Nick Bidic shares a presentation sharing hobbies that can help to make better leaders.

1. Hobbies that Make You a
Better Leader

2. Every experience teaches a lesson for
people who are willing to learn them.
Something as simple as a hobby can
prepare you for leadership by teaching
you how to work with people and
accomplish goals.

3. Any hobby that involves working with
other people can do this, but some of
them have much more potential than
others.

4. Team Sports

5. A team wins or loses based on how
well the individual members can work
together. The skill of each player does
matter, but the team’s total effort is
much more important. Most other
team efforts in life work the same
way, which makes team sports a
valuable way to practice teamwork
with low stakes.

6. The team’s captain will learn the
most, since the captain is the one who
makes most of the important choices,
but everyone can learn by watching
the captain. They also offer a chance
to learn about the internal dynamics
of a team by taking part in them.

7. Sports also provide an opportunity to
learn about objectives. A team’s goal is
to score points and win the game, but
most players have smaller goals of
their own. A defensive player’s goal is
to stop opponents from scoring, while
another player’s objective might be to
open up opportunities for scorers.

8. All of those little objectives lead to the
big objective. Players need to make
quick decisions to prioritize all of
those goals while keeping the big
picture in mind, and that’s a valuable
skill for any leader.

9. Tabletop
Gaming

10. Tabletop games, such as Carcassonne
or Twilight Struggle, offer many of the
advantages of sports in a calmer,
slower environment. Like sports,
players need to prioritize a variety of
small objectives to achieve a big goal
while dealing with other players.

11. Unlike sports, players usually have the
chance to stop and think about their
plans before they put them into action.

12. These games teach players how to
think through a plan and put it into
action. Other players will interfere
with that plan, so they also teach
players how to adapt a plan as
circumstances change.

13. A good leader needs to be able to stop
and think about how to achieve goals
in addition to making snap decisions
and working with people, so these
games are valuable learning tools.

14. Charity Work

15. The best way to learn about leadership
is to practice it, and charity work
offers a great opportunity to do so and
to make a difference in the
community.

16. Most charity organizations are eager
to take any help that they can get, and
they’re normally willing to train
people to run events.

17. Local churches are often a good place
to start looking for ways to contribute,
but it never hurts to ask around with
other local organizations.

18. Running a charity event teaches
organizational skills that are difficult
to learn from a book. Charity
organizers learn to juggle the needs of
the group with the personalities of
volunteers, who sometimes come into
conflict with each other.

19. Mediation requires a gentle touch,
since volunteers can always leave the
project, so there’s no better way to
learn methods for conflict resolution
within a team.