Leadership Pizza

Students will learn to identify important leadership skills, to prioritise leadership skills and to reflect on their own leadership skills.

Printed pizza ingredients (printable mozzarella, salami, paprika, onion, pineapple etc. to stick to the pizza).

Example for a Leadership Pizza: integrity, vision, ability to inspire, empathy, passion, self-awareness, confidence, etc.  

Who doesn’t like pizzas? Besides the great taste, this time the slices offer a leadership self-assessment opportunity.  This exercise can help people to reflect on the different dimensions of what skills and attitudes they need in order to be a good leader. 

Present the model of the Leadership Pizza: it is a reflection and self-assessment tool where you think about the most important skills and attitudes that you need to master in order to be a great leader. 

You may present your own version of the leadership pizza as in the example. Emphasise that your version is just your version, they should think about what is important for leadership in their own perspective. 

Assign time for participants to prepare their own set of important leadership skills and attributes and ask them to draw a pizza shape and label the slices with the items they have listed. 

At this point, you may ask people to share their drawings with the group and explain which labels they have chosen. You may discuss certain decisions and identify common patterns in the group’s perception of a good leader.

Ask participants to assess themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 for each slice (10 is the edge of the slice, 1 is the core of the pizza). Use the printable mozzarella, salami, paprika, onion, pineapple etc. to stick to the pizza. This self-assessment should/could serve as a baseline for setting up their own personal goals for leadership development. The areas where they find them weaker should receive more focus in their future development. 

Encourage people to set a follow-up action within a few months of time to revisit their Leadership Pizza. They should re-assess themselves, celebrate their development and refine their next goals. 

This activity can be done online as well, although it does require a little extra preparation, because each student needs to print the materials themselves, or you need to provide them individually.

Encourage people to set a follow-up action within a few months of time to revisit their Leadership Pizza. They should re-assess themselves, celebrate their development and refine their next goals. 

Questions which could help to lead this re-assessment:

• Did you reach your goals? 
• If yes, what did you do to reach these goals?
• If no, why have you not reached your goal?
• What would be your next goal?

https://www.sessionlab.com/methods/leadership-pizza

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334988196_Development_of_Leadership_Skills_among_Students

https://sites.allegheny.edu/studentinvolvement/developing-positive-leadership-skills/