# The Leader Checkup — Facilitator Guide

> Folder: `the-leader-checkup` · Category: leadership · 3–10 people · 25 min · offline + online · print props · tool pack
> License: CC BY 4.0

A 25-minute, 3–10 person leadership tool. Feedback flows down easily and rarely up, so a leader who only hears what's filtered learns wrong. This is a structured upward checkup: the team names what's working, what quietly blocks them because of how the leader shows up, and one ask — and the leader's only job is to listen without defending, then commit to one change.

## Objectives

By the end of the activity, participants will have:

1. Said out loud — as **behavior plus impact**, not character — one thing that quietly blocks them, and heard it land without a rebuttal.
2. Watched a leader **listen without defending**, reflect back what was actually heard, and ask one clarifying question instead of explaining.
3. Left with exactly **one commitment** carrying a follow-up date, and a shared list of what the team will watch for.

## When to use this activity

- A leader keeps learning the wrong things because everything that reaches them has been filtered.
- A new leader who wants the truth early — run the keep-only pass first and earn the rest.
- You have 3–10 people under or alongside one leader, 25 minutes, and a relationship worth protecting.

## Keep · Block · Ask

| Card | The sentence it forces | Why it's shaped that way |
|---|---|---|
| **Keep doing** | "When you ___, we ___ — please don't stop." | what works gets named before anything is asked to change |
| **Blocking** | "When you X, we Y." — behavior, then impact | character talk closes the room the moment it opens; "when decisions change late, we lose a day" doesn't |
| **One ask** | "Next quarter, could you ___?" | a request that is concrete enough to be declined honestly |

The leader's fourth card — **the commitment** — is the only one the leader writes.

## Setup

- 3–10 people who report to, or work under, the same leader.
- A circle of chairs or one shared board. The leader sits where they can hear everyone but does not run the meeting.
- The card faces from `the-leader-checkup-prop-cards.pdf`: a "working — keep doing" card, a "blocking — when you X, we Y" card, a "one ask" card, "the leader's commitment" card, and a blank (see **The card** below).
- Put `the-leader-checkup-activity-poster.pdf` on the wall so the two rules — "the leader listens, no defending" and "blocks are behavior + impact, not character" — stay visible.
- No projector, no account, no online form. Online, the cards live on a shared board.
- Print one `the-leader-checkup-worksheet.pdf` per group — the one-page artifact sheet the room fills while it talks.
- Put one `the-leader-checkup-workbook.pdf` at each seat if people want their own copy; the sheet above is the group version.
- Optional: open `the-leader-checkup-slide-deck.html` in any browser to run the 12-slide deck on the wall (S opens the presenter drawer, T starts the round timer); `the-leader-checkup-slide-deck.pdf` is the same deck for print.

## How to run it

| Time | Phase | Facilitator does | Participants do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–7 | Write | Hold the silence; nobody reads aloud yet | Each person writes silently: one thing working (keep doing), one thing blocking (when you X, we Y), one ask. The leader writes too — including a self-critique |
| 7–15 | Speak & listen | Enforce the rule the moment the leader flinches: no defending, no explaining | Round-robin. The team speaks; the leader listens — this is the whole discipline of the exercise |
| 15–20 | Reflect back | Keep it a check, not a rebuttal | The leader says what they actually heard, and asks one clarifying question |
| 20–25 | Commit | Refuse a second commitment; make the first one observable | The leader commits to one concrete change, with a follow-up date. The team names what they'll watch for |

Then run the debrief — see `the-leader-checkup-debrief.md`.

## The card

The sheet from `the-leader-checkup-prop-cards.pdf` (poker spec, 63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides, branded back, blanks) carries five faces: **working — keep doing**; **blocking — when you X, we Y** (the sentence template is the safety mechanism: behavior first, impact second, character never); **one ask**; **the leader's commitment** — filled in by the leader, last; and a **blank** for your own prompts. Every voice writes before anyone speaks; the cards go to the center of the circle, not to the leader.

## Failure modes

1. **The leader starts defending.** The first defense teaches everyone to edit the truth from now on. Rescue: enforce the rule — park explanations until after the round; a single defense costs more than any block said aloud.
2. **The team gives only "everything's great."** Rescue: the leader goes first with a real self-critique: "what do I do that makes your job harder?" Buying honesty costs the leader going first.
3. **"Blocking" turns into a character attack.** Rescue: reframe to behavior + impact — "when decisions change late, we lose a day," never "you're chaotic." The room can only stay open if it stays about actions.
4. **The commitment is "I'll try harder."** Rescue: reject it gently and name the observable version — what changes, by when, and what the team will see when it happens. Ten promises are a performance; one is a change.

## Variations

- **New leader, first month:** run only the "working / keep doing" pass so what's already good gets reinforced before anything is asked to change.
- **Peer version:** two leads check up on each other; the listening rule is just as hard sideways.
- **Quarterly:** repeat on a rhythm; the follow-up date from last time is the first thing you check.

## Facilitation notes

- The leader is not the facilitator. Someone else runs the clock and the rules; the leader sits in the circle to hear, not to manage.
- Writing before speaking is the safety design — silent cards stop the first two loud voices from framing the whole room.
- Watch where three or more people write the same block; that's a pattern, not a complaint, and it deserves the middle of the debrief.
- End on the follow-up date spoken aloud with an owner in the room. A date nobody holds is how checkups quietly die between quarters.

## Put it on the wall

Print `the-leader-checkup-activity-poster.pdf` (A3) to put the run of show, the two rules — listen without defending, behavior plus impact — and the keep / block / ask frame on one wall while you facilitate.

## Props in this folder

- `the-leader-checkup-prop-cards.pdf` — poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides): the five card faces, branded back, blanks
- `the-leader-checkup-guide.md` — this run sheet
- `the-leader-checkup-debrief.md` — eleven numbered debrief questions with what each targets, plus failure modes of the debrief
- `the-leader-checkup-worksheet.pdf` — the one-page session sheet, print-and-fill: keep / block / ask from every voice, plus the leader's one commitment and follow-up date
- `the-leader-checkup-workbook.pdf` — participant workbook: the sheet in plain words, the artifact as fill-in pages, session notes, a before-you-leave page
- `the-leader-checkup-slide-deck.html` / `.pdf` — the 12-slide deck for teaching or projecting: presenter drawer (S), round timer (T), built-in QR, print fallback; the `.pdf` is the same deck for print
- `the-leader-checkup-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this run sheet + the debrief, bound as one A4 document with bookmarks
- `the-leader-checkup-activity-poster.pdf` — the whole activity on one A3 wall sheet: run of show, the two rules, watch-outs
- `the-leader-checkup-tool.json` — machine-facing file (not listed in the download table): the artifact as a machine-readable template: columns, flow, fields, prompts, watch-outs
- `the-leader-checkup-start-here.md` — one page, thirty seconds, then print and go
- `the-leader-checkup-license.md` — what you may do with all of this: run it, copy it, translate it, rebrand it; keep the attribution line
- `SKILL.md` — machine-readable manifest for AI agents
- `*-Letter.pdf` — US Letter editions of the print documents

## Agent version

Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the props, the debrief and this run sheet with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`). The paper version itself needs no screen at all: no projector, no accounts, just a circle, five cards and one leader learning to listen.