Leadership Exercise – Gray Area
Leading and making decisions that are more in the gray area can be challenging. Walking through situations that are difficult within the gray area can help identify any pain points, where you’re excelling, where more communication can occur, and growth opportunities.
REAL WORLD SITUATIONS/SCENARIOS
You and/or your leader identify two prior situations that are examples of decision making in the gray area. Or you and/or your leader can create scenarios that represent more common situations that occur. You want to pick a scenario or prior situation that does not have a clear right or wrong answer. For each scenario/situation look at:
- Why in this situation/scenario is there no clear right or wrong answer?
- What is the decision making process for this gray area on what next steps and resolution should/could be?
- What parts of the process do you sometimes get stuck on?
- What parts of the process do you find easy?
- What decision making do you tend to lean towards? What do you find difficult to lean towards?
- What can leadership do in situations like this example to assist with the gray areas?
All individuals participating/leading this exercise should be answering the questions.
SITUATION/SCENARIO #1
SITUATION/SCENARIO #2
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Discussion questions are a great way to dive deeper into the topic of gray area and gain new insights.
- How difficult overall do you find gray area decision making? What can your leader do to make this easier? What can your company do?
- How can you support your coworkers if they’re having a hard time with gray area decision making?
- Are there certain situations that tend to be more difficult than others when making gray area decisions?
- What can leadership do to support you if they don’t agree with one of your gray area decisions? What is not appreciated for them to do?
- What are your strengths within gray area decision making? Where can you improve?
For more information about this material, email kmcclain@praeliscere.com or visit https://praeliscere.com/. Copyright Kathryn McClain.
Leading and making decisions that are more in the gray area can be challenging. Walking through situations that are difficult within the gray area can help identify any pain points, where you’re excelling, where more communication can occur, and growth opportunities.
Facilitator Notes
- Personalization: As the facilitator, you are encouraged to adjust the exercise to meet the needs of all team members.
- Pre-Communication: Share agenda or exercise document at least 48 hours prior to exercise/training. This will allow time for individuals to review and ask clarifying questions prior to the meeting. Make sure to include session length of time and expectations in prior communication (e.g., if virtual, cameras/microphones expectations).
- Directed Examples: Provide relevant examples when going through sections.
- Psychological Safety: No calling on individual participants to put them on the spot.
Keep in mind when delivering your exercise/training those that are neurodivergent, non-native English speakers/ESL, introverts, internal processors, and those that may be burned out/cognitive overload.
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