Management Development Self-Assessment Activity (Weighted Dots)

I love hosting Management Development Programmes. Particularly for new and ‘accidental’ line managers. (People promoted into a management role because they were good at their previous role) There is as much learning about themselves as there is about their teams and how to manage them.

This little activity always goes down well.  I ran this recently with a group of lovely NHS Midwives. I call it ‘weighted dots’ but I’m sure there’s probably a snazzier name for it!

On this occasion we were exploring Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Styles, and as part of the activity I wanted them to:

🔴 Understand the styles
🟠 Consider their own natural preferences (This activity)
🟣 Recognise any gaps in their own styles
🟢 Identify scenarios within the organisation where one style might be better used than another.

This image is the bit where I’m asking them to consider their own natural preferences. The set up is very simple:

🟡 Pop the print outs somewhere accessible
🟠 Allocate a set number of sticky dots per person (I often give 10 each)
🟢 Then explain that they are being asked to consider their own preference and to allocate any number of dots to the styles.
🟣 They could choose to allocate all 10 dots on one style or divide more equally (Although with 6 styles to choose from there are at least some decisions to be made about how to allocate the dots.)
🔵 Depending on group size the debrief can be done one at a time as they place their dots, or afterwards as part of a group discussion.

I’ve also used weighted dots for other topics too, like ‘biggest challenges to effective delegation’, and prioritising a big list of action points.

What I really like about this activity is it allows for self-reflection, movement, choice and insight into how different we all are too.

Where would your dots be allocated?

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