee motivation? How effective is the function of the current leadership styles in improving […]
• Mohammed Al Abbar: Leadership Project As a result, in order to explore the leadership style, approach, and views of Mohammad Al Abbar, it is necessary to begin with his personal, as well and professional backgrounds as the sources of his […]
• The Role of Civic Leadership Jeremy points out that a democratic leadership allows for cooperation in all aspects of decision making and that the leader’s decision is not unilateral as he or she has to depend on the input of […]
• The Book “The Power of Positive Leadership” by Jon Gordon The positive psychology paradigm connects to organizational behavior and the leadership position. The book’s goal is to provide a framework for leadership and explain some instances of effective leadership.
• Reflection on an Interview on Leadership However, I realized very quickly that the institute would not teach me what I wanted to learn. I conducted coaching sessions and advised the management of the company in which I worked at the time.
• Organizational Leadership and Strategic Positioning for Shangri-la Hotels Shangri-La Hotels is classified among the strongest and iconic leaders in the luxury hotel space in Asia and it has been successful in other places in Europe and around the world.
• Leadership Philosophies and Core Values in Healthcare Empathy is defined as the ability to recognize and understand the situation of people by imagining oneself in a similar position.
• Apple Inc.’s Leadership Effectiveness, Competitive Advantage, and Growth Strategy Apple Inc.’s current success can be attributed to the organization’s effective management and leadership abilities to quickly adapt to a highly dynamic business environment.
• Leadership Personality & Achievement: TELMEX and Carlos Slim Leadership is one of the most researched studies, and research on leadership has gained importance due to the contributions of leaders on the organizational achievements. Finally, research examines the accomplishment of organizational transformation through leadership’s […]
• Entrepreneurial Leadership Characteristics and Types Thus, economic and social entrepreneurial leadership use the same tools in pursuit of improvements in society and the business sector. However, emotional intelligence is positively linked with mental health, excellent job performance, and contributes to […]
• Women’s Features in Administrative Leadership The idea of the “glass ceiling” was put forward in the 1970s and tried to explain the reasons it is quite so complicated for women to be promoted as leaders.
• Concept of Leadership Skills A leader should evaluate the strength and weakness of the members of his or her team and try to harness the best combination to tackle a given task.
• Leadership Philosophy and the Theories of Leadership These theories are the trait theory of leadership, behavioral theory of leadership, and the contingency theory of leadership. In line with the chosen personal leadership philosophy that urges the leader to show empathy, the trait […]
• Nursing Leadership and Personal Skills The issues of leadership and management have been taken to mean the same thing. They govern the responsibilities of a nurse and determine the steps to take in various situations.

🥇 Good Leadership Topics to Write

• Biblical Leadership and Ministry
• Consolidated Products Managers’ Leadership Styles
• Maxine Clark’s Leadership at Build-A-Bear Workshop
• Transformational Leadership in Hotel Industry
• Jamie Oliver and Leadership in the Food Industry
• Chapter 6 of Northouse’s Leadership: Theory and Practice
• Leadership SMART Goal: Effective Communication
• “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John Maxwell
• Leadership in Sports Analysis
• The Concept of Laissez-Faire Leadership Style
• Leadership Action Plan
• Tesla’s Strategic Plan for Leadership in Energy Sector
• Jeff Bezos’s Leadership and the Amazon Revolution
• The Ship Board: Management Styles and Leadership
• Mandela’s Leadership
• A Revolutionary Model of Leadership
• Leadership and Constitution
• Followership and Servant Leadership in the Military
• Marissa Ann Mayer: Leadership and Motivation
• Workplace Management Styles: Autocratic Leadership
• W. Buffett’s and F. Porsche’s Leadership Styles
• Leadership Legacy Issues
• Leadership Styles of Yahoo, Blackberry, and Google
• Contingency Theory of Leadership
• Instructional Leadership
• Safety Culture Development Through Effective Leadership and Management
• Machiavelli and Othello’s Leadership Skills
• Warren Buffet’s vs. Bernard Madoff’s Leadership Styles
• Leadership Challenges in the Church
• Leadership Qualities in Nursing
• Bedside Shift Reporting: Essentials of Nursing Leadership and Management
• Public Leadership and Its Qualities
• Self-Awareness Importance in Effective Leadership
• Positive Behaviour Leadership Model in Teaching
• Leadership of Climber Arlene Blum
• Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill’s Leadership Styles
• Leadership Challenge: Who Gets the Project?
• Leadership Input to the Community Development
• The Political Leadership Conception
• Leadership and Organisational Change
• Ineffective Leadership in a Workplace
• Kofi Annan Leadership Traits
• Transformational Leadership at Virgin Group
• Leadership Styles in the UK, USA, and Japan
• Success Factors and Leadership Strategies: Southwest Airlines and Emirates Airlines
• Dr. Maya Angelou and Her Leadership Abilities
• The Five-Star Hotels Operational Management
• Leadership, Its Requirements, Roles and Objectives
• Leadership: Alan Keith
• Effective Situational Leadership
• Contingency Theories of Leadership
• Pros and Cons of the Four Major Styles of Leadership
• Strategic Change Leadership in Management
• Leadership Styles in Organizations with Different Age Groups
• Democratic vs. Autocratic Leadership Styles
• Costco Company’s Business Diversity, Ethics, Leadership
• Alvis Corporation’ Leadership Information
• The Importance of Leadership in Shaping the Direction an Organization
• Bad Leadership: Causes and Effects
• Angela Merkel’s Leadership Style
• Leadership at Qatar National Bank
• Community Leadership in Personal Experience
• Leadership, Trustworthiness, and Ethical Stewardship
• Personal Experience of Ineffective Leadership
• Leadership Internal and External Challenges
• Leadership Role-Play Activity for Students
• Leadership Themes and Recreation
• Mary Barra’s Leadership at General Motors
• Leadership in Teams: Experience and Reflection
• Incompetent Management and Destructive Leadership
• Elizabeth Bloomer Ford’s Leadership Development
• Effective Leadership: Character and Personal Growth
• Transformational Leadership and Management Skills
• Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Company’s Leadership Style
• Chicago Bulls 1995-96 Championship: Team Leadership
• Hovey and Beard Company: Leadership and Management
• Warren Buffett’s Leadership Style in Business
• School Leadership: Concepts and Evidence
• Aspects of Leadership Styles
• Complexity Theory Models of Leadership with Other Models of Leadership
• The Concept of Leadership
• Regional Strategies for Global Leadership
• Leadership and Management Definition
• “The Ethics of Leadership” by Ciulla Joanne
• Culture Effects on Leadership Styles and Behavior
• Daimler-Chrysler Merger: Leadership Issue
• Impact of Gender Difference on Leadership Styles
• Attitude Reflects Leadership: a Look at Leadership in your Professional Portfolio
• Ethical and Unethical Leadership in Healthcare
• Organizational Motivation and Leadership in Workplace
• Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Modern Leadership: Trends and Challenges
• Constructive Criticism in Leadership
• Leadership in Diabetes Management
• Leadership, Power, Corruption in Today’s Politics
• Leadership: Encouraging the Heart and Generosity
• The Significance of Strong Leadership in Business Organization
• Leadership in Quality Management
• Leadership: Role, Benefits, and Limitations
• Team Leadership: Essential Features & Problems
• GlaxoSmithKline’s Leadership Management Framework
• Leadership Commitment Statement on Prevention of Workplace Violence
• Authentic Leadership in Healthcare
• Personal Leadership Style Analysis
• Personal Leadership Development Plan
• Modern Nurse’s Role: Leadership
• Leadership Approaches in Prison
• Professional Development Plan: Developing Leadership
• Nursing Leadership Skills Development
• Women in Top Leadership Positions
• Future-Ready Leadership Strategies in the New Age
• Gates and Buffett: Global Leadership and Management
• Carlos Slim: Leadership Styles and Personality
• Leadership on Boeing Analysis
• Leadership Experience Critique
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: Leadership Analysis
• Organizational Structures and Leadership in Hospitals
• Relationship of Problem Solving to Leadership
• Ho Ching’s Leadership at Temasek Holdings
• Ethics Code in School Leadership
• Social Change and Servant Leadership Models
• Ricardo Semler’s Leadership at Semco Partners
• Leadership Styles: Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler
• Leadership: Johari Window and Transactional Analyses
• Team Leadership in “Apollo 13” by Ron Howard
• Autocratic, Democratic, Free-Rein, Coaching Leadership
• Leadership: Top Talent Retention
• Leadership Models: Problem Solving Analysis
• George Washington: Servant Leadership and Communication
• Scholarship, Practice and Leadership
• International Business Machines: Leadership Development
• Steve Jobs and Tim Cook Leadership Styles Comparison
• Organisational Performance and Leadership
• Steve Jobs’ Leadership Style
• Quality Management Systems
• “Twin Cities” Strategic Management & Leadership
• Educational Leadership in School
• The Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Effectiveness
• Theories of Situational and Participative Leadership
• Experience with Negative Leadership
• Lesson Plan ‘The Concept of Leadership’
• Leadership Management in the Hospitality Industry
• The Chartered Management Institute Leadership and Management
• The Concept of Leadership in Organizational Success
• Transformational and Transactional Leadership
• A Leadership Development Plan’s Analysis
• The Servant Leadership Concept
• Leadership in the “Saving Private Ryan” Film
• Concept of Leadership and Safety
• Zappos Organization’s Leadership and Objectives
• Gene C. McKinney: Biography and His Leadership
• Leadership Fostering Collaboration Within the Department of Juvenile Justice
• Barack Obama: Ambassador Leadership Style
• Emirates Airline HR Department: Leadership and Its Effect
• Leadership and Management as Applied to Criminal Justice Organizations
• My Leadership Achievements and Services to Our Community
• Andy Garafallo’s Recipe in Leadership Theory and Practice
• Healthcare: Organizational Structures & Leadership
• Coaching Leadership: Presence and Pressure Concepts
• Social Change, Leadership, and Advocacy Comparison
• Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Traits and Virtues
• Youth Leadership Development
• Leadership is Action and Not Position
• Leadership and Organisational Change in MCFC
• Relationship between Power and Leadership
• Mohandus Gandhi’s leadership
• Leadership Styles: Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher
• Leadership Ideals of Robert Nardelli Under Various Trait Theories
• The Importance of Strategic Leadership in the Global Business Environment
• Leadership in Early Care and Education
• Leadership and Motivation Theories, Principles and Issues
• Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of leadership
• Leadership Traits
• The Main Characteristics of Servant Leadership
• Transcendental Leadership and Total Quality Management Theories
• “Organizational Culture and Leadership” by Schein, Edgar H.
• Servant Leadership of Jeff Bezos
• The Volkswagen Group: Global Leadership and Management
• Nursing Leadership and Management
• The Brexit Decision: Leadership and Culture
• Radical Leadership at Semco by Ricardo Semler
• The Leadership Qualities of Tony Blair
• Donald Trump: Leadership Ability
• Sergey Brin: Leadership Process and Organizations in Context
• Nursing Team Leadership in a Dialysis Center
• Leadership Self-Assessment and Improvement Plan
• Carly Fiorina’s Leadership at Hewlett-Packard Company
• Personal Leadership Action Plan
• House of Fraser Company: Leadership and Managing Change
• Tim Cook’s Leadership Transformation and Action Logics
• Leadership Concepts in the “Coach Carter” Film
• Leadership Impact on Healthcare Delivery
• Lubna Olayan’s Leadership Role Mode
• Julius Caesar’s and Czar Nicholas II’s Leadership
• Leadership in the Early Childhood Field
• Leadership and Partnership in Global Environment
• Peter Vyas’ Leadership and Project Management
• Workplace Diversity and Challenges of Leadership
• Global Leadership Development
• Thomas Hobbes and John Stuart Mill’ Views on Leadership
• Leadership and Culturally Bound: Working and Communicating Together
• Leadership in the Workplace: Apple Inc.
• Jack Welch’s Leadership Style
• Organizational Behaviour and Leadership
• Poor Leadership at J.C Penney
• “Tipping Point Leadership” by Kim and Mauborgne
• Culture and Leadership in a Safe Industrial Environment
• The Effect of Leadership in Project Management
• The Female Leaders’ Obstacles to Gain Leadership positions in Universities
• Leadership and Its Approaches: Strengths and Weaknesses
• Trait Approach to Leadership
• Definition of Strategic Leadership
• Gender Differences in Leadership Styles
• Leadership in the 21st Century
• Leadership and Supervising Influence in Human Services
• Leadership Effectiveness in the Film Elizabeth
• Leadership Evaluation: Roots Canada
• Business Ethics in Multinational Corporations
• The Failure of Leadership in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
• Management vs. Leadership. What Leaders Really Do?
• Leadership Styles: Democratic and Collective
• Personal Vision Statement in Organizational Leadership
• Gender Equality in Higher Education: The Underrepresentation of Women in Educational Leadership
• Professional Nursing Practice: Management and Leadership
• Leadership Qualities as a Part of a Team
• Spiritual Leadership and Citizenship Behaviors
• A Lollipop Moment in Leadership
• Organizational Theory: Democratic Leadership
• Leadership Under Cultural Influences
• Leadership in Healthcare Management
• Adaptive Leadership as a Style and Model
• Leadership: Self-Evaluation and Comparison
• Bill Gates’ Positive Leadership Behavior
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Leadership Program
• Task Specialization and Directive Leadership in Beaufort County School District
• Mindful Leadership in Managing Critical Change
• Strategic Leadership at The New York Yankees Team
• Leadership, Family, and Community Collaboration Project
• The Crucial Role of Courageous Followers in Effective Leadership
• Leadership in Group Counselling
• Relation Between Leadership and Police Ethics
• Leadership in the Educational Sector
• How Nursing Professionals Can Benefit From Servant Leadership
• Leadership and Innovations: Article Review
• Applying Five Leadership Practices
• Servant Leadership at St. Jude Children’s Hospital
• Transformational and Servant Leadership in Nursing
• Strategic Leadership in the United Arab Emirates
• Leadership: Theory and Practice
• The Plays “The Iliad,” “The Odyssey,” and “Agamemnon”: Understanding of Leadership
• Leadership Development Plan in Nursing
• Leadership: Character, Competencies, and Virtues
• Transformational Leadership Theory: Pros and Cons
• Nursing Practice: Leadership and Cooperation
• St James Settlement’s Leadership and Management
• Servant Leadership in Fannie Lou Hamer
• The Art of Communication as the Language of Leadership
• Organizational Leadership and Attitude-Behavior Theory
• Leadership and Ethical Requirements
• Measurement and Leadership Effectiveness in Business
• Leadership: Definition and Values
• Principles of Management and Leadership Positions
• Application of Irrefutable Laws of Leadership in the Military
• French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power: An Overview
• Leadership Style as an Important Element of the Nursing Practice
• Leadership Styles Across Generations Working in Wal-Mart Store
• Christ’s Approach to Leadership: Transformational Leadership Theory
• Morale and Leadership, Encouragement, Dedication, and Commitment Within a Band
• Elon Musk: Leadership, Financial Success, and the Future of Tesla
• Leadership in Turbulent Times: Key Takeaways
• Brand Leadership by Levi’s and Coca-Cola in Going Green
• Leadership Role of Creating Safe Nursing Environment
• Clinical Nurse Leadership Program
• Transformational Leadership at School Sites
• Fostering Effective Leadership and Collaboration in Human Services
• Behavioral and Situational Leadership: Pros and Cons
• Leadership Skills, Goals and Vision of Nurses
• Educational Theories and Leadership Studies
• Communication Style and Leadership
• American Association of Critical-Care Nurses and Its Leadership Culture
• Effective Leadership Analysis
• Transformational Leadership: Essential Strategies
• Servant Leadership Characteristic Evaluation: Conceptualization
• Maintaining a Leadership Position in a Company
• A District Director Nurse’s Leadership Roles
• Effective Leadership: Traits and Behaviors
• Assignment: Student Integrity and Nursing Leadership
• How Contemporary Leadership Styles Are Relevant in Today’s Military
• Diversity as One of the Principles for Sustainability Leadership
• Leadership in Nursing Practice
• Exploring Power Constructs in Leadership: A Self-Reflective Study
• Servant Leadership: The Key Aspects
• Daniel Roth’s and Sam Hazen’s Personal Values in Leadership
• Leadership and Management: Reflection
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Leadership Reflection
• Leadership Foundations in Nursing Practice
• Culture, Communication, and Leadership for Projects in Dynamic Environments
• Presidential Leadership: Diplomatic History
• IoT and G.E.’s Leadership Position
• Leadership: Conflict and Conflict Management
• Principles of Leadership and Future of Terrorism
• Leadership at the Reuters Holdings PLC Company
• The Foundation of Army Leadership and Its Factors
• Leadership in a Multinational Organization
• The Ryno Firm’s Demands of Responsible Leadership
• Server Leadership and Followership
• Two Models of Political Leadership
• Change Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
• The Role of Inclusive Leadership Strategy in Diverse Workplaces
• The Hempel Paints Firm’s Leadership for Strategic Execution
• Qatari German Medical Devices: Leadership for Strategic Execution
• The Home Depot’s Journey Towards Innovation and Effective Change Leadership
• Leadership Communication and Management
• Culture and Leadership in Health and Social Care
• Abraham Lincoln Leadership: American Ex-Presidents
• Barack Obama’s Biography and Political Leadership
• Leadership Leverage at Gunderson Lutheran Health Facility
• Gender and Leadership in Healthcare Administration
• Leadership Theories and Styles
• Leadership Philosophy in Nursing
• The Personal Leadership Philosophy in Nursing
• Collaborative Leadership Model in Business
• Leadership: Summary of Media Interview
• Culture and Leadership in Organizations
• Ethics in Organizational Leadership
• The Doctor of Nursing Practice Leadership Program
• Personal Leadership Philosophies
• Leadership Types in Telemedicine
• Connective Nursing Leadership
• Aspects of Collaborative Leadership
• Aspects of Collaborative Leadership Plan
• Machiavellian Leadership Style
• Organizational Change: The Effect of Transformational Leadership on Employees
• Transparency: The Role in Leadership
• Nursing Leadership and Team Building Strategies
• My Involvement as a Leader, Leadership Coach, and Development Instructor
• Transformational Leadership and Abusive Supervision
• Aspects of Transformational Leadership
• Personal Leadership Philosophy in the Sports Industry
• The Role of Leadership in a Digitalized World
• The Importance of Leadership Training
• Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
• Holistic View of the Management and Leadership
• Servant Leadership: You Make the Call
• Leadership Skills for the Negotiation Process
• Measuring the Quality of Government Leadership
• Collaboration and Leadership in Healthcare
• Kouzes and Posner Model of Nursing Leadership
• Leadership Formation in the Medical Field
• The Leadership and Funding Relationship
• Transformational Leadership in a Healthcare Team
• Abortion Backlash and Leadership Issues
• Strategic Crisis Leadership: South Korea’s Response to Covid-19
• Leadership Role in Team Development
• Darwin E. Smith’s Level 5 Leadership Characteristics
• Change Leadership: Telehealth Technology at Orlando Health
• Leadership Style Personality Assessment
• The Basic Aspects of Leadership
• Leadership in a Digitized World
• International Leadership: Management Strategies
• Aspects of Leadership in Healthcare
• Behavioral Theories of Leadership
• Personal Leadership Style’s Improvement Areas
• Organizational Experiences Based on Leadership
• Leadership Analysis in Corporate Governance
• Aspects of the Sustainable Leadership Style
• Nursing Leadership in the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Martin Luther King’s Leadership Approach
• Self-Analysis on Democratic Leadership
• Leadership Ambiguity in Nursing Practice
• Importance of Leadership Skills for Employee
• Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Development
• Interpersonal Leadership Skills in Bank of America
• Developing Organizations and Leadership
• Leadership Approaches in Healthcare
• Behavioral and Trait Leadership Theories in Medical Educational Setting
• Nursing Informatics: Leadership and Administration
• Developing Leadership Skills in Nursing: A Proposal
• Women’s Leadership During a Crisis
• Situational Leadership Analysis
• Leadership in Advanced Nursing
• Leadership for Happiness in Workplaces
• Leadership in Nursing: Organizational Servant Leadership
• Supportive Leadership During COVID-19
• The Type of Leadership Described by Daniel Goleman
• Transformational Leadership Benefits Innovation
• Transformational Leadership at the Walmart Organization
• Transformational Leadership in Nursing
• Machiavelli’s The Prince and Cheney’s Leadership
• Exploring Diversity and Inclusion Leadership
• The Significance in Shaping Emerging Trends in Leadership
• Authentic Leadership Style in Business
• Leadership Experience Example: Leading a User Research Team
• Importance of Leadership Attributes for Healthcare
• Importance of Leadership in Healthcare and Nursing
• Servant Leadership Benefits in Nursing
• Leadership and Its Three Major Models
• Adaptive Leadership: The Main Aspects
• Boris Johnson: Influence Tactics and Leadership
• Discussion of Servant Leadership Behaviors
• Analysis of Poor Leadership Experience
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• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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• A LETTER WRITING ASSIGNMENT FOR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: Creating Stakeholder Connection For Policy Advocacy

Candace Bloomquist, Ph.D., Daneen Bergland, Carly Speranza, EdD, Kerry K. Fierke DOI: 10.12806/V21/I3/R1

Introduction

Today, the study and practice of leadership continues to expand across the globe. Yet, while it expands, it also appears more complex, and more than ever, the effective practice of leadership is critical to solving difficult and “wicked” problems. Subsequently, leadership educators are compelled to incorporate learning exercises into their curriculum that expose students to difficult and wicked problems, such as issues of justice, equity, and social change (McKee & Bruce, 2021). Organizations today seek employees dedicated and prepared to make greater improvements on these social issues. Therefore, this application paper is aimed at helping today’s leadership educators prepare students for more than brief exposures to social issues, they need to help students understand and embody their role as an advocate for social change (London, 2008).

To make changes on difficult and wicked problems requires innovative solutions that engage multiple stakeholder perspectives, values, and aspirations. Where top-down solutions may have worked previously; today, leadership practitioners must engage in what Shields (2020) refers to as the “struggle” and engage in moral courage by working together across differences to transform society. This engagement can take on many forms; however, one of the greatest challenges in this struggle is to persuade decision makers to engage in collective change (Wilson, 2016).

Yet, how does a leadership educator prepare future leadership practitioners to engage in collective change? The purpose of this paper is to describe how one Interdisciplinary Leadership program adapted an existing undergraduate English Composition assignment, originally created by Daneen Bergland (2019), into a doctoral-level learning experience designed to engage students in writing an eloquent letter to stakeholders. This assignment, as described in this paper, is an experiential learning exercise in which students enrolled in a required Administrative and Policy Leadership Issues course grow as leadership practitioners and gain experience with social justice policy advocacy.

Origins of the Assignment

Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” (1963) The Eloquent Letter assignment (Bergland, 2019) is an authentic assignment designed to acquire critical thinking skills, identify and research social problems, examine value systems and diverse perspectives, communicate effectively, and propose solutions based on common ground. This assignment is meant to assess integrative, intellectual, critical thinking, advocacy and writing skills. Unlike traditional research essay assignments, the Eloquent Letter assignment explicitly engages awareness and understanding of the audience (e.g., stakeholders). Therefore, it encourages student writers to “listen” to that person or group, to understand what values underlie their perspective, and to develop solutions based on shared values. This assignment promotes listening as an important concept in research, communication, persuasion, and problem-solving. More importantly, it provides an antidote to the apathy and despair caused by current perceptions of gridlock in policy development and analysis, in which civility appears elusive and arguments unbridgeable (Shields, 2020), thus preparing students to communicate and solve problems as educated citizens and leaders.

This assignment, originally designed by Daneen Bergland 15 years ago, for an undergraduate English Composition course, was later redeveloped with a backward course design process (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998) for an interdisciplinary, undergraduate general education course. The assignment started with learning goals – specifically, what students should be able to do upon completion, then considered how this knowledge or skill might be best demonstrated. An overarching question for the course design was “What does a well-educated person in the 21st century need to know how to do?” Inspired by the framework and findings of The National Taskforce on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (2012), the Eloquent Letter assignment served as both a process and product to practice some of the knowledge, skills, and values outlined in their report. More specifically, the values of empathy and responsibility to a larger good, the skill of “deliberation and bridge-building across differences,” and knowledge of political systems.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963) is offered as a model for the Eloquent Letter for its importance as a historical U.S. document, as well as for its literary value and MLK’s public leadership. While students may be unfamiliar with this piece, they are intrigued by its story in the context of the civil rights movement. His letter is inspiring for its rhetorical beauty and power. It resonates throughout the historical, political, and oratorical phenomena of our culture. Students experience why King’s letter is so powerful in its own rhetorical context (civil rights movement, civil disobedience, as a clergyman) and are asked to consider how they might use some of his rhetorical strategies, recognizing the contexts of their own letters, and writing as their most eloquent selves and as emerging leaders and advocates.

Review of Literature

This section provides the leadership educator an overview of the scholarship of teaching and learning related to writing which serves as the background for this adopted and modified assignment. We review three elements of writing across the curriculum, specifically writing in its natural habitat, writing as listening, and writing as civic engagement. When considering what the “product” or evidence students would produce to demonstrate the learning goals of a course, the form of a letter is seldom used by leadership educators. However, citing research from the Consortium for the Study of Writing in College, Bean and Weimer (2011) advise designing writing assignments as “meaning constructing tasks” that require students to use critical thinking to solve an authentic problem. The use of letters as writing exercises can inspire more leadership educators to use innovative teaching and learning strategies. Further, Bean and Weimer also define effective assignments as giving “students a role or purpose, a targeted audience, and a genre” (2011, p. 98). The letter as form makes all three clear.

Writing in its natural habitat.  As much as possible, leadership educators want assignments to be authentic, that is, using common and relevant forms, serving a purpose beyond performing for a grade, engaging others outside the classroom, and developing skills that leadership practitioners need, e.g., being articulate and inspiring (Kolditz et al., 2021). Assignments should also be relevant to a student’s own interests and goals. In applied leadership courses students are often encouraged to choose their topics, starting with real problems they have identified or encountered within their workplaces or communities (i.e., privacy vs. security, individual rights vs. common good, multiculturalism vs. assimilation, etc.). This is fully in line with the Social Change Model created by the Higher Education Research Institute, as individuals practicing leadership are acknowledged to be instrumental in positive social change (HERI, 1996; Komives & Wagner, 2017). As such, students are invited to better understand these topics by conducting a literature review to understand their topic or claim, including what people, agencies, or policies, might be able to assist solving the problem, and at what levels.

The research essay is perhaps the most common writing assignment in the humanities and social sciences, and yet arguably, has few explicit analogs to the writing students will do post-graduation (Kolditz et al., 2021). On the other hand, the letter is a practical, ubiquitous form. It is likely all of us will write many letters as adults, from professional cover letters to letters of recommendation, to collegial emails. As Beaufort (1999) points out in her book Writing in the Real World, the purpose of writing in the workplace is “to take action rather than leisurely reflect on thought processes or on artistic expression” (p. 4) and is often directed at more complex and varied audiences than the writing we ask of students, for which the audience is generally the teacher.

To demonstrate to students the practical possibilities of purpose and reach of the form, the Letter from Birmingham Jail is shared as an example as “writing in its native habitat,” (Bergland, 2019) showing them how everyday writing shapes and is shaped by its contexts, and how by writing for one audience member or stakeholder, their work can circulate and influence other audiences, creating waves that radiate beyond their initial intention. Furthermore, this leadership education assignment engages students in Kolb’s Cycle of Experiential Learning as they research and respond to real-world issues, prepare written communication for identified stakeholders, review peer work, and engage in reflective observation (Guthrie & Jones, 2019).

Writing as listening.   Writing instruction for leadership development often focuses on argumentation and debate, therefore impacting the learning itself (Thomas, 2013). In other words, the student writes to prove their point, to win the argument, in turn creating leadership graduates who see everything as a debate, rather than a collective problem to solve. However, in considering the skills necessary for strong civic engagement, especially in the current political and rhetorical climate, students need to be prepared to approach writing as a conversation and as a problem-solving endeavor in collaboration with stakeholders.

The letter as a form makes explicit a relationship between the writer and the reader, or in this case stakeholder(s), and the implicit possibility of dialog (Bergland, 2019). Within leadership development, the practice of stakeholder engagement is crucial because effective leaders need to be able to assess stakeholder power, authority, and urgency (Schneider, 2002). As part of the drafting process, students must work to develop empathy, and to listen and understand the values and motivations of another. After students write the first draft (almost always written in the form of a traditional argument essay, listing evidence compelling to the writer, but with little acknowledgement or attention paid to the recipient’s point of view) students receive feedback from a peer and continue their review of literature. They must explore the historical and current contexts of their topic, through multiple perspectives, including opposing stakeholder views. Additionally, they must research and understand their recipient. At this point, feedback to students can also emphasize establishing common ground, understanding the position, values, experience, and motivations of the recipient, and using these to establish warrants for arguments, shaping their appeals to address the motivations of the reader/stakeholder. We will have more to say about providing student feedback later, in the description of the assignment section.

Writing as civic engagement.   According to Kraft and Furlong (2018), “public policy is what public officials within government, and by extension the citizens they represent, choose to do or not to do about public problems” (p. 5). Unfortunately, many of these problems affect everyday life and some of these problems are categorized as “wicked” – complex, unique, and seemingly impossible to solve (Head & Alford, 2015). Yet, the National Leadership Council for Liberal Education & America’s Promise 2007 called for higher education programs to prepare students to engage locally and globally in order to interact with others different than themselves, and together work to solve significant problems (Kilgo et al., 2015). However, many leadership students come into policy courses with limited knowledge or understanding of civic structures and processes. They may recognize a problem but are unable to identify the “political levers for influencing change” (The National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, 2012). In addition, they may express unease and unfamiliarity with civic engagement of any kind, even voting. In an effort to remedy this, during the initial scaffolding for this assignment, students brainstorm the problems related to their topic and potential remedies at local, state, and federal levels. They look for the agencies, policies, processes, and institutions that have influence or authority to apply those remedies, before determining the purpose, claim, and recipient for their first letter draft.

Much of our work as leadership educators is focused on developing communication and critical thinking skills (Kolditz et al., 2021). However, without a sense of agency, the will to look for solutions, or the belief that they have some part in making change, students may have the thinking skills, but feel powerless, paralyzed, or cynical. Indeed, the concept and theory of “critical hope” (Bozalek et al., 2014; Freire, 2007) has arisen, specifically in community service-learning pedagogy, to counter the despair encountered when understanding the complexity of systems and the seeming intractability of social problems and injustice. Quoting the work of Zembylas (2014), Grain and Lund (2016), summarized the praxis of critical hope as “an act of ethical and political responsibility that has the potential to recover a lost sense of connectedness, relationality, and solidarity with others” (p. 51). Examples of pedagogical techniques and assignments that focus on enhancing critical hope include but are not limited to, caring for students as whole people, respecting what students know, engage students in dialogue, and making space for and inviting critical reflection on current practices (Freire, 1998). The Eloquent Letter offers not just a process (drafting and research) and a product, but a way for leadership educators to better prepare leadership practitioners for their role in social change. Clear, articulate letter writing is one tool in the toolbox for leadership and democracy (Kolditz et al., 2021). Writing a letter to an authority or decision-maker gives students the experience, scaffolded and supported by an instructor, of applying that tool, and with any luck, the confidence to try writing more letters.

Description of Application of the Eloquent Letter Assignment

In an increasingly rancorous rhetorical climate and polarized political environment, students might see themselves withdrawing from discourse and wilting from a sense of powerlessness. This assignment gives students opportunities to practice and learn from what John C. Bean calls “authentic” assignments, projects that have a life and purpose outside the classroom and in service to the community. Therefore, in 2020 Candace Bloomquist adapted this assignment for inclusion in a doctoral-level leadership course. Specifically, this assignment appears in weeks 3 and 4 of an 8-week course entitled “Administrative and Policy Leadership Issues.” This course examines administrative issues and political power in decision making and the role of leaders in policy analysis and development. The course addresses social, political, and economic influences on administration and policy development, and the relationship between leadership and governance. Learners review and critique analytical frameworks and the application of these frameworks to contemporary policy issues. Administrative and policy leadership issues are also explored as they apply to community relations and governing boards.

The Eloquent Letter assignment was adapted for this course because it meets the broader learning goals of the Ed.D. in Interdisciplinary Leadership doctoral program to (a) utilize leadership theories; (b) integrate critical thinking; (c) practice ethical decision-making; (d) model professional communication; (e) apply reflective practices; (f) lead within complex and diverse societies; and (g) produce scholarly research. Additionally, the assignment contributes to helping students meet the more specific goals of the course, to (a) describe methods of communication and participation among key internal and external stakeholders during the planning and decision-making process and (b) reflect on ethical and social dimensions of policies and the policy creation process.

The majority of students in the interdisciplinary leadership program have backgrounds in education, military, healthcare, and business, so administrative, power, and policy domains are familiar to many of them, but not all. This course and specifically, the Eloquent Letter assignment, helps students learn how to define and analyze policy problems that they face as leaders in multiple career fields. As instructors, the one point we reiterate is to focus on the root of the problem within the policy arena, not one of the symptoms. The goal of the type of leadership we want to encourage our students to practice is to create a viable, healthy society which requires leaders to have situational awareness of the social, economic, and environmental domains of complex and wicked problems.

The Eloquent Letter assignment is introduced to students during week 3 as they continue to read from the course textbook (i.e., Kraft & Furlong, 2018) and engage in supplemental readings focused on frameworks and models useful for policy planning and analysis. Students are reminded that policy development is contextual and that each day they may face situations where the learning from this course will be useful in uncertain and rapidly changing situations. The learning objectives for week 3 are to: (1) identify and analyze social, political, justice, and economic influences related to your chosen policy problem/puzzle; (2) reflect on ethical and social dimensions of policies and the policy creation process; and (3) evaluate criteria for judging policy proposals. The focus of the assignment is to evaluate important cultural, social, political, or economic dimensions of policy problems. In particular, students are asked to look at institutional structures in the context of many of the policy problems the students tend to contemplate during this course.

The power dimensions highlighted in the week 3 readings inform the framework for their Eloquent Letter assignment and their later policy proposal paper which is the culminating assignment for the course. These scholarly articles (including King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, a redlining resource guide, and the JSTOR institutionalized racism syllabus) introduce students to the social, cultural, political, and economic domains that play a significant role in the policy problems students will be confronting when developing their policy proposals in their final course assignment. As Kendi (2019) states in How to Be an Anti-racist, “nation-states, sectors, communities, institutions are run by policymakers and policies and policy managers. ‘Institutional power’ or ‘systemic power’ or ‘structural power’ is the policy-making and managing power of people, in groups or individually” (p. 141). As emerging leadership scholar-practitioners, the overall course, and in particular the Eloquent Letter assignment, challenge students to see beyond the symptoms of the problem they have identified to the policies that structure the systems and institutions that have created and perpetuated the problem.

Instructions Provided to Students.   A description of the Eloquent Letter assignment that can be used for undergraduate students in a semester-long course can be found on the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment webpage (Bergland, 2019). For the purposes of this doctoral-level policy course, the original assignment was adapted to contain four main parts: (1) the first draft of the letter, (2) peer exchange and feedback on the letter, (3) the final draft of the letter, and (4) critical reflection on the learning experience. Essentially, students are asked to identify and research a problem or issue and write a persuasive letter to an identified stakeholder(s), asking for specific action toward addressing that issue. The instructions to the students are,

“Tell your audience why you feel the way you do. Explain what experiences, knowledge, or value systems influenced your point of view on the issue. Explain the arguments, assumptions, values, and biases of one or more stakeholders. Identify and explain at least one other viewpoint related to your topic. Identify an area of common ground with your audience and use it as a way to focus your argument and convince your audience. Use at least one metaphor or simile to create emphasis and grace to your arguments.”

During the assignment, students engage in the development of questions to explore the controversial topic, research and compare information from multiple perspectives, understand the system within which the issue operates, and examine, compare, and integrate the positions, values, knowledge, and assumptions of various stakeholders. Students are encouraged to focus on building common ground and to move beyond the model of debate and persuasion to actual problem-solving. To help students shift their thinking toward dialogue and building common ground they are asked to engage in a peer review of each other’s draft letters. The specific instructions that integrate all four parts of the assignment are as follows:

Step 1: Study Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail and examine tensions in American values and the “American arguments” that arise from these tensions.

Step 2: Propose a problem or issue (the same problem or issue as in your policy proposal paper assignment) and a stakeholder for your individual letter and send your proposal to your instructor in week 2.

Step 3: After gaining approval for your proposed issue/problem from your instructor, draft a letter (approximately 700 words) using common ground and an understanding of your stakeholders’ values, motivations, position, and background to shape your appeals and proposed solutions (Due on Thursday of week 3).

Step 4: Then, engage in a peer review of your classmates’ letters during week 3. A peer will be assigned by the instructor (peer review is due on Sunday of week 3).

Step 5: After your peer review, revise and edit your own letter based on peer feedback and submit the final version to your instructor in week 4.

Step 6: During week 8, provide a reflective “Articulation Post” on the week 8 discussion board to articulate what you have learned from the process of writing your letter and your final policy proposal, and how this knowledge will apply in your future.

Eloquent Letter Instructions for Peer Review.   To encourage students to shift their thinking toward building common ground and a dialogue with their audience, their draft letters are exchanged with one of their peers. On Thursday of week 3 students are assigned a peer to review their draft letter. Each student is encouraged to take on the role of the audience member (i.e., stakeholder) of the organization their peers’ letter is addressed to. Students are reminded that the Eloquent Letter is not just a persuasive piece but is meant to move beyond argument and debate to problem-solving and common ground.

The goal of the peer review is for students to help each other understand their audience’s position, values, and opposing viewpoints, and use common ground to problem-solve and reach a solution that might be acceptable to all groups involved. For the peer-review portion of the assignment, students are asked to review their assigned peers’ letter and write a return letter (at least 400 words) to their peer by Sunday of week 3. In their return letter they are to critique their peers’ letter and offer suggestions related to clarity, tone, and structure. Peer reviewers are prompted to, “put yourself in the intended audience’s shoes.” In the return letter students are instructed to summarize the main claim of the letter and address at least four of the prompts listed in Table 1.

Table 1 Prompts to Address in Peer Review Letter

Instructors can assign grades and provide feedback to students based on their return letter to their peer (5 points possible). Once students receive the feedback from their peers, they are encouraged to edit their first draft letter to redirect their writing to achieve the goals of the Eloquent Letter assignment.

Peer Review Feedback.   One example of grading commentary given to students by an instructor in the course was:

Thank you for your peer review of [student’s name] letter. Your response letter was specific and useful. I found your use of questions and specific examples to be very effective in providing feedback and ideas for improvements. Additionally, throughout your response letter you provided positive examples from [student’s name] letter and areas for improvement. This type of feedback is useful for [student’s name] to know where to focus her thinking and writing. I think the feedback you provided [student’s name] will help her make adjustments that will encourage her and the energy company to find common ground.

Final Eloquent Letter Assignment Grading Rubric.  Overall, the Eloquent Letter assignment makes up 40 of the 860 total points in the course (5% of the student’s overall course grade). The Eloquent Letter peer exchange is worth 5 points, the student reflective Articulation Post is worth 5 points and the final draft of the Eloquent letter is worth 30 points. Table 2 outlines the Eloquent Letter rubric which provides the criteria and descriptions of the assignment criteria. The rubric is provided to students at the beginning of the assignment. The learning objective for week 3 is, by the end of the week students should be able to analyze social, political, and economic influences on their chosen policy issue by reading, reflecting, and dialoguing about potential influences. The 3 criteria described as proposed solution and argument claim, ethical use of sources, and evidence and reasoning help the instructor and student assess progress on the parts of the weekly learning objective related to analyzing and reflecting on the influences on their chosen policy issue. The 3 criteria described as context and purpose of writing, common ground, and style and readability help the instructor and student assess progress on the part of the weekly learning objective related to dialoguing with the letter recipient about the potential influences.

Table 2 Prompts to Address in Peer Review Letter

Each of the criteria are evaluated on a scale of excellent (5 pts) to no marks (0 pts), with the flexibility to allow instructors to indicate partial point deductions within that range for each criterion. Instructors utilize the criteria descriptions to look for the inclusion of each of the described elements within the students’ eloquent letter. For example, for the criterion context and purpose of writing the instructor will look for the students’ eloquent letter to be addressed to a specific person, organization, or association, if the letter is addressed to an audience that is too broad or who does not have a stake in the policy issue points would be deducted. Additionally, the instructor will look for appropriate rhetorical choices that demonstrate the set of methods the student used to identify with the proposed recipient of the letter and demonstrate to the instructor the student is trying to understand things from another’s perspective. These rhetorical choices can be related to the tone of the language used, specific references to the audience’s experience, knowledge, and values; and/or historical and current context provided to acknowledge the setting in which the letter is being written and considered. If the letter does not include words or phrases that demonstrate these types of rhetorical choices points would be deducted accordingly. Each group of students are different in how they approach the assignment, however, the following examples of feedback and lessons learned may be helpful for leadership education instructors to consider as they help guide students through this assignment.

Final Draft Eloquent Letter Feedback.  The three instructors in the different sections of the course chose different paths when grading and evaluating the final drafts of the Eloquent Letter assignment. One instructor assigned 30 out of 30 points for all students in the course, while the other instructors graded the assignment with point distributions ranging from 28.1 to 29.6 points (all A’s) and 24.9 to 29.7 points (range from A’s to B’s). Two of the three instructors provided specific comments and questions to students within the body of the letter in addition to different degrees of summative grading commentary. One example of grading commentary provided by one of the instructors on the final draft of the Eloquent Letter assignment was:

Thank you for your heartfelt and compelling letter. The framing and focus you have chosen is important. There is some excellent work by Ibram X. Kendi on anti-racism that I think might help support your focus on the systems and policies that are creating inequities. Good job acknowledging that these systems were not put in place intentionally, that works well to help build common ground. I would have liked to see you use a metaphor. This type of rhetorical device really helps shake people from their usual way of thinking and for your CEO recipient may be very useful in helping you communicate the need and call to action. Keep up the excellent writing. [29.4/30]

Discussion of Outcomes and Implications

The descriptions included in this paper covered five course sections that were taught during the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters while the COVID-19 pandemic was underway. During the pandemic, many colleges adopted pass/fail grading policies that students could request for their overall course grade. While many campuses dropped these adaptations later in the academic year, the pandemic may have a lasting impact on how we as leadership educators think about grading assignments. For example, as noted for this doctoral-level interdisciplinary course, three distinct faculty used identical rubrics to facilitate the grading of this single assignment. For one faculty member, this assignment was graded as pass/fail, no points were deducted on any of the criteria for all parts of the assignment. For the other two faculty members, this assignment was graded in a more nuanced way, with points deducted and constructive feedback provided related to the criteria in which points were deducted to help the students continue to grow.

Leadership educators considering using rubrics in multi-section courses with distinct faculty instructors will want to orient faculty to the use of rubrics and discuss the implications and outcomes of different grading practices. In the context of our interdisciplinary doctoral program, within which this course was offered, faculty are given latitude to use instructional strategies, including grading practices, consistent with their teaching philosophy which often has discipline-specific roots. Attempts to standardize faculty within an interdisciplinary program would be counterproductive to the spirit of interdisciplinary learning. However, effective interdisciplinary teaching and learning instructional practices are not unique from any other forms of productive teaching and learning practices (Dezure, 2017). Therefore, leadership educators whether in an interdisciplinary program or not, may benefit from paying attention to students’ demonstration of their abilities to analyze problems from several perspectives, compare and contrast, critically analyze resources, place problems and solutions within a larger context, articulate critical points, empathize with multiple perspectives and stakeholders, and tolerate ambiguity and complexity (Dezure, 2017). Whether leadership educators provide feedback to students on these critical abilities via grading commentary by using the rubric or through group and one-on-one discussions, the important point is that students receive feedback from their instructor that helps to strengthen their policy advocacy skills and their selection of and dialogue with identified stakeholders.

One way we distinguish the Eloquent Letter from other forms of writing is to remind students that the assignment is not an objective, esoteric approach to writing a policy analysis report, but is a personal letter intended to persuade an audience. Students inevitably write the first draft of their letter as a persuasive essay: “writer-based” prose, largely ignoring the audience and focusing on the claims, evidence, and appeals they themselves find most convincing. Students believe their goal is to “win the argument” and unfortunately will often focus too much on facts and figures instead of building bridges and working towards compromise. Therefore, peer reviewers are encouraged to look for evidence of these traps in the draft letters. Additionally, when students during their own peer reviews see how their peers have completed the assignment, they are able to see with fresh eyes the mistakes they may have made in their own letter and are able to correct these in their final draft.

In week 8 of the course students shared their reactions to the overall course, including the Eloquent Letter assignment, in their final reflection post. We found that students were transformed by the assignment based on their own assessment of their learning. Due to the reflective nature of the video posts the submissions were not graded, rather a mark of complete was assigned along with the 5 points. The impact of the Eloquent Letter assignment seemed to carry on even after the assignment was completed in week 4. In their final reflection students were asked to respond to a few of the following questions using a video post:

How have these assignments influenced your identity?

What were the important milestones in your process of writing the eloquent letter or the policy proposal paper for instance, how did you choose your topic and the audience, what research was important to how you wrote and rewrote your letter and how you wrote your policy proposal paper, what were (at least two) challenges or discoveries you made during your process of writing these assignments, what were the most significant changes you made between different drafts of each paper what feedback from your peer evaluation did you use, how/what knowledge or skills obtained during this course/process will you apply in your future coursework/career/life.

In their articulation post videos some students highlighted that the writing of the eloquent letter was one of the major milestones for them in the course. Some students mentioned becoming more aware of their writing process and their differing levels of comfort with a new type of writing for them. In fact, several students indicated that prior to this assignment they felt more comfortable writing a research paper rather than a letter. One student specifically mentioned feedback they had received from their peer reviewer about their use of the word “your” in their eloquent letter. The student had used the word “your” to acknowledge that they were writing for a specific audience, however, their peer gave them feedback that the use of “your” came across as blame, which helped the student to consider tone and connection with their audience even more.

In the week 8 articulation posts some students also noted that because of this course, and the Eloquent Letter assignment, they were more aware of their identity and the identity of others. One student noted, ‘the assignments were not just valuable in and of themselves, but also in what they have aroused in me.’ Additionally, several students indicated that the Eloquent Letter assignment opened their eyes to their own biases and perspectives and pushed them to be more curious in order to get to the root of the policy problem. Subsequently, students experienced one of the largest lessons related to identifying the appropriate audience. After choosing their policy issue/problem, some students expressed that they felt the most push and pull when clarifying and homing in on their audience. One student included the following quote from Maya Angelo in their Eloquent Letter, “Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” In their articulation post the student acknowledged that the inclusion of the quote was not just for her audience’s benefit, but for her own as well.

When students were asked what elements of the online course content and course environment they found to be particularly useful to achieving the course objectives, two students specifically mentioned the Eloquent Letter. In addition, feedback on the course evaluations completed at the end of the course included comments regarding the assignment:

“The Eloquent Letter assignment was an interesting exercise, and provided a unique experience as both a writer and peer-reviewer.”

“It was an interesting experience doing the policy paper and eloquent letter.

“I enjoyed reading MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I had never read it.”

Conclusion and Recommendations

Although this specific assignment is roughly 5% of the overall course grade, leadership educators can easily increase the percentage and spread the assignment out as necessary across the term. Additionally, while we have adapted this assignment for doctoral students, it was originally adopted from undergraduate curriculum and can easily be used across undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level programs.

When drawing conclusions about this assignment’s application, one should consider what makes it challenging for students. Based on our interactions with students and observations of their work, including their self-reflections, we found that audience identification and orienting students toward collective problem solving rather than debate, were two of the biggest challenges. Additionally, issues related to rhetorical decisions based on the audience, for example finding a metaphor that communicated the complexity of the situation, was also a challenge. Instructors may want to use critical questions when giving feedback on drafts or to scaffold instruction to include discussions or activities related to rhetorical choices, i.e., tone and register of language, types and sources of evidence, and identifying shared warrants for arguments. For example, a discussion of Dr. King’s letter could include attention to his use of metaphor and appeals/evidence as targeted to the intended audience and consider questions about how these were particularly effective given that audience. Students might also brainstorm and workshop metaphors for the problems or issues being considered in the course content.

As mentioned earlier, though the letter is a ubiquitous form that our students likely encounter on a regular basis, e.g., emails, letters to the editor, and published open letters, they may have had limited, if any formal instruction related to the conventions and rhetorical considerations of the form. It is helpful to draw students’ attention to these and the ways letters may differ from other forms and genres; for instance, letters are generally short, so revision should focus on concision. Subsequently it is useful to provide examples of persuasive letters, such as Dr. King’s. Instructors may want to start collecting letters they encounter for this purpose. In the undergraduate course where this assignment originated, examples include an open letter to President Obama from Natives in America regarding DAPL (2016), a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe on finding common ground in the abortion debate (Merullo, 2013), a letter written by Daneen Bergland to the local school board, and exemplary letters by previous students. New and timely examples become available every day; indeed, a quick internet search brings up a letter from the Student Body President and Trustee, Lamar Richards (2021), to students of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill regarding racism, an open letter from college professors to the U.S. Senate supporting the For the People Act voting rights bill (James & Evans, n.d.), and an encyclical letter Laudato Si’ from Pope Francis to the world calling on care for our common home (2015). These few, but easily accessible examples further impress that the letter is still an important advocacy and communication tool that leadership educators can incorporate into a multitude of leadership development courses if they seek to provide a unique experiential learning opportunity.

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James, P. & Evans, M. (n.d.) For the People Act—Sign the Faculty Letter of Support. The Andrew Goodman Foundation. https://andrewgoodman.salsalabs.org/professorsupportforthepeopleact/index.html

Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. Random House, LLC.

Kilgo, C. A., Ezell Sheets, J. K., & Pascarella, E. T. (2015). The link between high-impact practices and student learning: Some longitudinal evidence. Higher Education, 69(4), 509-525.

King, M. L. (1963/2004). Letter from Birmingham Jail. Liberation Curriculum, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/letter-birmingham-jail

Kolditz, T., Gill, L., & Brown, R. P. (2021). Leadership reckoning: Can higher education develop the leaders we need? Monocle Press.

Komives, S. R. & Wagner, W. (2017). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Kraft, M. E., & Furlong, S. R. (2018). Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives (6th ed.). CQ Press.

London, M. (2008). Leadership and advocacy: Dual roles for corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurship. Organizational Dynamics, 37(4), 313-326.

McKee, K. & Bruce, J. (2021). Any movement of the needle: The Oaks Leadership Scholars represent themselves as learners, allies, advocates, and activists. Journal of Leadership Education, 20(2), 95-108.

Merullo, R. (2013). Finding common ground in the abortion debate. BostonGlobe.Com. https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/01/22/finding-common-ground-abortion-debate/rZbQTeskGXCGmULDJ0yEoM/story.html

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Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

• Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
• Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

• What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

• What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that they will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

• define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
• describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
• explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
• illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
• summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
• trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
• research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

• compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
• contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
• apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
• cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
• relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

• assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
• prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
• evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
• support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
• synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
• analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
• argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

• What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
• In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove their point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
• What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
• How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, they still have to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

• Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
• The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and they already know everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality they expect.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

• spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
• use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
• use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
• get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Leadership development plan

Ivan Andreev

Demand Generation & Capture Strategist, Valamis

February 2, 2022 · updated April 2, 2024

11 minute read

After reading this guide, you will understand how to improve leadership skills training in your organization, and get actionable tips for building a leadership development plan.

What is leadership development?

Why is leadership development important, leadership development goals.

• Define what type of leaders do you need
• Align an employees career vision with your business needs
• Create a list of leadership development goals and skills
• Identify which methods of development to use
• Measure and analyze the program results

Leadership development is the process of improving leadership skills and competencies through various activities.

In leadership development, staff at all levels are taught the invaluable leadership skills that allow them to properly lead, inspire and guide their teams to success.

This type of development is important to properly cultivate a culture of leadership throughout an organization.

Leadership development training can take on many forms, both on-site, such as internal training and mentorship programs, and off-site, such as training seminars, conferences, online training, or graduate programs.

To effectively action leadership development, an organization should create a leadership development plan.

This plan will lay out the steps that the organization will take, what is expected of staff who undergo this development, and how the development will help both the organization and the staff.

Career development plan template

This template helps employees and bosses plan together for career growth: set goals, assess skills, and make a plan.

Leadership development benefits an organization in a multitude of ways.

1. It drives better business results

Including higher financial performance and more consistent achievement within departments guided by proficient leaders.

2. Skilled leaders are more agile

An organization with empowered leaders can navigate today’s complex business environment and solve problems quickly and effectively.

3. Good leadership drives innovation

A workforce with effective leaders will be inspired to believe in, and work for, a greater vision.

4. Skilled leaders attract and keep employees

Good leadership can inspire higher engagement from their staff and reduce turnover. A great leader will attract talented new employees and will be able to keep the ones that they have, which leads to better work satisfaction.

5. Improves employee engagement

More than half of American workers are disengaged at work. Effective leadership that knows how to increase engagement within teams using purpose and recognition has been shown to increase profitability within an organization.

6. Improves communication inside and outside the organization

Good communication can make or break a company. If the leaders within a company make effective communication a priority, it leads to increases in productivity, better speed of execution of tasks, and a more positive organizational culture.

7. Improves Customer retention

Customers will be more loyal when leaders are effective in engaging employees. Leading by example improves the customer experience.

8. Increases employee loyalty

Inhouse leadership development inspires loyalty from employees, as it shows that there are growth opportunities available for them. It is also cheaper, and requires less time, than finding, hiring and training leaders from outside.

9. Proper leadership development strategy fuels business strategy

A properly developed leadership development strategy is an invaluable tool for driving and achieving the organization’s business strategy. In taking the time to understand what your organization needs from its leaders, you will better understand the business strategy that will work best for you. These two strategies go hand-in-hand, developing one will help in achieving the other.

No matter the industry, every organization can benefit from developing leadership skills from within their organization and prioritizing leadership in their company culture.

For a leadership development program to be effective, there must be clear goals that are set at the beginning of the process. Some, or all, of the following goals can be used as a starting point.

1. Demonstrate personal responsibility

A true leader owns their actions and the consequences of them, whether good or bad.

They are able to look at the outcomes of their decisions, and appreciate the lessons that both success and failure teach.

Employees notice if a manager never takes responsibility for their actions, or worse, pushes the responsibility for their failures onto their subordinates.

2. Practice self-discipline

When making decisions, it can be tempting to make ones that benefit the individual, rather than the team or organization.

A good leader considers all options then chooses the one that is best for the company, rather than themselves. This practice involves shedding bias and developing integrity.

3. Develop active listening skills

Sometimes leading means listening, rather than speaking.

Every member of a team has some valuable input and experience that they can share, and a good leader takes the time to create a space for discussion and actively listen to each person.

4. Expand and diversify knowledge

Leaders need to be well-rounded, with a wide array of skills in different areas of competence.

In taking the time to study fields that may be outside of their direct role, a leader will be better able to handle issues as they arise in a creative and agile fashion.

5. Focus on time management

A leader is not going to be much use to anyone if they are consistently running behind on projects and don’t have enough time to actually lead.

In focusing on proper time management, a leader can make sure that they set a good example and are available for their team.

6. Creating a culture of mentorship

A key role of a leader is to foster leadership in others.

Being able to identify and develop those skills in team members is an important aspect of a leader’s job, and is essential in the development of a leadership culture within an organization.

This involves coaching, giving actionable and constructive feedback , and paying attention to how team members are approaching challenging projects.

7. Improve communication practices

A leader is only as effective as their communication.

Great ideas and active mentorship won’t go far if a leader’s communication style lets them down.

Developing communication skills takes time and effort and includes building rapport with team members, understanding how, and when, to use persuasion, and improving conflict management skills .

8. Practice big-picture thinking

Leaders shouldn’t think small. Problem-solving and effective team management are dependent on a leader who can make decisions that will benefit the team not just immediately, but down the road as well.

Using these goals as a starting point will help an organization dial in on what is important, what changes need to be prioritized, and what kind of training will be most effective in developing the leadership that they would like to see within their organization.

Leadership development plan template

So, how to improve leadership skills within your organization? You should start with a leadership development plan.

It is the roadmap of how your organization is going to nurture leadership skills in employees of all levels. It should cover goals that align with both strategic business needs and interpersonal, or more human, needs.

It should address the needs of leaders of all levels within the organization, both current leaders and those you wish to train for future leadership positions.

An example of a good leadership development plan is one that has followed the following steps:

1. Define what type of leaders do you need

First of all, you need to understand what type of leaders you need, what set of skills are most essential for your business, and will be valuable in the future.

To do so, it’s better to take a step back and review your key business objectives, if you don’t have a clear list, then it is time to make it.

• Create a list of skills that you are expecting to see in a good leader that fits your company. It should be aligned with your business.
• If you have a different department that requires improvements in leadership, create a separate profile for them.
• Assess where your leadership is. Create a leadership assessment for your employees. Using a variety of methods, including anonymous, email, and face-to-face feedback, your organization can develop a clear idea of where the leadership currently is.
• Also, it might be good to have a list of employees who demonstrate an interest in management roles and are talented enough to take leadership roles.
• Maybe you need a leader with a specific Management style . In such cases would be good to check them and prepare some questions for an interview.

2. Align an employees career vision with your business needs

Talk to the employees who will participate in this leadership development and try to align their career vision and path with your ideas and business path.

Having the same direction in development will affect final results dramatically.

• Of course, a culture of leadership is easier to develop with engaged employees who view the organization in a positive light. So, sometimes it will be better not to focus on people who are going to leave the company.
• One-on-one meetings will be the most beneficial tool for discovering what your employee’s career vision is. Make the time to meet with employees on a regular basis to ensure that the two paths are in accordance.
• Be willing to listen to your employee’s ideas about what is needed both in leadership development and business strategy. You might get unexpected insight into your organization and ideas for the future.

3. Create a list of leadership development goals and skills

As discussed above, leadership development goals are an important part of this strategy. Without clear goals, it will be hard to understand what to do and how effective your plan is.

The required qualities and skills of your organization’s leadership will determine the relevant leadership development goals.

• These goals must be achievable, measurable, and should correlate with the key business objectives.
• Take a look at leadership skills , it might help you.
• Create a list of goals and skills required for each individual or role.
• Rank their importance so people will focus on the most valuable or important goals for them.
• Define a clear timeline for each goal, it will motivate people to act.
• Be clear about what success for each goal looks like. The clearer this list is, the more successful employees will be in reaching their goals.
• Look within your organization for examples of success. It is better to show, rather than tell.

How to conduct a skills gap analysis and what to do next

Start building your foundation for strategic workforce development.

4. Identify which methods of development to use and create a development plan

There are many different methods that can be used for leadership development:

• mentorship programs,
• formal training,
• volunteering,
• task forces,
• working groups and committees,
• changing the way the responsibility is taken,
• and others.

You can read more about ideas on how to develop leadership skills in this employee development article.

Some companies will develop these methods in house, while others bring in a third party company who specializes in this type of development, it’s up to you what to choose.

• We recommend creating a separate leadership development plan for each role or individual. It will make it more personal and role oriented, and as a result, it will be much more engaging and relevant.
• Focus on those methods that fit you, some of them are expensive, while others require experience.
• Think about the realization stage .

5. Measure and analyze the program results

As mentioned the development plan must be measurable, otherwise, it will be impossible to quantify its success.

By using measurable goals, concrete criteria, feedback from employees, and data, your organization will be able to measure the success of the program and make adjustments where necessary. Get more ideas from the Reviewing & Monitoring Results chapter of this employee development article.

• Set timeframes and review results frequently.
• Communicate with employees, their feedback will be really important.
• Come back to the plan and adjust it if necessary.

Using these steps, your organization can create a leadership development plan template to follow. In doing so, a culture of leadership and positive development will be established, and beneficial results will follow.

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How to Nail The Amazon Writing Assignment

How to Nail The Amazon Writing Assignment in your next interview

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For certain positions at Amazon (usually mid to senior level, L6 and above), as part of the interview process you’ll be required to submit a writing sample. This should be roughly two pages and given to you to complete on your own so that you can do it at home. You usually have 48 hours to complete the assessment. 

This writing sample is taken seriously as part of the interview process. Amazon famously doesn’t use powerpoints, and instead relies on written memos in their meetings. When you have a new marketing or product idea to pitch, instead of having a bunch of fancy slides to present, you’ll be expected to write a 6 page, structured memo explaining your idea. In the meeting, the first few minutes are spent in silence reading the document, followed by stakeholders diving deep and asking questions about your memo. 

As you can imagine, your ability to write clearly and concisely is an important skill to have! 

How is the Amazon Writing sample assessed? 

Almost all of the prompts for the writing sample will be a Behavioral Question based on the Amazon Leadership Principles . You’ll usually get the option to answer one of two questions, for example, “Write about a time where you had limited data but had to make an important decision,” or “Tell me about a time you had to convince a stakeholder of your viewpoint.”

The writing sample will be assessed based on the relevance of your example, the structure, your adherence to the Leadership Principles and the logic. If you’ve done the preparation of your STAR stories for Amazon, then you should already have plenty of examples to choose from. The best way to write this is to choose a very solid example and use the STAR format to have a structured story. If you’re new to STAR, you can start here.

It’s very common for an interviewer to bring up your writing sample in the actual interview and ask probing questions about it — so make sure to review your writing sample before going into the interview! Be ready to dive deep.

The curve balls

After coaching hundreds of people on the Amazon writing sample, I’ve noticed that sometimes an interviewer will throw a curveball or two. This happens either one of two ways: 

• During the interview they bring up the example you wrote in your writing assignment, but are not happy with the example you gave. So, they ask you for another example to answer the question! (A bit stressful if you’ve only prepared that one example)
• Usually there are two question prompts in the writing sample. They will probe into the one you answered, but then ask for an example/answer to the other question that you haven’t answered!

The solution to mitigate these curveballs is to over prepare. In case 1, you should prepare and write out one extra example for the same question prompt (for yourself), which you can use as backup in case it’s asked for. For case 2, you should definitely answer both questions in the writing prompt, even though you are only submitting one. Putting this extra effort will make you more confident in the interview and moreover give you a larger pool of quality stories to choose from.  

• Keep the length to two or three pages - no more than that.
• Keep in mind the Leadership Principles as you write and frame your examples from the lens of these values.
• Revise your writing sample to be as logical and concise as possible using the STAR format.
• Always include the reasoning behind decisions you made in the story.
• Include numbers/data where you can.
• If possible, have someone else review your example to get a second opinion.

Here is an example of what an Amazon writing sample looks like for a candidate who successfully received a job offer. Successful Writing Sample

Can I use the same STAR story I used for my leadership principle stories? Or should I have a different one? 

It’s okay to reuse a story you’ve already prepared. What’s more important is how well the story is written!

Should I include headers and bold/italics? 

Yes, it’s definitely fine to add in headings and subheadings to structure the document if necessary.

What font should I use?

It doesn’t matter too much, but I’d suggest using Calibri 10. This is actually the font that Amazon uses internally, so you’ll automatically create some familiarity…and familiarity breeds trust!

How should I use numbers? 

It’s super important to add data. Be specific. Instead of saying you increased sales or marketing spend, give the number. If you have no numbers or data in your example, it’s likely a no-go.

Can I include graphs, images or tables?

This is a big no! And would usually result in a rejection. Amazon is focused on the written word, and the expectation is that you should be able to explain your points without the support of extra images.

Can I write 3 pages? 

No, definitely don’t go over the 2 page requirement. If you’re trying to squeeze in a bit more, make the font a bit smaller. :)

Can I use an example from 10 years ago? It’s old, but it’s really relevant to the question!

I don’t recommend it. As a rule of thumb, choose an example within the last 5 years. Amazon prefers examples that are fresh and relevant. 

What other tips do you have? 

The person reading your writing sample is busy and wants you to get to the point as soon as possible. Don’t make it hard for them! So, get your long version written down first and then edit. To edit, use this method: remove 1 paragraph from each page, one sentence from each paragraph, and one word from each sentence. Be strict and cut out any fat.

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83 Leadership Activities, Building Games, and Exercises

Leadership activities are associated with benefits to business, including increased performance and productivity.

However, perhaps the sign of a truly successful leader is a happy, healthy workplace. Interested in what leadership activities can do for your workplace or school? Read on.

With the activities below, there may be some overlap with activities found under certain headings – for example, activities suitable for adults may also be useful for groups, or with employees.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Leadership Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or others adopt positive leadership practices and help organizations thrive.

This Article Contains:

What are leadership activities, what are they used for, 8 examples of leadership activities, 4 leadership workshop ideas, 2 activities that showcase different leadership styles, 3 situational leadership activities and scenarios, 8 games and activities for kids to learn leadership skills, 6 leadership development activities for teens and youth (pdf), 3 classroom leadership activities for students in elementary and middle school, 6 leadership activities and games for high school students, 3 activities and exercises for college students (pdf), 7 leadership games and activities for adults, 5 leadership group and team activities, 8 leadership training activities for employees, 5 leadership building exercises for managers, 11 leadership exercises for team building in the workplace, a take-home message.

Increasingly, people are assuming positions of leadership in the workplace (Cserti, 2018). However, the journey to becoming a leader is lengthy (Cserti, 2018). Leadership activities are valuable on the journey to becoming an effective leader , and also develop confidence in leadership teams (Cserti, 2018; Stepshift, 2016).

Leadership activities may be conducted on or off site, and be physical or sedentary (Stepshift, 2016). Leadership activities can either be performed by a leader in their own team, or with an external facilitator (Cserti, 2018). They may take the form of specially organized themed events, such as scavenger hunts (Stepshift, 2016). Or, they may be smaller, office-based tasks built into an ordinary workday.

For example, leadership activities could consist of meeting openers or conference break activities (Stepshift, 2016).

Leadership activities can be an effective way for individuals to practice and strengthen their leadership and team-building skills (Cserti, 2018). They can also be fun!

The structure of leadership activities is essential. It is important that the participants can relate the activity to the workplace setting (Stepshift, 2016).

The working style, principles, and values of a leader is a crucial aspect in determining the behavior within an organization (Cserti, 2018). Leadership training can help leaders become role-models (Cserti, 2018). The behavior of leaders and what they consider the “norm” determines which behaviors are enforced and those which are punished (Cserti, 2018).

Given the importance of a leader’s behavior, it is also essential that they learn skills, such as:

Communication

Leaders need to develop the ability to clearly, succinctly explain to employees everything from the goals of a company to the details of specific work-tasks (Doyle, 2019). Many components are important for effective communication , including active listening, reading body language and written communication such as emails (Doyle, 2019).

Leaders need to inspire employees. They may do this by increasing worker’s self-esteem , by recognizing effort and achievement, or by giving a worker new responsibilities to further their investment in the business (Doyle, 2019).

Leaders can achieve this by identifying the skills that workers have, and as such assign tasks to each worker based on the skills they have (Doyle, 2019).

Being positive helps develop a happy , healthy work environment, even when the workplace is busy or stressful (Doyle, 2019).

Trustworthiness

By demonstrating integrity , workers will feel at ease to approach their leader with questions or concerns (Doyle, 2019). Building trust is one of the most essential leadership skills.

Good leaders are willing to try novel solutions or to approach problems in a non-traditional way (Doyle, 2019).

Leaders are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to provide team members with information about their performance, without ‘micromanaging’ their work (Doyle, 2019).

Responsibility

A good leader accepts mistakes or failures and instead look for solutions for improvement of a situation (Doyle, 2019). This skill also includes being reflective and being open to feedback (Doyle, 2019).

A leader should strive to follow through with everything that they agree to do (Doyle, 2019). It also involves applying appropriate feedback and keeping promises (Doyle, 2019).

Flexibility

Leaders need to be able to accept changes and creatively problem-solve, as well as being open to suggestions and feedback (Doyle, 2019).

While these skills are explained in a workplace context, they can easily be applied to other leadership situations such as sports or community groups.

Now that you have more clarity as to what leadership activities are, and what they are used for, let us look at a wide selection of activities. While some of the activities and games may not immediately appear to be ‘leadership activities,’ the chosen activities might develop and promote the leadership skills outlined above.

Here are eight such activities:

• Sports Sports provide the experience of being a team member and developing leadership skills (Flavin, 2018).
• Cross-cultural experience Experiences with a different culture provide new, potentially uncomfortable situations and help develop communication skills that may not be learned elsewhere (Flavin, 2018). Overseas travel, or working with a different cultural group within your community can provide an opportunity to learn new skills, or may involve barriers that must be overcome – all teaching leadership (Flavin, 2018).
• Social groups Involvement in social activities helps potential leaders develop a well-rounded, confident personality which enhances their capacity to lead a team (Flavin, 2018).
• Internships Taking an internship position demonstrates initiative in finding opportunities to learn and seeking practical work – valuable skills in leadership (Flavin, 2018).
• Volunteering As well as showing ambition, volunteering shows that you are willing to commit yourself to something that you are passionate about (Flavin, 2018).
• Student government and organizations Specifically considering students, being involved in co-curricular organizations help individuals develop leadership (Flavin, 2018). Being involved in student government or organizations can provide opportunities to demonstrate leadership and have an impact on those around you (Flavin, 2018).
• ‘Passion projects’ Showing commitment to a passion for better communities; for example, mentoring shows that you are likely to focus on the greater good for a team (Flavin, 2018).
• ‘Teamwork’ This can be anything at all, from helping out with planning a family event or participating in a volunteer day, will demonstrate and develop leadership skills (Flavin, 2018).

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Effective leaders are aware that continuing professional and personal development is the key to ongoing success (Higgins, 2018). As such, they recognize that leadership workshops are important (Higgins, 2018). What activities can be used in such a workshop?

Here are four suggestions:

Idea 1: ‘Tallest Tower’ (from Stepshift, 2016)

Participants are provided with everyday items such as toothpicks, wooden blocks, uncooked pasta and so on. The task is to build the tallest possible free-standing structure from the materials provided. This activity is designed to encourage creative problem-solving and developing collaboration skills.

Idea 2: ‘Centre Stage’ (from Higgins, 2018)

Select four team members as volunteers. One team member plays the role of an employee who has missed meetings or been late to work in recent times. Each of the other three participants demonstrates a different style of leader (to save time, nominate the particular personality trait). Ask all participants to form a circle, and put two chairs in the middle of the circle.

After each demonstration of how to deal with the employee, ask the whole group to reflect on the different leadership approaches. For example, the group could consider what worked and what did not. Finally, to conclude this activity, ask the group to consider what the ‘ideal’ leader would do in the scenario.

Idea 3: ‘Minefield’ (from Stepshift, 2016)

This activity helps build trust and improve communication skills. It involves participants working in pairs, with one team member being blindfolded. Then, using only specified communication techniques, the pair negotiate their way around or over a ‘minefield’ of obstacles.

So, for example, the participants may be told they are only able to use commands such as the words ‘left’ or ‘right,’ ‘forwards’ or ‘backwards.’ The aim is to help the blindfolded team member to navigate the ‘minefield’.

Idea 4: ‘Magic Carpet’ (from Higgins, 2018)

Provide a small tarp or rug, which has enough room for all workshop participants to stand within its boundaries. Then, inform the group that their task is to work together to flip the rug or tarp over without any participant stepping off. If (or when) a participant steps off the teams have discussed all of the paragraphs or tarp, the team must begin again.

These are: autocratic (also known as authoritarian), delegative (also called ‘free reign)’ and democratic (which is also called participative) (Clark, 2015; Johnson-Gerard, 2017).

An autocratic leader makes decisions without first consulting others, while a delegative leader allows the staff to make the decisions (Johnson-Gerard, 2017). Finally, a democratic leader consults with the staff in making workplace decisions (Johnson-Gerard, 2017).

Here is an excellent resource for exploring different leadership styles.

The workbook also provides some helpful worksheets.

The following two activities help participants think more deeply about styles of leadership. The group should be divided into small groups of 3 – 4 participants. The participants work in groups for the first activity, and then they work individually on the second activity.

Activity One (Clark, 2015)

Provide a list of approximately 10 – 12 scenarios displaying the three different leadership styles. For example, “a new supervisor has just been put in charge of the production line. He immediately starts by telling the crew what change needs to be made. When some suggestions are made, he tells them he does not have time to consider them”.

The group then works together to figure out which leadership style is used in each scenario and to talk about whether it is effective, or if a different style could work better.

Encourage participants to think about themselves in a similar situation and their reaction to the particular leadership style.

Activity Two (Clark, 2015)

Provide participants with the statement ‘consider a time when you, or another leader, used the authoritarian (autocratic), participative (democratic) or delegative (free reign) style of leadership’.

Ask participants to reflect on the statement and make a few comments, such as: was it effective? Would a different leadership style have worked better? What were the employees’ experiences? Did they learn from the leadership style? What was it they learned? Which style is easiest to use (and why)? Alternatively, nominate the style which the participant prefers (and why).

To conclude these two activities, come together as a whole group and discuss what was learned about the three styles of leadership.

Leadership building activities – Project management training – ProjectManager

Situational leadership is when a leader is flexible in their approach and uses different leadership strategies depending on the situation (Johnson-Gerard, 2017). The following three games, from Johnson-Gerard (2017) provide an opportunity to explore situational leadership:

1. ‘Jumping Ship’

The aim of this game is for participants to reflect upon different leadership styles and come up with a list of actual workplace scenarios which would need a leader to abandon a natural leadership style for one that is more effective (i.e., to ‘jump ship’).

Each group is given three large pieces of paper. Ask the teams to write one style of leadership on each (i.e., autocratic, delegative, democratic). Then, allow the groups 45 minutes to come up with real work situations for which employing the particular leadership style would be disastrous.

Ask the groups to place the sheets of paper up on the wall, and to discuss the sheets as a team. As a whole group, review the posters.

2. ‘Who Ya Gonna Call’

Each participant begins by writing a one-paragraph description of a work situation that is not going well. Collect these, and at the top of each page, number them in consecutive order. Then, divide the participants into two teams.

Give each team half of the paragraphs. Then, ask the teams to choose the style of leadership that would be the least and the most effective in solving the problem. Have the teams note their answers on a piece of paper, being sure to identify the paragraph number on the top of each page, and their choices.

Then, ask the teams to swap paragraphs and repeat the activity.

When the teams have discussed all the paragraphs, discuss the scenarios and review the choices as a group. Where the team’s choices are different, discuss as a group.

3. ‘Ducks in a Row’

This particular activity enables participants to devise a 3-to-5 step decision-making process they can use when challenging leadership situations occur.

Ask participants to form pairs. Then, ask them to come up with the steps that an effective leader goes through in order to work out how to manage a difficult situation. After about 30 minutes, ask each pair to review the steps they have come up with for the group, and to write them on a large piece of paper.

Ask every pair to review their process, and after all the pairs have done so, have a group discussion that enables a consensus to be reached about the three to five most effective steps to take in a difficult leadership situation.

Edsys (2016) provides eight suggested activities for children to learn leadership skills:

1. ‘Create a New You’

Provide children with materials such as textas, crayons, poster/construction paper, magazines, and scissors. Then, ask them to draw themselves, using things that clearly show that the picture is theirs – such as using cut-outs of their most favorite things to do, foods they like, pets, and whatever else makes them unique.

Once the children have finished their posters, they can show their completed work to the other children – helping kids to improve their confidence to lead.

2. ‘Same or Different’

The children sit in a circle. Ask the first child to point to another child in the circle who is similar to them, either in appearance, hair-style or clothing color. Then, when the child has chosen someone, ask them to note other differences and similarities they have with the child they have chosen.

3. ‘Move the Egg’

Ask children to form groups of four or five. Then, have the children select a leader for their team. Each participant is given a spoon and an egg. The leader has the task of finding an effective way to move the eggs from one point to another. For example, one option may be for children to form a line to pass each egg along.

Another leader may suggest forgetting about the spoons altogether and merely tell their group to make a run for it. The winner of the game is the group that can get their egg safely across the finish in the most creative way.

4. ‘Lead the Blindfolded’

This game requires a large indoor or outdoor area. Divide the children into two groups and give them enough blindfolds for everyone except one member to put on. The teams are placed at opposite sides of the space. The child who is not blindfolded is required to lead their team to the other side of the designated space, using clear commands.

Ensure that each member of the team has an opportunity to lead their team. The winner is the team that sees its members successfully cross the finish line.

5. ‘Charity Support’

Help children support a charity by organizing a fundraiser. Each child can have a different task. For example, one child may select the charity, another may find a suitable space to hold the fundraising activity, and another child can collect donations.

6. ‘Planning Strategies’

Teach children to divide a large task into smaller steps. Set the children a large task, such as holding a class function. Show the children a plan that enables them to achieve the task step by step. This activity can involve a number of children sharing tasks. Suggest to the children how they may be able to improve.

7. ‘Volunteer Roles’

Volunteering plays a role in leadership. Discuss with children how they would like to help someone in need. Older children may be interested in taking a role in an organization in their community. The children should be helped to select a volunteer opportunity that gives them a chance to practice leadership and work with other children.

8. ‘A Quick Quiz’

In this task, ask students to be prepared to evaluate an experience when it is over. Then, after the experience, ask the child questions. For example, inquire “Do you remember the name of the dog we saw?”, “What was it?”, “Did you touch the dog?”, “What is the owner’s name?” and so on.

This is an excellent introduction to leadership for kids in grades 4 – 6 (children aged approximately 9 – 12 years).

The following resources are appropriate for helping teens and youth to develop leadership:

1. “Leaders are, can, and think”

This looks at what a leader is, and what their role can and should be.

2. “Who do you admire and why?”

This worksheet examines leadership role models and the qualities we see in them that we want to develop in ourselves.

3. “4 Ways leaders approach tasks: Leaders Motivation”

This handout focuses on leadership attitude.

4. “Lesson Planet”

Links to 45+ reviewed resources for teen leadership which can be accessed free by registering your details.

5. The Women’s Learning Partnership

This partnership has created a comprehensive manual for promoting leadership for teens aged 13 – 17 years. The manual outlines a number of sessions which guide leadership development activities.

6. “I Care Values Activity”

This is a fun, engaging and introspective activity . It is suitable for students aged 13 and upwards, so it can be used with older students or adults too.

Examples of such activities are:

1. ‘Just Listen’ (Edsys, 2016)

Make an agreement that you and the student(s) will refrain from talking about yourselves for a whole day. Ask them, rather, to listen to others, and if they do talk to another person, it should be about the person whom they are talking to. This game helps children to learn how important it is to focus on other people rather than themselves, which forms the basis of ‘relational leadership’.

2. Silence Classroom Leadership Game (Stapleton, 2018).

To begin the activity, the teacher divides students into two teams, and the teams move to either side of the classroom. The desks may be pushed aside to create more space. The teacher instructs the students to, for example, ‘line up according to the first letter of your surname’ or ‘arrange yourselves into age order by the month your birthday is in’. The students then follow the directions without speaking a word to one another.

Students are permitted to use hand signals, or even write instructions down on paper. The teacher’s instruction to the students is that they are not allowed to talk. The winning team is the one that completes the task successfully.

3. ‘The Cup Game’ (Tony, 2018)

Divide students into pairs and select one student to be the leader. Each team should face each other standing up, with a plastic cup in the middle. The leader calls out simple directions, such as ‘touch your knee’, ‘close one eye’ and so on.

When the leader calls out “cup” the students should try and be the first to grab the cup. The player who successfully grabs the cup should pair up with another player who also got the cup. Those without a cup sit down and watch.

Once the new teams of two have formed, the cup is put in between the players and the game begins again. This process continues until only one person is left standing – and the resulting winner becomes the new leader… and play can begin all over again.

By high school, students are more sophisticated. Here are some interesting activities for high school students to develop leadership.

1. Brainstorming for change (Stapleton, 2018)

The teacher puts students into groups of 4 or 5. The goal is for students to come up with possible solutions to social, political or economic problems. Working together, students brainstorm both small- and large-scale solutions to a given problem topic.

Once the groups have finalized their list of detailed solutions, the teacher facilitates a discussion with the whole class, and together they examine which of the identified solutions could be a viable option and why.

2. Leadership characteristics (Stapleton, 2018)

The teacher puts students into pairs or groups of three. Then, each group member shares a story about someone whom they consider to be an influential leader. After each story has been shared, students discuss the characteristics that they think made the person in the story an effective leader.

Once each student has shared a story, students compile a list of all the characteristics of an influential leader they identified. Post these characteristics on the walls around the classroom.

3. Blindfold leader game (Stapleton, 2018)

The teacher arranges the students into a single line, and comes up with a starting point and finishing point. Then, the teacher places a blindfold on every student except for the student who is at the front of the line.

The teacher tells each student to put their left hand on the left shoulder of the person in front of them. Next, the teacher says “go”. The aim is for the leader (who is not blindfolded) to walk towards the finishing point, providing instructions to students behind, who are blindfolded.

An extra challenging game sees the teacher putting obstacles in the path – the leader must direct followers on how to avoid the obstacles and successfully reach the finish line. When this goal is achieved, a different student takes a turn of being the leader.

4. Buckets and balls (Cohen, 2017)

This game aims to move all the balls from one box to another. The catch is, team members cannot use their hands or arms. In equal-sized teams, players choose one ‘handler’ per team. This is the only person who can touch the balls with their hands.

The handler must remain behind the start line throughout the game. Team members attempt to get balls from their bucket at the finish line, and get them to the team’s handler without the ball touching their hands or arms.

The handler places the balls into the empty bucket at the start line. If a team member touches the ball, they are disqualified and can no longer participate. Give teams a 5-minute time limit. All teams play at the same time, and the team that has the most balls in the handler’s bucket at the end of the game wins.

5. Team jigsaw (Cohen, 2017)

Two teams have to complete a jigsaw puzzle within a 20 – 30-minute time limit. Give each team a box containing a puzzle. At first, A body will assume that their task is to complete the puzzle. As they work on it, however, teams will realize that the puzzle is missing some of its pieces and has some additional pieces that do not fit their puzzle.

Teams then have the task to communicate with one another, and they will eventually realize that they need to work together to complete the puzzle. Teams are only allowed to exchange pieces of the puzzle one at a time.

6. ‘Sneak-a-peak’ (Cohen, 2017)

Divide participants into two teams. Build a structure out of Lego. Make it complicated, but able to be replicated. Ensure that there is sufficient Lego left to build two similar copies of the structure.

Make sure that this structure is kept out of eyesight.

A player from each team is allowed to see the structure for 10 seconds. Then, the players will return to their respective teams and have 25 seconds in which to give his/her team instruction as to how to build the structure. Then, the teams have 1 minute to build the structure.

When that minute is up, another team member takes a look at the structure for 10 seconds and has a further 25 seconds to deliver their instructions to their team.

This process continues until all the team members have had a chance to examine the structure and provide instructions. The team that successfully built the structure is the winner.

• “ The Leadership Training Activity Book ” by Lois. B. Hart and Charlotte S. Waisman (2005) contains 50 handouts for leadership activities that would be suitable for college students. Find it on Amazon .
• This resource provides helpful leadership tip sheets that are suitable for college students. Examples of tip sheets are “ten keys to effective listening” and “basic confrontation guidelines”.
• Another valuable resource that can be used to develop team-building – an aspect of leadership.

A wide range of leadership activities are suitable for adults:

1. The Marshmallow Challenge

In this activity , teams use spaghetti sticks, tape and string to construct the tallest free-standing structure. They are given one marshmallow, which must be placed at the top of the structure. Devised by Tom Wujec.

2. ‘Stand up’ (Landau, 2018)

This game is convenient in that it requires no materials. It involves two people. They sit on the floor, facing one another. They hold hands, and the soles of their feet are placed together. Then, the task is for both people to stand up at the same time. This game builds trust and teamwork, and also develops skills in problem solving and collaboration.

3. Zoom (Stepshift, 2016)

A set of randomly provided sequential pictures are given to the participants. The task requires participants to put the pictures in the correct order to recreate the story, without knowing which pictures the other participants have. This activity can be an effective way to improve communication, patience, and tolerance.

4. ‘You’re a Poet’ (Landau, 2018)

To harness creativity and reflect on leadership concepts, one activity for adults is to write a poem. This activity can be done individually or in small groups. The aim is to consider leadership in creative ways to find new perspectives.

5. ‘Leadership Pizza’ (Cserti, 2018)

This activity can help adults develop leadership. It does so by providing a self-assessment tool. People begin by identifying the skills, attitudes, and attributes that they consider being important for successful leadership. The individual then rates their own development in the defined areas. The framework can also provide a helpful tool in assisting adults in identifying their leadership development goals in a coaching session.

6. Leadership advice from your role model (Cserti, 2018)

Each participant considers a role model who they admire. They then think about a young person they know. If the young person was to ask the role model for leadership advice, what kind of advice would the role model give?

In groups, discuss and share the sort of advice identified and talk about contradicting points and how they can be reconciled. This sharing discussion may be a practical introduction to the idea of situational leadership.

7. ‘Crocodile River’ (Cserti, 2018)

This outdoor activity challenges a group to physically provide support to the group members’ behavior move from one end of a designated space to the other.

Participants are told to pretend that the whole team must cross a wide river which contains dangerous crocodiles. Magic stones (which are represented by wooden planks) provide the only supports to be used to cross the river (which has ‘banks’ that are marked out by two ropes).

These ‘stones’ only float on the water if there is constant body contact. These ‘stones’ (i.e., the wooden planks) are placed next to the ‘river bank’ – there should be one less plank than the total number of participants. As part of the game, if a participant’s hand or foot touches the ‘water’, it will be bitten off (if this happens during the challenge, the participant must hold the hand behind their back).

The facilitator then pretends to be the ‘crocodile’, keeping a close eye on the group as they attempt to cross the river. When one of the stones (the planks) is not in body contact, it is removed. When participants mistakenly touch the ground with their hands or feet, tell them that the limb has therefore been bitten off and the player must continue without using it.

This activity continues until the group succeeds in getting all group members to the other side of the ‘river’. If anyone falls in, the group is deemed to have failed, and they must begin the river crossing attempt again.

1. ‘Feedback: Start, Stop, Continue’ (Cserti, 2018)

Openness creates trust, which then promotes further openness. This activity is designed to be used by a group that has spent sufficient time together in order to have a range of shared experiences they can draw from when they are providing feedback.

Each participant takes a post-it and writes the name of the person who they are addressing on it. Then, they write on the post-it:

“To…. Something I would like you to START doing is…. something I would like you to STOP doing is…. something I would like you to CONTINUE doing is……Signed: ___________”

In groups of around 4 to 6 people, participants complete these sentences on one post-it for the other participants in their group.

If they cannot think of relevant feedback for one of the prompts (i.e., start, stop, continue), they do not need to include it. Once the group has finished writing, they provide the feedback verbally, one at a time, and afterward hand the post-it to the relevant person.

2. Round Tables (Stepshift, 2016)

Four tables are set up with different tasks. Each task has separate steps that participants can be responsible for carrying out. The group select a team member, who is only allowed to communicate and delegate tasks but not take a part in the task. Each table is timed to record how long the task takes to be completed. Round Tables improves leadership and delegation skills.

3. ‘Pass the hoop’ (Landau, 2018)

This game requires participants to stand in a circle and hold hands. One person in the group has a hula hoop around their arm. The game aims to pass the hula hoop the whole way around the circle.

As well as promoting teamwork and problem-solving, this game develops communication skills. Being able to communicate effectively is a crucial skill for any successful leader to have.

4. ‘Improv night’ (Landau, 2018)

One key responsibility of the leader of a team is to encourage team bonding. One way to facilitate bonding is improvisation. ‘Improv’ develops skills in communication – helping teams to listen and pay attention. It also builds self-awareness, self-confidence, and creativity.

Arrange the group into ‘audience’ and ‘performers’. Then, members of the audience take turns in calling out the specified location, profession, and scenario (e.g., coffeehouse, cop, and purchasing a donut). Chosen suggestions are fun and should promote creativity.

5. ‘Shape-Shifting’ (Landau, 2018)

This game requires a rope that is tied at both ends to form a loop. The loop needs to be big enough for all group members to hold onto with both hands as they stand in a circle. The group is instructed to make a chosen shape (e.g., circle, square, triangle). The group attempts to create the shape on the floor.

Progressively, ask the group to make more complex shapes – e.g., a dog, or a tree. To add another layer of difficulty, instruct the team to communicate without talking – i.e., to rely on hand gestures. Afterward, have the group reflect on their experience and discuss the importance of communication.

Leadership is an integral feature of any workplace. Here are some activities to promote leadership in employees:

1. Your favorite manager (Cserti, 2018)

To begin this activity, employees individually take the role of three different people and brainstorm the particular behaviors that each person’s most favorite and least favorite managers demonstrate, from the chosen person’s perspective. After the employees have had the chance to reflect, the participants compare their list of behaviors – in pairs, and then subsequently, in groups.

The teams then prepare a list of ‘dos and don’ts’ for developing better employee perceptions of the leader’s style.

2. Explore your values (Cserti, 2018)

The values of a leader are reflected in their organization. In this activity, each participant writes ten things that they value most in their lives, each one on a post-it. Then, ask the employees to spread the Post-its in a way in which they can see them all clearly. Then, explain to them that they will have 30 seconds to select the three Post-its that are of least importance to them.

It is essential to time strictly, so that the participants rely on their gut feelings.

Repeat the process, this time allowing participants to have 20 seconds to discard two more values. Finally, give the participants a further 20 seconds to throw another two away. Participants should have three Post-its in front of them, showing their top three important values.

Following the activity, have participants reflect individually for about 15 minutes about what was found, and then to discuss reflection questions in pairs or groups of three.

Because this activity is done quickly, participants are encouraged to follow their own intuition – rather than over-thinking and finding what they perceive to be the ‘right’ values.

3. ‘Leadership Coat of Arms’ (Cserti, 2018; Landau, 2018).

Each leader has their own values and the things that they consider valuable and important. These values guide the behavior of the leader and make up a person’s unique leadership philosophy.

This activity sees participants drawing their own ‘leadership coat of arms’ embodying their leadership philosophy.

Individuals have 10 – 15 minutes to draw their coat of arms. They can divide the coat of arms (or ‘crest’) into four sections. To fill each section, consider the categories of leadership skills, values that help influence others, recent achievements/accomplishments and what you like most about your current work.

They should be encouraged not to be overly concerned with how visually appealing their picture is but rather that it expressed what they personally believe to be important aspects of a leader.

Once the drawings are complete, the participants can show their drawings to the others in the group and explain their unique coat of arms. It is also helpful to reflect on the activity – consider which section was easiest to complete and whether your crest reflects your company’s values.

4. Communication: Coach the Builder (Goyette, 2016)

Divide employees into groups of four to seven people. Each group should be given two sets of blocks (such as Lego). Each set should have a minimum of 10 blocks.

Beforehand, you should construct a sample object (e.g., a house) from one of the sets of blocks. In each group, select a leader, a delegator, a builder and a note-taker. The note-taker watches and records the group’s behavior during the task. They take note of what appeared to be done well and how employees could improve.

The leader is given the item that you built – however, they are the only group member to see the object. Set a timer for ten minutes. To begin with, the leader describes to the delegator how the builder should build a replica of the item. However, the delegator does not see the object, and at this stage of the activity, the builder should not hear the instructions.

The delegator can speak with the leader as often as necessary during the 10 minutes. The builder attempts to build the same item that the leader can see. However, they are only relying on the delegator’s instructions. At this stage, the delegator should not see the object that the builder is constructing.

When the time is up, reveal both objects to all participants and see how closely they match. Finally, to wrap up the activity, employees can discuss what was either frustrating or easy about the process and discuss how they may do things differently in order to achieve better results.

5. Accountability (Goyette, 2016)

Begin a meeting by saying to the group – “the seating arrangement is totally wrong for today’s meeting. You have 60 seconds to improve it”. If the employees ask further questions, only repeat the instructions. While some employees may continue asking questions, others may start moving the furniture around straight away. Observe the team and what they do without giving any further information, feedback, or instructions.

After 1 minute, let the employees know to stop. Then, ask them whether the objective was achieved, and how. Discuss with employees how and why a lack of clarity makes it challenging to complete a task.

Then, discuss who asked for clarification and how they felt when the leader refused to give further details. Use this opportunity to highlight to employees how if they fail to ask questions, and when the person in charge of a project doesn’t provide the necessary clarification, the whole team is at risk of making mistakes or even not completing a task.

Finally, ask how the time pressure affected behavior. Discuss how employees may be more likely to respond to pressure, or stress, by taking action without first confirming a plan and the significant problems this approach can lead to.

6. The “what if” game (Deputy, 2018)

Present different hypothetical problematic scenarios to employees. Either individually or by providing a document that requires written answers, present situations such as “you didn’t follow the rules, and subsequently lost an important client. You have lost a lot of money for the company. How do you justify this? What is your solution?”.

The questions only need to be rough, and employees should only receive a short time with which to think of their responses. If there is a particularly challenging question, provide a time limit of five minutes.

7. ‘Silver Lining’ (Cohen, 2017)

Employees form teams of at least two people who have shared a work experience – e.g., working on a project together. One person shares an experience from working together that was negative for them.

Then, the second person reflects on the same experience but instead reflects on the positive aspects of the experience (i.e., the ‘ silver lining ’). Then this same person shares their own negative experience, and this time it is up to the other person to focus on the positive aspects of it.

Often, when people reflect on an experience, they do so with a particular perspective . By looking at the positive aspects of a ‘negative’ experience, this helps individuals shift perspectives. Furthermore, by sharing experiences, employees develop deeper relationships, and team bonding is promoted.

8. My favorite brand (Training Course Material, n.d.).

Ask employees to bring three or four printed logos/brands that they use regularly or admire most. Then, form groups of 3 – 4 people. Teams have a period of ten minutes to share and discuss their chosen logos.

Their task is to agree upon the team’s top 2 logos or brands which is their team’s choice. The team also selects a team spokesperson who will report to the bigger group about why the team chose the specific brands/logos.

Participants are encouraged to share personal experiences or stories that they had with their chosen brand. After the ten minutes elapses, each spokesperson presents the logos that the team began with as well as their two top chosen logos/brands. It is their role to explain to the group why the team voted on their top brand/logo.

1. Manager or leader? (Training Course Material, n.d.)

Small groups of managers work together to create two tables, one titled ‘leader’ and one titled ‘manager’. In each table, the group writes statements describing either management behavior or leadership behavior.

For example, the ‘manager’ table may contain statements such as “schedules work to be done” or “delegates tasks”. On the other hand, statements in the ‘leader’ table could be “motivating staff” and “creating culture”.

The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate to managers the difference between management versus leadership, and show that while ‘every leader can be a manager, not every manager can be a leader’. However, by brainstorming leadership behaviors, managers begin the process of becoming a successful leader.

2. The race of the leaders (Deputy, 2018)

This activity encourages leadership behaviors. To begin with, write a list of leadership qualities – approximately 10 – 20 statements – on a piece of paper. Describe the qualities – e.g., ‘I determine everything that happens to me’, and ‘I will not blame others for my problems’.

Read these statements out loud, and participants take a step forward if they believe a statement describes them. They must be prepared to give reasons as to why they think they possess each quality. Continue reading the statements until there is a definite ‘winner’.

3. The best team member (Training Course Material, n.d.).

Divide the group into teams of about 4 – 5 participants. Give each team a large, blank piece of paper and markers. Each group has the task to come up with as many characteristics of their ‘ideal’ team member as they can. Teams should consider what this ‘best team member ever’ would be like.

After ten minutes, the groups should examine the characteristics that they have written and work out the portion which are ‘technical’ skills and those which are ‘interpersonal’. The aim is to work out whether most of the traits can be classified as technical or interpersonal skills.

Teams usually come to realize that interpersonal skills in employees are especially critical and that these have a tremendous impact on the quality and quantity of workplace performance.

This activity can be adapted according to the setting. For example, if the focus is on leadership development, teams could discuss their ideal leader/supervisor.

4. The importance of feedback (Training Course Material, n.d.).

Divide the group into three teams. Provide each team with poster paper and markers or pens.

Team A is required to consider as many reasons as they can that would make them apprehensive to provide feedback to another person.

Team B is asked to consider what feedback can help them so, i.e., what feedback will help them accomplish.

Team C comes up with as many things as they can that would make a feedback session effective.

Each team has 15 minutes to brainstorm their ideas, then, each team can present their ideas.

Point out to Team A that the hurdles they suggested are self-imposed ideas that will lead to the manager fearing the worst. Instead, managers should be encouraged to share feedback on a more regular basis to gain the necessary experience in having such conversations. Furthermore, by having an awareness of the most effective way to prepare and deliver feedback can help a manager conquer the issues holding them back.

Point out to Team B that providing constructive feedback as needed is imperative for developing a productive work environment. A feedback discussion that is well-planned and thought out delivers an opportunity to share what you have noticed about another person’s job performance and bring about productive change.

Finally, after Team C has shared their ideas, point out that effective feedback is specific, honest, and backed up with evidence. The feedback will help others to come up with goals, make and reinforce positive changes, promote self-confidence and encourage action in the workplace.

Thank all the teams for their participation and input.

5. ‘Shark Tank’ (Deputy, 2018).

This activity is derived from a famous TV show that gives people a chance to show their entrepreneurial skills. Managers may work individually or in groups. The aim of this activity is for employees to come up with a business plan that outlines the steps of how to build a successful company from ‘startup’.

Once the managers have a plan, they can create a ‘pitch’, which should contain the brand’s name, its’ tagline (or slogan), a detailed business plan, a detailed marketing plan, financial predictions (sales, profits and market) and potential problems (competition, lack of resources).

In a role play, appoint a few chosen managers to be the ‘sharks’ (the ones who consider the projects’ merit and offer imaginary ‘investments’). The winning group, or individual, is the one who raised the most money from the ‘shark’.

17 Exercises To Build Positive Leaders

Use these 17 Positive Leadership Exercises [PDF] to help others inspire, motivate, and guide employees in ways that enrich workplace performance and satisfaction. Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

1. The Human Icebreaker (Stepshift, 2016).

This is a simple activity that can alleviate tension and promote discussion and contribution. Participants devise a list of questions that relate to people generally – for example, “who is left-handed?”. Participants then discover which team members meet the question’s criteria. After 10 minutes, the participant who has the most answers wins. This activity promotes communication and helps team members build inter-personal skills.

2. ‘Office trivia’ (Cohen, 2017)

This quick activity can help as an ice-breaker and provides a flexible option for team building. Create a list of trivia questions that are related to the workplace. For example, “how many people named ‘John’ work in the accounting department?” or, “how many people work in the IT department?”. Read the questions out loud to the whole group. The employee with the most correct answers at the end is the winner.

3. Plane crash (Stepshift, 2016)

The participants imagine that they are on a plane which has crashed on a deserted island. They are allowed to select a specified number of items from around the workplace that would help the group to survive. Each chosen item is ranked in importance. The whole group must agree on their decision. This activity helps with creative problem solving and collaboration.

4. ‘Magazine story’ (Cohen, 2017)

Each team works together to come up with an imaginary cover story of a magazine, about a successful project or business achievement. The team designs the images, headlines, and come up with quotes.

5. The Human Knot (Stepshift, 2016)

Relying on cooperation, this is a good problem-solving and communication activity. Participants stand shoulder to shoulder in a circle. Then, they put their right hand in the hand of a person who stands across from them. They then put their left hand in the hand of another different person (but not someone standing directly next to them).

Participants are required to untangle the human knot without breaking the chain. If the chain is broken, the participants must start over.

6. Make your own movie (Cohen, 2017)

This is a fun activity that is suitable for both indoors and outdoors. Although it requires the necessary equipment (i.e., camera, tripod, and microphone), teams enjoy it. Employees should work in large groups (more than eight people) and divide responsibilities. Teams work together to come up with scripts for a 5 – 7-minute movie.

7. Radio Play (Cohen, 2017)

This activity can provide an alternative to making a movie. Employees work together, spending about one-hour planning and writing a play and taking a further 15 – 20 minutes to ‘perform’ it, keeping in mind that it is designed for radio.

Each participant places their chair, in no particular order, around the room. The room should be cleared of tables and other furniture. Each person should sit on their chair, pointing in a different direction. Then, request one manager to volunteer and come to the front of the room. Their task is to walk slowly back to their empty chair and sit down.

If their chair is occupied, they can move to the next empty chair available and sit on it. However, everyone else has the task of stopping the volunteer from sitting down.

Only one person at a time can stand and move. No one can make two consecutive moves. A person cannot sit on the chair that they have just left. Once the activity begins, the room is required to be silent. No one is allowed to touch the volunteer.

Give the managers 2 minutes to come up with their strategy. After every round, the participants should discuss what happened and select a new volunteer for the next round. The team is given 2 minutes preparation time each round. It is important that the volunteer’s movement is kept at a slow walk.

At the conclusion of the activity, it is beneficial for the team to discuss the activity. They may reflect upon whether they need a leader, what made planning difficult, whether everyone agreed on the plan, and what would make the task easier.

9. Back to back drawing (Cohen, 2017)

Provide vector shapes on separate pieces of paper (they can be shapes of signs, objects or merely abstract shapes). Participants sit in pairs, back-to-back. Employee A is given a sheet of paper and a pen, and employee B is provided with one of the printed shapes.

The aim of the activity is for employee A to draw the shape relying only on verbal instructions from employee B. Person B cannot only tell the other person what the shape is – he/she is only able to provide directions about how to draw it, or to describe its uses. Each team has two 2 minutes to draw the shape.

10. ‘All Aboard’ (Stepshift, 2016).

Teams use various materials, for example, pieces of wood or mats, to build a pretend ‘boat’. All the participants must stand on the ‘boat’ at once. Then, pieces of the ‘boat’ should be removed. The team should still strive to stand in the diminished space on the ‘boat’. All Aboard can promote communication, problem-solving and critical thinking.

11. Body of words (Cohen, 2017)

Participants are divided into teams of between four and eight people, and each team elects one leader. To prepare the activity, record words that have one less letter than the number of people in the team (i.e., if there are five people in the team, a suitable word could be ‘book’ which has four letters). Randomly select a word, and then the teams have the task of making the word using only their bodies.

Each team member moves and bends their body to form a letter. The team leader can direct their team.

What stands out to me from this article is the complexity of leadership. This article demonstrates that even if one is not a ‘natural’ leader, there are plenty of activities that can promote leadership skills. Even children can develop leadership, and what’s more, have fun with activities at the same time.

What do you think espouses leadership? Do you think that there are people who might tend to be leaders more than others? Perhaps you have a story about a leadership activity you have participated in or delivered – I would dearly like to hear about your experiences.

Thank you for reading.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Leadership Exercises for free .

• ‘tony’ (2018). Leadership games and activities for middle school students . Retrieved from https://www.kidsactivties.net/leadership-games-activities-for-middle-school-students/
• Clark, Donald (2015). Leadership Styles Activity . Retrieved from www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/styles.html
• Cohen, Esther (2017). 31 Team building activities your team will actually love . Retrieved from https://www.workamajig.com/blog/team-building-activities
• Cserti, Robert (2018). 12 Effective leadership activities and games . Retrieved from https://www.sessionlab.com/blog/leadership-activities/
• Deputy (2018). 6 Impactful leadership activities to try at work . Retrieved from https://www.deputy.com/blog/6-impactful-leadership-activities-to-try-at-work
• Doyle, A. (2019). Top 10 leadership skills employers look for . Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-leadership-skills-2063782
• Edsys (2016). 1 0 Activities for teachers to grow leadership skills in children . Retrieved from https://www.edsys.in/10-activities-for-teachers-to-grow-leadership-skills-in-children/
• Flavin, B. (2018). 8 Leadership Experiences You Didn’t Know You Already Have . Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-life/leadership-experience-you-didnt-know-you-already-have/
• Goyette, P.(2016). 3 Leadership activities that improve employee performance at all levels . Retrieved from https://www.eaglesflight.com/blog/3-leadership-activities-that-improve-employee-performance-at-all-levels
• Higgins, R. (2018). 5 Fun and Inspirational Leadership Workshop Ideas . Retrieved from https://www.eventbrite.com.au/blog/leadership-workshop-ideas-ds00
• Johnson-Gerard, M. (2017). Situational Leadership Games . Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/list-6762581-situational-leadership-games.html
• Landau, P. (2018). The 9 best leadership games for skill development . Retrieved from https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/the-9-best-leadership-games
• Stapleton, S. (2018). Leadership activities for High School classrooms . Retrieved from https://classroom.synonym.com/leadership-activities-high-school-classrooms-7855904.html
• Stepshift (2016). Leadership Training Activities . Retrieved from https://www.stepshift.co.nz/blog/developing-team-performance-with-senior-leadership-teams/strategic-planning-with-an-independent-facilitator/leadership-training-activities.html
• The Pennsylvania State University (2012). I can be a leader! Leadership fun for children . Retrieved from https://extension.psu.edu/programs/betterkidcare/knowledge-areas/environment-curriculum/activities/all-activities/i-can-be-a-leader-leadership-fun-for-children
• Training Course Material (n.d.). Leadership and management activities . Retrieved from https://www.trainingcoursematerial.com/free-games-activities/leadership-and-management-activities

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This great. Thank you

Great ideas, thank you!

Thank you so much for providing such a useful list of activities to demonstrate and for such a varied target population. Innovative and attention-seeking exercises yet practical.

Thank you for posting this informative blog. keep sharing.

Too interesting for me to try all.

Great article! Having group activities Melbourne helps the team to enhance working together. I love how it brings people together and motivates employees to learn from each other.

Great activities. Thank you.

This is an excellent article for every manager and leader tn build successful leadership. Thank you.

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