3 Ways Improv Helps Build Leadership Skills

It’s official. The mayor of the United States’s largest city took an improv class.

This got me thinking about improv and leadership. What is it about improvisation that might build leadership skills?

Fortunately for me, I was lucky enough to have had the same incredible improv teacher as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, so I went right to the source. I reached out to Rick Andrews at the Magnet Theater to see what leadership skills he thinks improv helps deepen.

1. Active Listening and Empathy

Rick Andrews pointed first to improv’s reputation to help people build their active listening skills. He explains, “In making an idea together, you are trying to build a shared reality. We are both building a non-existent thing.” Because improvisers are creating something out of nothing, they are forced to listen to each other, to pay attention, in a deeper way than in their ordinary lives.

People can make assumptions and skim over details in their day-to-day lives, but while improvising, they have to catch every word and even catch details that go beyond their partner’s words. Andrews states that improvisers have to actively picture the improvised scene together. As he explains, this is “almost the literal definition of empathy: What do I think is true about the idea we’re building?”

Deep listening can be a kind of empathy. It’s trying to understand where someone’s coming from and what’s going on underneath the surface. It’s not nodding our heads mindlessly. It’s not thinking about what we’re going to say next. It’s giving someone our undivided attention and letting their words and body language affect us.

A good leader should be a good listener. They represent us, and if they’re going to be able to speak for us, they have to be able to truly take in our hopes, dreams, fears, and frustrations, without defensiveness or dismissiveness.

2. Uncertainty Tolerance

Another important skill that improv can help build is called uncertainty tolerance. Studies have shown that just 20 minutes of improv can help boost uncertainty tolerance and decrease uncertainty intolerance, which means people become more comfortable with not knowing how things will turn out or develop.

Andrews says, “You can make all these plans, but it’s never going to go exactly the way you’re imagining. Being not just able to adjust, but excited to adjust, ready to change as the reality comes into focus, is a core leadership skill.”

A quick scan of the latest current events reveals just how uncertain life can be. Good leaders should be able to stay agile amidst the trials and tribulations and be able to jump into action when the going gets rough.

3. Authentic Confidence

The final leadership skill that improv can help develop is a genuine sense of confidence. Confident leaders aren’t faking it; they have a deep trust in their abilities to keep moving forward and integrating new information as they do.

Andrews explains: “The best scenes and moments come from building on your experience, what makes you you, your actual thoughts and ideas. I think that authentic leadership styles can grow from genuine confidence.” Good leaders don’t look like they’re faking it. Authenticity goes a long way in helping people trust you. Effective leaders are able to develop their strengths and bring their style and personality into their role.

Give Them Hope

In a Gallup poll, people were asked to name their favorite leader and then list three words that describe them. Four themes emerged from the answers. People want trust, compassion, and stability from their leaders, but more than anything else, they want hope.

Leaders who listen and empathize with people give us hope. Leaders who roll with the punches with agility give us hope. Leaders who come across as authentic and confident give us hope.

The only certain thing is uncertainty. We need leaders who can listen, adjust, and act authentically. We need leaders who inspire us to listen, adjust, and be ourselves.

Time will tell how Mamdani’s improv experience will impact his ability to lead New York City, but at least he’s starting with some crucial soft skills.

Maybe we all need to take Rick Andrews’s Intro to Improv class at the Magnet.