Here are 8 management role play scenarios, ready to run in groups of three. They cover missed deadlines, feedback, recognition, conflict, bad news, the annual review, delegation and stepping into a new role. Each scenario card gives the objective, the situation, the partner's secret brief and the observer's grid.
On every card, the partner only opens up if the manager does what the grid expects.
How do you run these management role play scenarios?
Run each card in a group of three: the manager, the partner and the observer. Everyone reads the situation; only the partner reads the secret brief. For each criterion in the grid, the observer writes down one sentence they heard. Allow 8 minutes of play and 5 minutes of feedback from the observer, then rotate roles.
The situations are fictional. Each card is a management role play example to adapt: use your participants' names, jobs and figures. Keep the three drivers of the secret brief: a hidden reason, initial resistance, and a trigger taken from the grid.
For the method, see how to prepare, run and debrief a role play in training. The same article gives a text to copy so a manager can replay a card alone with an AI: swap in the situation, the secret brief and the grid.
Addressing an issue, giving feedback, recognizing work: scenarios 1 to 3
These three cards build on the SBI model from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL): describe the situation, the observed behavior, then its impact. Describe the behavior as you saw it, without judgment. In scenario 2, say "you promised delivery on March 15", not "you were reckless". The CCL adds a fourth step, intent: ask the person what they were trying to do.
In Avraham Kluger and Angelo DeNisi's meta-analysis (1996), feedback improved performance on average, but over a third of the feedback interventions studied lowered it. Their results suggest feedback becomes less effective when it shifts attention from the task to the person.
1. Address missed deadlines
Objective: get a dated commitment without judging the person.
Situation: Julien, a research analyst, has turned in his last three monthly reports 3 to 5 days late. The client complained yesterday.
Secret brief: since September, you have also been handling the files of a colleague who left. Play it down. Only mention it if the manager asks what has changed.
Grid: 1. dated facts and the effect on the client, without judgment; 2. open question about the cause; 3. commitment and date of the next check-in.
2. Go back over a promise made to a client
Objective: describe a behavior and its effect, then ask about intent.
Situation: this morning, Inès, an account manager, promised the client delivery on March 15; the technical team had said the end of March.
Secret brief: you wanted to reassure a hesitant client. If you feel judged, get defensive. If the manager describes the facts and asks about your intent, offer to call the client back.
Grid: 1. facts, without judgment; 2. effect on the client and the team; 3. question about intent.
3. Give specific praise
Objective: say what was done and what it made possible.
Situation: Mehdi, a warehouse team leader, reorganized the receiving dock on his own initiative: unloading a truck now takes 35 minutes instead of 50.
Secret brief: you think nobody has noticed. If you just get a "well done", reply "thanks". If the manager names your change and its effect, bring up your idea for shipping.
Grid: 1. specific action; 2. effect in figures; 3. question about next steps.
Conflict and bad news: scenarios 4 and 5
These two cards test the manager's neutrality (scenario 4), then their candor (scenario 5).
4. Handle a complaint about a colleague
Objective: listen without taking sides, then bring the two people together.
Situation: Sophie, a customer advisor, comes to see you: "Marc moves my appointments in the shared calendar without telling me. This can't go on."
Secret brief: you want the manager to rein Marc in. If the manager agrees with you, pile on. If they ask for dated examples and suggest a three-way conversation, agree reluctantly.
Grid: 1. dated examples requested; 2. no judgment of Marc; 3. three-way meeting scheduled.
5. Announce that a project is ending
Objective: state the decision up front, explain it, then talk about what comes next.
Situation: for lack of budget, senior management is ending the project Claire has led for 6 months: a route tracking app. The decision is final.
Secret brief: you have heard a rumor. Ask whether your work is the reason, and press the point if the manager hedges. If they are clear and give you the reason, ask about what comes next.
Grid: 1. decision stated in the first minute; 2. reason given, without criticizing senior management; 3. next steps discussed.
Annual review, delegation, leadership: scenarios 6 to 8
For the annual review, allow 12 minutes: the employee needs time to give their own assessment.
6. Annual review: differing assessments
Objective: start from the employee's self-assessment, rely on facts, set an objective.
Situation: Karim, a support technician, met two of his three objectives; he did not train the two new hires. Yet he gave himself the top rating across the board.
Secret brief: you were never given time to train anyone. If the manager starts with their own rating, shut down. If they ask for your assessment first, engage.
Grid: 1. the employee speaks first; 2. one fact per objective; 3. one new objective, with a figure and a date.
Scenario 7 is a situational leadership role play. The model comes from the life cycle theory of leadership, published by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard in 1969. The manager adapts their behavior to the employee's maturity: independence, ability to take responsibility, motivation to succeed.
As maturity grows, the manager moves from lots of direction and little support to lots of both. Next comes lots of support with little direction, and finally little of either.
7. Delegate the same task to two profiles
Objective: adapt direction and support to the person's experience.
Situation: you are handing over the organization of the team's annual off-site. First round with Léa, who joined 3 months ago; second with Thomas, who has organized it twice before; third round, your choice.
Léa's secret brief: you have never organized an event, and you only admit it if asked. Otherwise, accept without asking anything.
Thomas's secret brief: if the manager spells out every step, get annoyed. If they ask for your plan, present it.
Grid: 1. question about what the person knows how to do; 2. direction and support adapted; 3. check-in points set.
Scenario 8 is a leadership role play: the manager has to stand by a decision and win the help of someone who challenges their position.
8. Manage a former colleague
Objective: hold to a decision while involving the person.
Situation: you have been running the front desk at a town hall for a month, and yesterday you presented the new counter assignments. Nadia, your former colleague, said: "We used to decide together."
Secret brief: you had applied for the job. If you hear "I'm the one who decides", stay cold. If the manager acknowledges that your roles have changed and asks for your view on a specific point, relax.
Grid: 1. change of role named; 2. objection heard without lengthy justification; 3. contribution requested.
Where to start with your managers
Christina Lacerenza and colleagues' meta-analysis (2017) pools 335 samples. Leadership training turns out to be much more effective than previously thought, including for transfer to the job. Among the design choices the study supports: several methods combined (especially practice), feedback, spaced sessions, and face-to-face rather than self-paced training.
- Run two cards per session, close to what your managers actually face.
- Space out the sessions, and open each one with what managers have tried since the last.
- Keep face-to-face time for practice: concepts such as the SBI model or Hersey and Blanchard's four combinations can be covered beforehand, in a short module. Our step-by-step tutorial shows how to build one.
Complement's AI authoring tool generates this module from your materials, with end-of-chapter quizzes. An avatar, in French or English, presents the concepts, quizzes the learner and gives spoken feedback on their answers. The scenes themselves are played between managers.
To prepare the module for your next session: 7-day free trial, no credit card required, with up to 5 learners.