Management Exercise: The Boss From Hell!

Purpose

This is a fun exercise to be used in team leading courses, project management courses or even communication skills training. This activity helps delegate to gain a better understanding of unhelpful traits in a leader and the reason behind theses unwanted behaviours.

Objective

Participants to suggest what are some undesirable traits in a leader or a manager.

What You Need

• Colourful marker pens
• A flipchart sheet or a sheet of “magic whiteboard” for each group

Setup

• Split the group into pairs or teams of three.
• Each group has ten minutes to visually describe what would be the characteristics and behaviours of their nightmare boss or managers, for example an angry face would represent a miserable boss.

Timing

Explaining the Test: 5 minutes.

Activity: 10 minutes

Group Feedback: 20 minutes.

Discussion

Ask each team to explain their drawings and what they represent. Encourage a discussion on why the mentioned traits are negative and how they affect those involved in the job or project. What are the reasons behind some of these behaviours and how can employees deal with them.