Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 4, Session 1: What is a Leader? | Page 8 of 91- Then choose discussion questions for the whole group, as appropriate, from the following:
Note: Among the discussion questions, those in BOLD are the most important.Which people are you surprised to see listed as leaders?
What common leadership qualities do you see among the leaders?
What new leadership qualities should we add to our list?
Which leaders do you find most inspiring and why?
If you could ask any of these leaders a question, what would you ask?Note: The discussion questions in “The Best Leaders” Step 6 are a partial assessment of Learning Objective 1.- If you have time, you can ask participants to think silently for two minutes about the leadership
qualities they personally have now and the qualities they would like to strengthen. Ask if one or two
people would like to share what they identified.
B. Summary
Conclude the exercise by saying:
“It’s really important to identify the qualities of good leadership so we can learn to use those qualities
in our own situations. Knowing examples of leaders and how they use their best leadership qualities can
help us learn how to be more effective leaders ourselves. And when you find yourself with an
opportunity to lead, you can ask yourself, ‘What would my favorite leader do?’”IV. Application ( 20 minutes)
Materials:
Handout 2: Leading in Different Situations (cut in half so Group A gets the top half and Group B gets the
bottom half)
A. Situational Leadership
Participants identify situations that call for different approaches to leadership.
- Explain the situational nature of leadership. Say:
“We have talked about the qualities of leadership and you have identified some people who act on
those qualities as leaders. Now I would like you to think about whether there are certain leadership
qualities that work better in some situations than in others.”- Divide participants into two groups. Designate one-half of the participants as Group A and the other
half as Group B. Give each group the appropriate half of Handout 2: Leading in Different Situations.
Say:
“Each group has a quotation by a successful leader. They are very different, yet they both provide
important advice for leaders.Will someone from each group to read their quote aloud?