The leadership skill that disappears without practice

Strong leadership doesn’t simply come from experience; it comes from recognizing when to trust after past failures and the confidence to approach new challenges with a fresh perspective. Effective leaders understand that progress requires more than relying on what has worked in the past. Instead, it’s curiosity, flexibility and the courage to try something unfamiliar, even when the outcome isn’t always guaranteed.

The comfort of mundane and the idea that as leaders all the skills required for the job have already been mastered. We’ve all heard “My team knows they can come to me with anything” or “I’ve been managing people for years,” and while these can all be true, trust is built when leaders make these people skills a consistent practice, instead of simply relying on past experiences. Using simple improvisation techniques can also help develop the people skills that helped build their leadership in the first place.

Leadership is NOT a destination.

Before we get started, it’s important to know improv is not about being funny, instead it requires active listening, building, supporting, staying present and remaining curious. Not only is this a benefit for the stage, but it is also a requirement of great leadership.

For leaders, the first step is acknowledging the fact that these skills are not just mastered, but instead a required consistent effort. Things like not being distracted during a meeting with your phone or computer, building on original ideas (even if you don’t agree) and asking more questions. Similarly in improv, using these techniques not only moves the scenes forward, but it builds trust in scenes and allows groups to work more effectively in scenes. To see how you’re active listening, the game “Echo, Build, Decide” as it helps leaders slow down, listen for meaning and make people feel heard before solving, advising or deciding.

Echo, Build, Decide: In pairs or small groups, one person shares for 60–90 seconds using a prompt such as, “What is one thing that makes collaboration harder on our team?” The listener cannot interrupt, advise or ask questions. Once the speaker finishes, the listener responds by first echoing what they heard, then building on it with one connection or insight and finally naming one possible next step. The speaker then confirms what was accurate or clarifies what was missed before partners switch roles.

Comfort can damage relationships

One important key in improv is establishing a relationship in scenes. Why? It helps show the dynamics of the people talking. For example, the difference between speaking to your coworkers vs. your friends. Similarly, in the office, these dynamics between leaders and employees naturally make leaders more efficient at their job. Some believe traits of efficient leadership include meetings getting shorter, conversations becoming more transactional and decisions happening faster. While true, this can also create blind spots over time. We stop asking questions, curiosity diminishes and interactions go into cruise control. Groupthink happens, people don’t feel heard and innovation suffers. Everything starts to feel the same. Same meetings, same people contribute and things become autopilot. It’s not that the team lacks creativity, they’re just comfortable. To break out of groupthink, the game is “Opposite Offer,” as it pushes groups to practice considering alternative perspectives in a fun way.

Opposite Offer: Start by giving the group a simple workplace prompt, such as, “We need to improve team communication” or “We need to make meetings more useful.” First, have the group name the most obvious solution, like “We should have more check-ins.” Then, the next person has to offer the opposite or a completely different direction, such as, “What if we had fewer meetings, but made each one more intentional?” From there, each person builds on the new idea using “Yes, and…” or offers another opposite perspective.

Leadership needs curiosity

Curiosity is the backbone of improv for exploration in scenes. For leaders, it’s essential. Research shows that leader curiosity directly drives team performance, innovation and psychological safety. This looks like assuming your employees could teach you something new, or the goal of your next meeting wasn’t to find an immediate solution, but to understand it completely. Individually, it helps build emotional intelligence, empathy and helps strengthen relationships. A useful leadership game that helps with active listening and curiosity is called “The Last Three Words.”

The Last Three Words: In this exercise, participants partner with someone, and one person shares a story for two minutes while the other person listens. The listener may only respond by beginning with the speaker’s last three words. For example, if the speaker says, “I finally talked with the client yesterday,” the listener might respond, “The client yesterday… What surprised you most?” This exercise forces the listener to stay fully present because they cannot plan their next question until they have genuinely heard the end of the sentence.

Like athletes, leadership requires practice

Like the Olympics, World Cup or Super Bowl, training the fundamentals never stops. For leaders, this requires the daily practice of understanding people and teams better. Through the intentional practice of microskills like active and reflective listening, paying attention, empathy and micro-delegation, meetings become more innovative and collaboration happens. This looks like repeating back what you hear, doing check-ins with individuals before delegating and giving praise for the little things. A simple improv game leaders can do every day is “The Three-Second Pause.”

The Three-Second Pause: In one conversation each day, intentionally pause for three seconds before responding and ask yourself, “Am I reacting, fixing, defending or actually listening?” After the pause, then respond by reflecting back one thing they heard before adding their own thought. For example, someone might say, “I hear that the deadline feels unrealistic because the team is already stretched. Let’s look at what can actually move.” This daily practice helps leaders interrupt the habit of rushing to respond.

The human traits of leadership are often what people remember most when describing their favorite leaders. It’s never about how they answered an email or ran an effective meeting, it’s about how they made someone feel valued, listened to and appreciated. By recognizing the day-to-day behaviors that often lead to ineffective and stagnant teams, leaders can use applied improv exercises that lead to more curiosity and remain a student in the very human skills that made others want to follow them in the first place.

Nikki Frias is the creator of CorpDev Strategies, a consulting firm that uses the principles of improv to transform company culture, foster collaboration and inspire creativity in the workplace. With a unique background that blends corporate insight, storytelling and improvisation, Frias empowers teams and leaders to rethink how they engage, communicate and build lasting relationships.

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