Business English Lesson Plan: Leadership

What type of leader would you like to be? What type of leaders do you prefer to work with?

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B: The Best and Worst Leaders

· Can you think of any successful leaders? Give reasons for your choice.

· Can you think of any atrocious leaders? Give reasons for your choice.

C: Leadership Styles

· Match the styles of leadership to the correct heading (expression).

Leadership Styles continued

· Match the leadership styles to the correct short descriptions.

1. The type of leader sees people as a reservoir of talent to be developed. This approach seeks to unlock people's full potential helping them to discover their strengths and capabilities.

2. This type of leader gives no or very little direction to his/her team. On the surface, this leader may appear to trust people to know what to do, but is often uninvolved and passes on responsibility for decision-making to others.

3. These leaders share information with employees about anything that affects their work responsibilities and also seek employees' opinions before approving a final decision.

4. These leaders are more democratic, and inclusive leaders. They give their teams the “why” and trust them to discover and deliver the “how.” They provide their teams with the autonomy to self-organize, create and do the work.

5. This leadership style is the hallmark of confident and visionary leaders who pave the way and set goals and expectations, while involving and motivating their teams along the way. They don’t take much time to explain their way of thinking.

6. This type of leader “commands and controls”. In general, this type of leader believes that he or she knows more than everyone else. They make all the decisions and seldom accept advice from team members.

Discussion

· Talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the different leadership styles

· What type of leader can you best identify with (either as a leader or as an employee)?

D: Leadership Traits

· Talk about words to describe leadership characteristics. Which are positive or negative traits? Explain why.

E: Good and Bad Management

· Match the words on the left to the words on the right to make phrases about bad and good management.

F: Agree or Disagree

1. Leadership is defined by results.

2. Most leaders do not embrace change.

3. Everyone likes to work with likable people, even likable incompetent leaders.

4. Leadership is a form of behaviour and not a formal role.

5. Most politicians make lousy leaders

6. The world needs fewer leaders.

Vocabulary Box : Agree and Disagree