Which Leadership Attributes Matter Most?: An Entertaining and Insightful Classroom Activity in Leadership

Keywords: attributes, leadership, self-refection, experiential

Abstract: Trait and behavioral theories of leadership, along with implicit leadership theories, are helpful in understanding “what it takes” to be an effective leader. We present an activity to help students in their leadership development in three main ways. First, by helping them identify essential attributes associated with effective leadership. Second, by giving students an opportunity to assess how their favorite pop culture characters/personalities are associated with the selected leadership attributed. And third, by granting students an opportunity to reflect and appraise leadership attributes within oneself. This activity has been described as fun, interesting and powerful.