Leadership Skills Exercise: Help Others to Increase Their Self-Esteem

Purpose

A leader’s performance is defined by how he or she leads others. For others to follow a leader, it is critical for them to know that they are valued. The sense of significance and knowing that what they do has a benefit to the overall objective is a significant motivation. Hence, leaders must actively and routinely take steps to show that they value their team members and that team members’ effort are well appreciated.

This exercise helps delegates to learn how to achieve this as leaders. It encourages specific actions on their behalf as opposed to vague strategies, so that they know precisely what to do for each member of their team.

Objective

Identify what you can do to make your followers feel important and see the importance of tasks given to them more clearly.

What You Need

• A copy of the “Values Form” provided below for each delegate.

Setup

• Distribute the “Values Form” to all delegates.
• Explain the purpose of this exercise by stating that leaders must make their followers feel valued so they are more motivated to carry out their duties while also knowing that they are contributing to the whole.
• Ask each delegate to go through the forms. Ask them to first identify a number of people who are their followers. Next answer the two main questions on values.
• It is critical for delegates to be very specific about what they state here. Vague remarks are not allowed. Here are some examples:
• Good Examples:
  • “I will ask Jane to present at the next critical progress meeting to explain that I expect her performance to make a positive impression on our client and it will be really valuable to the team”
  • “I will get John to come to my office tomorrow and talk about his new proposal on expanding the department”
  • “I will ask Peter to create a quick draft of the new software architecture that we discussed over lunch last week”
  • “At the next weekly meeting with the team, I will explain how important the new project is to the future of our company and how our efforts fits with the current industry trends over the next 5 to 10 years
• Bad Examples:
  • “I will explain to Mary how important her role is”
  • “I will tell others that Max is an important team member”
  • “I will tell Albert that he is doing a good job”
• Allocate 10 to 15 minutes for this part.
• Get back everyone together and ask them to share some examples of actions they identified. Get others to comment on the quality of these actions and also observe to make sure the actions are appropriate and are not vague.
• Follow with a discussion.

Timing

Explaining the Exercise: 5 minutes.

Activity: 15 minutes

Group Feedback: 15 minutes.

Discussion

Was it easy to come up with new ideas on helping others to see the value of their work? What new methods did you learn from other delegates? How critical is it to continuously emphasise the importance of tasks? What can you do to elevate task that are usually seen as routine? How important is it to write these actions down?

Values Form

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