ACTIVITIES WITHIN TEAM LEADERSHIP TWO-DAY TRAINING COURSE

Individual Aims and Objectives

Here, delegates note down what they hope to gain from the training and also, as the course progresses, the learning points that they will use as the basis for the Personal Action Planning which will be undertaken at the conclusion of the two days.

Completion of Motivation Questionnaire

The delegates are given a questionnaire which lists 11 factors relating to their current roles, for example job satisfaction, job security, salary, working conditions etc, and are asked to rank the factors in order of importance to them personally.  They then hand the questionnaires back to the Course Director who analyses them and returns them on Day Two.  Although the delegates are not aware at this stage, the various factors all relate to Hertzberg’s Approach to Motivation which is the subject of a presentation on the second day.

Team Exercise – ‘Cards’

'Cards' is a very simple exercise whereby each team of delegates are given a box containing three packs of cards that have been totally mixed up. Their task is to sort them by packs, suits, aces to twos. This is the first exercise on the course and is the only one where none of the team is allocated the leadership role. The aim of the exercise is to see how effectively they work as a team to meet the given objective - the team dynamics. In the resulting debrief, issues are considered such as: how the team worked together; whether the objective was met; whether everyone contributed; if anyone took the lead; and, most importantly, if the task would have been more successfully completed if someone had been allocated the leader's role.  Its overall objective is, however, to get the delegates thinking about the leadership of tasks, in advance of all the remaining practical exercises where one of them is allocated the leader's role and another acts as the observer of the leader's and the team's performance.

Group discussion – ‘What Makes an Effective Leader?’

The groups discuss the question together and subsequently explain their thoughts in a plenary discussion that follows.  The Course Director translates their points on to a flip-chart, identifying those that are common to all groups.  He then leads a discussion; the object of which is to stimulate initial thoughts about what makes a leader.  The discussion will identify that this simple question can produce a variety of answers – which will be developed as the course continues. 

Presentation - The Three Approaches to Leadership: Qualities, Situational, Functional

This presentation by the Course Director follows very logically from the previous group discussion because it is likely that the plenary discussion identified what makes leaders effective based on:  their qualities; the situation they face; and/or what they actually do.  In other words, the three approaches to leadership: Qualities, Situational and Functional.  The presentation continues to consider the advantages and disadvantages of these three approaches.

Leadership Ex 1 – ‘Jigsaw’

This is the first of the leadership exercises, all of which follow the same format:  one member of each group volunteers to lead the team through the exercise whilst another volunteers to formally observe the leader’s performance according to strict guidelines provided by the Course Director.  Following the allocated time-scale for the exercise, during which the leader may or may not have completed the task, the group is led through a very formal debrief structure designed to ensure that every team member has the opportunity to voice his or her thoughts about how the exercise was led by the team leader and undertaken by the team.  Following each group’s debrief, the Course Director holds a plenary session to draw out the leadership messages resulting from the groups’ and the leaders’ performances.  The leadership exercises get increasingly complex as the course develops, as do the requirements of the observers.

In this particular leadership exercise, Jigsaw, the leader is required to lead the team to achieve the objective of completing three jigsaws, all the pieces of which are mixed up in one box.

Presentation - Action Centred Leadership ®

Action Centred Leadership ®is the approach to leadership conceived by John Adair – with whom The School for Hospitality Leadership has worked to design this training programme.  The Course Director is also accredited by The Adair Leadership Foundation to deliver this course.  John Adair is one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject of leadership.

Action Centred Leadership ®is based on Adair’s famous three-circle model that recognises a leader’s role to meet the needs of the task, the team, and the individual.  In this presentation, the Course Director considers the impact on the remaining two circles if one of them (perhaps the team needs) is not met.  The overall aim of this presentation is to stress to delegates that they must give appropriate attention to the needs of the task, the team and the individual if they are to successfully fulfil their roles as team leaders.

Leadership Ex 2 – ‘Mr Men’

Here the team, led by one of its members, is required to reconstruct the pages of three children’s books that have been all mixed together.

Presentation - McGregor’s X-Y Theory

This presentation explores the theme of motivation, as considered by Douglas McGregor, who sought to demonstrate that the assumptions which leaders make about human behaviour and human nature have a profound effect on the way they lead their people.  In brief, he polarised these assumptions into two extremes:  Theory X and Theory Y.  Theory X managers base their approach to leadership on control and lack of trust; whilst Theory Y managers believe individuals will perform better if respected for their honesty and abilities.  The presentation explains both theories in detail and explores the implication in respect of the hospitality industry.

Presentation - Adair’s Eight Points on Motivation

After asking the group what they think motivates people at work, the Course Director will reveal, and explain, the eight points that John Adair believes are the most significant motivational factors. 

Leadership Ex 3 – ‘The Coat of Arms’

The team is required to design a Coat of Arms based on a template provided.  The template has five areas in which the leader and team are required to draw on the flip-chart pictorial representations of what they believe makes great leadership.  Whilst this is a fun exercise, its aim is to clarify in delegates’ minds what they believe are the fundamental principles of leadership.  The exercise ends with each group explaining to the others the reasoning behind their drawing.

Read leadership paper by Alan Cutler

In the evening, delegates are invited to read a paper written by Alan Cutler, Principal of the School for Hospitality Leadership, as part of the process of becoming accredited to the Adair Leadership Foundation

DAY TWO

Presentation - Leadership Functions

After a reminder of what was learnt on the first day, the programme continues with a presentation that develops the theme of Action Centred Leadership’s three circles of Task, Team and Individual, and explores the functions a leader has to undertake to fulfil these common needs, for example: planning, briefing, monitoring, and reviewing. 

Leadership Exercise 4 – ‘The Matrix’

Leadership Exercise 4 requires the groups to complete a table that relates the leadership functions explained in the previous presentation to the three needs of team, task and individual.  In practice, each team is given an A1 sized board with a table containing the names of the functions down the left hand side and the three needs across the top.  They have a box of statements printed on cards, for example, ‘Check understanding’, ‘Keep parties informed of progress’, ‘Always remain positive’ etc and they have to decide where each should be positioned on the table in relation to the given functions and the three needs.

Presentation - Hertzberg’s Approach to Motivation

This presentation informs delegates about a very famous and well respected approach to motivation, often called Hertzberg’s Hygiene Factors.  It seeks to identify which factors of a person’s work role offer the opportunity for a leader to increase the team members’ motivation.  It suggests that the really effective motivation factors are, for example, job satisfaction, responsibility and recognition; rather than working conditions, status, or even salary levels.

Return of Motivation Questionnaire

Here, delegates are given back their individual copies of the questionnaire they completed at the beginning of day one, along with an analysis of the returns from all their colleagues on the course. It is highly likely that they, as individuals, as well as a group, will have stated that they are motivated by the very factors that Hertzberg suggests are the most influential. This is a very powerful reinforcement of Hertzberg’s theory as the delegates’ questionnaires will have proven the validity of the principles it proposes.

Leadership Ex 5 – ‘The Tower Contract’

This exercise is more complex than previous ones and contains two distinct phases.  In the planning phase, the group leaders are given a box of Lego bricks and have to plan, in consultation with their teams, how they will build a tower as high as possible with the minimum of  bricks, specifying many bricks they will use and how long the construction will take.  At the end of this phase they submit a written proposal to the Course Director.

The construction phase then requires each leader and team to construct the tower according to their submitted proposal.  They are assessed on how they met their estimates in terms of height, numbers of bricks and time taken, as well as how the leader applied the leadership functions in accordance with the needs of the team, task and individuals.

Presentation - The Role of a Leader

This presentation develops still further Adair’s three circles model by considering how leaders should meet the common needs of the task, the team and the individual by achieving the task; building and maintaining the team; and developing the individual. It concludes by considering the practical applications that leaders can take to completely fulfil their role.

Leadership Ex 6 – ‘Broadcast’

Broadcast is another fun exercise, but one that poses specific challenges for the exercise leader.  Each group is given a tape recorder and is required to record a three minute prime-time broadcast for the BBC – the purpose of which is to raise money for a hypothetical national charity devoted to supporting worthwhile causes associated with the hospitality industry.  Each group has 30 minutes to design and record the broadcast, after which it is played back in the following plenary session – causing much hilarity!  The exercise does, however, require leaders to motivate their teams to participate in an exercise that many of them may be loath to do. 

Audio Presentation – Servant Leadership

The group listen to part of an audio tutorial recorded by one of the world’s leading authorities on Servant Leadership, James C Hunter.  Hunter is an enthusiastic and passionate advocate of Servant Leadership, which is demonstrated admirably in this recording.  In particular, he considers how leaders use their power and authority in the fulfilment of their roles.  In essence, Hunter describes the use of power as a dictatorial approach, based on managerial position, which easily destroys relationships.  Conversely, inspirational leaders develop authority as a means of persuading people to do their will as a result of their supportive personalities.  The Course Director then follows the audio presentation with instruction on the 11 principles of Servant Leadership. 

Presentation-  ‘Leadership Recipes’ -  Learning the Lessons from the Hospitality Leadership Excellence Survey

Here, the Course Director briefs the course on the findings of the first ever research project into leadership within the hospitality industry, created and led by Alan Cutler in association with Bournemouth University .  The group are informed of the reasoning behind the research, how it was conducted and, most importantly, the outcomes resulting from it.  The research findings have been accepted internationally as offering a unique insight into the leadership challenges specific to the hospitality industry and how its inspirational leaders rise to meet them. 

Leadership Ex 7 – ‘Letterpoint’

This last leadership exercise is perhaps the most complex of all in that it, again, requires leaders to oversee both a planning stage and a completion stage, but this time the task is to complete as many words as possible from a box containing 100 Scrabble tiles.  Their objective is, not only to complete as many words as possible, but also to estimate both the time it will take and the number of unused letters remaining.  During the planning stage, the leaders complete a Proposal Form that identifies the number of words they believe their team can construct in a given time and, according a points matrix, how many points they hope to achieve at the end of the completion stage.

Personal Action Planning

The delegates are provided with an Action Planning sheet on which they are encouraged to list up to four leadership objectives they would like to achieve as a result of completing this training programme, along with the actions required to achieve them, a feasible time frame and, finally, how they will measure when each objective has been achieved.  This provides an appropriate culmination of the programme by the delegates giving an undertaking to practically apply the leadership lessons they have learned on the course and hence improve their personal leadership skills for the benefit of their organisation. 

Course Evaluation

The delegates are required to complete evaluation forms that will be subsequently analysed and sent to the client organisation.  See the average evaluation scores and comments from evaluation sheets completed for recent courses at the bottom of main page.

Presentation of Certificates

A highly motivational ending to a highly motivational course!

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