Leadership Reflection Chain – Training Game

Spit your group into two teams. Explain that they are going to play a game called ‘Leadership Reflection Chain’.

The game aims to create some mini-leadership stories, to get you thinking about what makes you the leader you are, and to show how your personal experience connects to others’ experience.

The first person in each team will share an interesting memory or experience that they have had as a leader. For example:

• “I decided I wanted to be a leader after experiencing the leadership of ‘Mrs Bloggs’; she always supported me and pushed me to do my best.”

Any person in the team can go next, but their statement must connect with the previous one shared. For example:

• “It’s great to have someone that looks out for you, encouraging you to succeed. I remember doing some management training and being pushed to use the stuff I learnt after I got back to work; it was hard, but it made a big difference to my confidence.”

The next person might then say:

• “I struggled with confidence at first. It’s hard going from a team member to a team leader. I made a few mistakes, but was fortunate that I was allowed and encouraged to learn from my mistakes, to help me improve.”

This process goes on until each person has shared at least one item that will connect to the other mini-stories in the group.

The examples must be based on real experience. Each team will be presenting their leadership chain to the other group.

Each person can add more than one experience to your chain. At the end of the game, the group with the longest connected chain of stories is the winner.

They have 15 minutes to complete their chain.

Once the time has elapsed, ask each group to share their chain.