leadership is people sitting in circles sharing stories about failure and success

A client was holding a significant internal networking event that consisted of ~200 employees worldwide, all meeting to discuss the future of work, plus how the company and each person can support leadership and development internally.

Support in the Workplace:

  1. Share an example of you or another person you know feeling support within the workplace?
  2. What did that support look like? How did you or the other person notice this?
  3. How did you or the other person react to this support?
  4. Who else noticed this happening?
  5. What about your experience do you feel other people should know?
  6. You are sharing this example with your current or future grandchildren, what would you want them to remember – what is the moral of your story?

Leadership

  1. Share a recent example you were a part of or that you noticed happened to someone else of leadership? Was this experience one you would like to have happen more often?
  2. In your example, was a focus on the task, the team, the individual?
  3. In your example, you or the other person was motivated by autonomy, mastery, competence?
  4. What behaviors do you feel would make the workplace better within your company (or immediate circle of impact)? How do you know those behaviors would make a difference? What will you see when difference happens?

Career Paths

  1. Share an example of your own or someone else’s experience moving up or progressing in their career?
  2. How did the person in your example make progress happen?
  3. What part did their employer play in that progress?
  4. In your example(s), decisions were made focusing on the present, hope for the future, values of the past? Share some context around your response?
  5. How would you behave differently in your current workplace if you knew that failure and stagnation were your future? What are you currently exhibiting from those behaviors, even a little bit?
  6. What will you notice or what progress clues will you see when you are on a better career path?

Creativity and Applied Innovation

  1. Share an example of when you or someone you know had a creative idea that would help your current manager or employer?
  2. How was this idea greeted? From that greeting, did that motivate you or the person or demotivate you or the person?
  3. In your example, the main problem was staff burnout, poor communications, or lack of resources? Share some context around your answer?
  4. In the past, when you found creative ways to make progress in your work, what did you do, and how did you make it happen?
  5. With your example(s), how might you have approached your manager or employer differently to gain more support?