Great Strategies for Doing the New Leadership Exercises

What you can learn from previous classes

Alexander Hunziker, July 2022 /updated Sept 2023, Jan 2024

Here’s the challenge

“None of these exercises were difficult. What was difficult was getting myself to do them. I found that
surprising. – And surprising was, how well they worked for me. Without telling me in words, they gave
me a clear guideline for being a better leader. And for keeping up my own development.”
(Quote of a former student)

Here are nine strategies employed by students from previous classes

1. Preparing oneself

• I read everything through at the beginning. Because some planning is involved, and I needed
to get a clear picture.

• I read the assignments thoroughly at the beginning of each week. Because not all of the
exercises can be done in any mood or independently of others.

• I was taking notes on finished tasks in fixed weekly time slots. Because taking notes and
reflections are an important part and otherwise, I’d easily forget them.

2. Using reminders

• Alarm-clock reminders on phone

• Reminders in outlook

• Using Post-its as reminders.

3. Planning according to your own style

• I do exercises in the morning. (Because then the clarity of my mind is at its peak.)

• I do exercises while working. (Because it is possible to make time and it’s done when I leave
the office.)

• I do exercises - or at least the reflection part - while commuting. (Because it is easy to form
such a habit and it does not really consume any leisure time.)

• I do exercises right after work. (Because if I start something else first, it takes more energy.)

• I do exercises after a walk after work. (Because I need to relax before I can start.)

4. Organizing the note taking

• I put down notes immediately when the experience is fresh.

• I use a dedicated booklet for these notes.

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 • I use audio-notes on my smartphone.

• I put down notes when I have the time and mindset to deeply remember what happened, what
my feelings and thoughts were und what I have observed (or not).

5. Using the energy of the moment

• Whenever it came to my mind that I should do the exercises, instead of deliberating whether I
felt like now it or not, I started a slow but steady countdown in my head – known that I will
start the exercise when I reach zero and I have just these 10 seconds to do some the
arrangements.

6. Changing one’s attitude

• At first I looked at it as something that I had to do and it was hard. Then I looked at it as
something I wanted to do and it became easy.

• At the beginning I expected to see immediate results. When that didn’t happen, doing the next
exercise was hard. After I realized what was happening, I decided to let go of expectations,
and to open up to whatever an exercise is telling me at that specific time and leave it’s
evaluation to end of the semestre.

• Doing the exercises in the morning was a bit stressful, since I often wake up late. So I switched
to doing them during the work day. I observed that thus they switched from being a task to
being a break. The exercises became my “daily 10-minutes-vacation”. This felt good and even
enhanced my work performance.

7. Energizing oneself

• I connected with the deeper meaning of the exercises. Acknowledging that - at a deep level - I
actually wanted to do them was helpful.

• I connected with my willingness to learn and with my trust in the teachers. I found it helpful
just to reminding myself that I am here to learn and that I trust my teachers. After doing that,
and especially after remembering the best moments of the on-campus sessions, I felt more
motivated.

• I talked with friends and with my life partner about the exercises. I even involved them.
(Because it gave me more energy and support.)

• I frequently looked back at what had worked well.

• I thought of how I could use my personal signature strengths to get an exercise done. Every
time I found a way, doing the task was “piece of cake”.

• I always looked back at what I learned in the last exercise to motivate myself for the next.

• I concentrated on enjoying what I like most. I am not so disciplined, but I like self-reflection,
thus with every exercise that I had to plan and execute I told myself, I will be able to self-
reflect afterwards.

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8. General strategies

• Forming a team: I teamed up with some of my classmates and had regular exchanges about
the exercises. This helped me to keep track of everything. It also helped me to feel more
relaxed about difficulties, as others encountered them as well. And generally, it is good for me
to know we ware several people supporting each other.

• Reacting to results: I realized that had forgotten to do the exercises for the whole week, thus
I changed my strategy. Since just thinking, “I want to do this” did obviously not work, I put
daily reminders into my calendar and reserved 10 minutes before the first meeting of the day.

• Using an agile mindset: There is no room at our office for such exercises. Though I can do
them with the headphones on in front of my screen, I will likely be interrupted. I decided to
relax my mind towards the possibility of interruption: I finish an exercise with a smile after 10
minutes or I smile when some somebody needs my help. In the latter case, I will continue the
exercise later. No stress, no big deal, this is just how things work around here.

9. Dealing with writers’ block

• When I had writers’ block (nothing seems good enough to be written down) I do the “write your
brain” exercise. I start by writing: “I sit here. What is in my brain right now is …” and then I
just continue writing without a break until at least one page is full. There is no quality
expectation attached here, everything may be just superficial blabla - that would be okay, as
long as I just continue writing until the page is full. Usually, the second half of the page turns
out to be pretty useful. If not, at least it gives me a good starting point for reflection and a
benchmark I can easily beat when I go for a next try.

In case you use a strategy successfully, that is not on this list, please inform me, so I can add it.

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