1. Copyright New Chapter Learning Ltd. All rights reserved.
Buzz Session – Moving Forward Together
Time: 60 minutes
This session is going to look at the leadership role you as an individual play within
your team and how taking responsibility to lead yourself helps the team move
towards a common goal.
Interesting quote:
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. — John
Maxwell
We are going to look at 15 things successful leaders do and talk through how each
of us can demonstrate these behaviours. This will ensure both ourselves and our
team are the best we can be.
The goal of this session What you’ll need:
To identify some specific behaviours that
successful leaders display and how each of us
in the team can demonstrate them too.
Note paper
Pens
Handout:
- 15 things successful
leaders do
- Leadership Action Plan
The Aim of this session:-
For you to understand how:
 Each of us contributes to the success of our team.
 How adopting some of the successful behaviours that great leaders have, will
help both the team and individuals become even more successful.

2. Copyright New Chapter Learning Ltd. All rights reserved.
State: Who are some of the most successful leaders in history and what do
great leaders do that makes them great?
Let’s take you away from your normal work place for a moment. Think about some of
the most successful leaders the world has seen. If I were to ask you to tell me the
name of a great leader who would you choose?
Look for answers to include:
 A mix of political, military, business and sports figures
Ask what it was about these people that made them great. What made the team
choose these individuals as examples?
Look for answers to include:
 They achieved great things.
 They’re known for great actions
 They were respected for what they did
ASK: Could they have achieved what they did on their own, in isolation, without the
support of others in a wider team?
Look for answers to include:
 No
Explain: In order for leaders to be successful, they need to be successful through
their teams and teams, by their very nature can only succeed if they work together.
Imagine how successful a team could be if each member of that team adopted some
of the behaviours that great leaders have demonstrated in the past?
Let’s have a look at ’15 things successful leaders do’ and see how each of us could
adopt some of these behaviours ourselves to strengthen our team.

3. Copyright New Chapter Learning Ltd. All rights reserved.
Activity - 15 things successfulleaders do and how we can do them
too.
Note for facilitator:
This session has a significant amount of possible content that could be covered and
discussed. It’s recommended that this session is re-visited over a period of weeks/
months to break the 15 points down into smaller groups of say 3 or 5 points going
forward. That way any changes that individuals decide to take forward are on a more
manageable level.
It’s recommended that in the first session you read through all 15 points together and
then focus discussions around only 3 – 5 of them, with future sessions building on this
one and moving focus onto the remaining elements as well as reviewing successes of
adopting earlier points.
Handout: ‘ 15 things successful leaders do’
Explain that we’re now going to read through the hand out showing 15 of the
behaviours that successful leaders demonstrate.
From the full list we’re then going to choose 3 – 5 that we’d like to concentrate at this
time.
Over the coming weeks and months we’ll be revisiting these behaviours. We will
review the successes we’ve seen by adopting the behaviour points from earlier
sessions, while building on those points going forward by adopting additional
behaviours.
The aim over time, is that everyone in the team will be demonstrating all 15 of these
behaviours, with a view to increasing the success of both individuals within the team
as well as increasing the success of the team as a whole.
Read through Handout ’15 things successful leaders do’, allowing brief discussion
around each point.
Choose 3 – 5 points that you’re all going to work on together.
You need to choose the method you adopt for this decision.
- Chronological order
- Vote by team members
- Order of importance
- Impact of adopting the associated behaviour

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Give each team member a copy of the Hand-out ‘Moving Forward Together Action
Plan’
Once you’ve decided on the points you’re going to focus on first
1. Recap content of those particular points
2. Ask the team for ideas on what that means to them
3. What specifically they’d need to be doing to demonstrate that behaviour in
their role.
Get everyone to write the points on their action plan and thinking about their existing
skills and behaviours, record what specifically they’re going to do.
Agree Actions
 Following the feedback, ask them to come up with:
- One thing they’re going to stop doing.
- One thing they’ll continue to do.
- One thing they’ll start doing or do differently.
This document could be used as a tool in personal development reviews as well as in
the ongoing leadership buzz sessions that build on this one and move the team
through the remaining leadership points.

5. Copyright New Chapter Learning Ltd. All rights reserved.
15 Things Successful Leaders Do
1. Make Others Feel Safe to Speak-Up
Successful leaders encourage others to voice their opinions. They are experts at
making others feel safe to speak-up and be confident in sharing their perspectives
and point of view.
2. Make Things Happen
Successful leaders are expert decision makers. They either facilitate the dialogue to
empower their colleagues to reach a strategic conclusion or they do it
themselves. They focus on “making things happen” at all times. Decision making
activities that sustain progress. Successful leaders don’t waste their time on issues
that disrupt momentum.
3. Communicate Expectations
Successful leaders are great communicators. They remind their colleagues of the
organisation’s core values and mission statement – ensuring that their vision is
properly translated and actionable objectives are properly executed. They make it
easy for the team to stay focused and on track.
4. Challenge People to Think
The most successful leaders understand their colleagues’ mind-sets, capabilities and
areas for improvement. They use this knowledge and insight to challenge their teams
to think and stretch them to reach for more. These types of leaders excel in keeping
their team on their toes, never allowing them to get comfortable and enabling them
with the tools to grow.
If you are not thinking, you’re not learning new things. If you’re not learning, you’re
not growing.
5. Be Accountable to Others
Successful leaders allow their colleagues to manage them. They become
accountable to make sure they are being proactive to their colleagues needs. Being
accountable to others is a sign that you are focused more on your success than just
their own.
6. Lead by Example
Successful leaders practice what they preach and are mindful of their actions and
how they affect their colleagues.
7. Recognise & Reward Performance
Great leaders are active in acknowledging hard work and efforts (no matter the
result). Successful leaders never take consistent performers for granted and are
mindful of rewarding them.

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8. Provide Continuous Feedback
Successful leaders always provide feedback and they welcome reciprocal feedback
by creating trustworthy relationships with their colleagues.
9. Properly Allocate and Deploy Talent
Successful leaders know their talent pool and how to use it. They are experts at
activating the capabilities of their colleagues and knowing when to deploy their unique
skill sets given the circumstances at hand.
10. Ask Questions, Seek Counsel
Successful leaders ask questions and seek counsel all the time. From the outside,
they appear to know-it-all – yet on the inside, they have a deep thirst for knowledge
and constantly are on the look-out to learn new things because of their commitment
to making themselves better through the wisdom of others.
11. Problem Solve; Avoid Procrastination
Successful leaders tackle issues head-on and know how to discover the heart of the
matter at hand. They don’t procrastinate and thus become incredibly proficient at
problem solving. They learn from uncomfortable circumstances.
12. Useful Energy & Attitude
Successful leaders create a useful and inspiring workplace culture. They know how
to set the tone and bring an attitude that motivates their colleagues to take action.
They don’t allow failures to disrupt momentum.
13. Be a Great Teacher
Successful leaders never stop teaching because they are so self-motivated to learn
themselves. They use teaching to keep their colleagues well-informed and
knowledgeable.
Successful leaders take the time to mentor their colleagues and make the investment
to sponsor those who have proven they are able and eager to advance.
14. Invest in Relationships
Successful leaders don’t focus on protecting their domain – instead they expand it by
investing in mutually beneficial relationships to support the advancement of both their
team and the wider business. Leaders share the harvest of their success to help build
momentum for those around them.
15. Genuinely Enjoy Responsibilities
Successful leaders love being leaders for the meaningful and purposeful impact they
can create. Their ability to serve others can’t be accomplished unless they genuinely
enjoy what they do.
In the end, successful leaders are able to sustain their success because these 15
things ultimately allow them to increase the value of their organisations’ brand while
at the same time serving as the enablers of talent, culture and results.

7. Copyright New Chapter Learning Ltd. All rights reserved.
Moving Forward Together - Action Plan
Topic to focus on:
Moving Forward
Together
What will you
stop doing?
What will you
start doing?
What will you
continue to do?
Know how you can
move yourself and
your team towards a
common goal.