My advice from leading shorter-term hack sessions at work and game jams: 1) Emphasise that the primary goal is for "us to have fun". This immediately takes the

My advice from leading shorter-term hack sessions at work and game jams: 1) Emphasise that the primary goal is for "us to have fun". This immediately takes the pressure off, and helps put the 'thon in perspective. 2) Emphasise a secondary goal of "getting something complete", regardless of whether it's the perfect product or not. For gamejams, it's usually a struggle to get a fully-buildable and playable game out the gate, so setting expectations low re: functionality makes sure you at least have a working product at the end of it. Once you have that, you can focus on incrementally introducing features. Again, this takes the pressure off. 3) Think of it less as leadership, and more of a case of "filling in the blanks". In those times where there is a bit of silence amongst the group in terms of what to do, simply speak up and say what you think could work well. Others will often be happy to just accept that and move forward. 4) If someone else has strong feelings about a certain decision or direction, hear them out and go with it if it makes sense to you. It's more about exchanging ideas as equals rather than the "leader's" way or the highway. 5) Your leadership will come most to the fore when it comes to coordinating a completed product as time wanes on. Often the team can get caught up in what they're doing, so you need to push a little to make sure things are on track. Things like: "OK we have 2 days left. Shall we draw a line in the sand with the database by 12 noon, and then just focusing on tidying things up and making sure there are minimal bugs"? 6) Proactively offer to help or contribute to what other members of your team are doing throughout the 'thon. A good way to to this is to have something specific in mind to contribute, and ask the person if they are OK if you do that. This takes the pressure off them to come up with something you can assist with themselves. Doing this role models good teamwork to the rest of the team, and they may start doing this amongst themselves too.