Today is St. Valentine’s day, and the origins of the feast are much disputed. One version lies in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, where young men would draw from a jar the name of a young woman with whom they would then be partnered for a year. It is said that later the Christian church amended this practice to one where the young men would draw the name of a saint, whom they would emulate for the coming year.

Perhaps you could use this tradition to conduct a lighthearted exercise with your team – no, not pair them up romantically, what would the officers of political correctness say? - but partner them with a colleague whose leadership or management style they admire and can learn from over the coming year. Just put all the team names in a hat and ask everyone to draw out a name. When everyone has one, ask them to describe on one page:

• the one key skill they think they could learn from that person
• how they will go about doing it
• what they want to change about their own performance as a result

A simple and fun way to recognise individual talents within the team, develop your team members, strengthen relationships and take you another step on your journey to high performance!