Who you select for leadership roles in your organization is crucial to long-term success. Leaders accomplish this through skillful management of their employees, motivating, engaging, and inspiring their team in the process.
Truly great leaders:
- Communicate well
- Listen actively
- Make informed decisions
- Motivate, engage, and inspire their employees
- Act as a guiding light while also empowering their people
- Hold themselves responsible for fostering a spirit of collaboration and mutual respect among their team members
- Are not afraid to speak up when an employee has stepped out of line, but do so professionally and with respect
While some people are innate leaders in certain ways, no one is born a great leader. Becoming one requires developing and honing the necessary leadership skills. Savvy organizations proactively train key employees as part of succession planning to move them into leadership roles when the time is right.
Training future leaders is well worth the investment, as delays in leadership development can cost companies 7% of annual sales. (1) And on the flip side, leadership training programs can lead to a 20% increase in overall job performance and a 28% increase in leadership behaviors. (2)
Incorporating leadership team building activities into offsite meetings and events is an excellent way to help prepare leaders-in-training.
WHAT ARE LEADERSHIP TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES?
The definition of team building, plus the characteristics of the activities, determine their effectiveness for leaders.
Leadership team building activities are exercises—sometimes carried out as a game—that indirectly teach employees the correct methods to lead a workplace team. These activities require participants to use common leadership skills like delegation of work, smart decision-making, and clear communication. Participants work together to complete the exercises successfully, which adds to the team-building element.
In addition to using leadership skills, these activities should be exciting. This is important for ensuring that participants will want to do them rather than feeling like they have no other option.
Inclusivity is another essential component of leadership team building activities. Consider your team’s individual strengths and personalities. Every participant should feel like they were considered during the meeting planning process.
5 EXCELLENT TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES FOR LEADERSHIP
Not just any random exercise is a good fit for developing leadership skills and working as a team. Below is a curated selection of activities that are highly effective in these areas.
1 – Emergency Situation Survival
Split participants into two teams. Then, assign both teams to the same emergency simulation. Some scenarios to try are being stranded in a remote location, fleeing an erupting volcano, rationing oxygen in a malfunctioning space station, or protecting critical data after a system failure.
Present the group with 10 items and ask each team to choose five items they determine will help them survive the situation. Have teams take turns taking each item to ensure fair selection. Once each team has chosen their five items, ask team members to explain why the items would help them survive the crisis.
This exercise helps stimulate strategic thinking and work on problem-solving skills – both qualities of a great leader.
2 – Guided Obstacle Course
One of the most crucial functions of a leader is guiding their employees through different situations. The guided obstacle course activity puts this concept into practice.
Break participants into pairs and instruct one person in each pair to cover their eyes with a blindfold. Then, have the person acting as the guide gently lead their partner by the shoulders or an arm into a room where an obstacle course is set up.
Once both people are in the room, the guide is only permitted to give verbal instructions to help their partner navigate the obstacle course. For the sake of safety, the guide should stay close enough to their partner to catch them if they stumble. This is an essential safety measure.
In addition to developing the skills of guidance and communication, the obstacle course exercise helps build trust between the partners.
3 – Leadership Race
If you have a hunch that certain employees might make good leaders and you want to confirm it, the leadership race is a good place to start. Assign one person to be the caller. Their job is to name qualities that embody a great leader. The rest of the group should assemble themselves in a straight line, standing shoulder-to-shoulder and facing the same direction.
As the caller does this, participants who feel they possess one or more of the qualities will step forward out of the straight line. As each person steps forward, they must provide a sound explanation as to how they embody this trait. A panel of judges will decide whether the explanations make sense.
The participant who gets to the finish line or takes the most steps wins.
4 – Leader’s Task
This three-part activity can be done in one session or spread over several days of a multi-day meeting. The tasks can be a bit time-consuming, so giving participants plenty of time to complete them is essential for success. Offer an attractive reward for the winners of the competition.
- Part 1: Assign participants an essay to write or debate to organize on a specific leadership topic. Use a rubric to determine two to three winners.
- Part 2: Divide the other members of the group into two to three smaller teams and make the winners of part one the leaders of the groups.
- Part 3: Assign the leaders a project and give them the task of organizing their team to successfully complete it. Leave this up to each leader to encourage creativity, analysis, and innovation.
The first team to achieve the set goal wins the prize!
5 – The Round Table
Request the venue to provide four round tables if they are not in the space already. Divide participants into four teams, each one sitting at a table. Choose one person to act as the leader of that team.
Assign each team a multi-step, complex task. The leader is permitted to delegate, direct, and communicate the work necessary to complete the task, but they may not do any of the work themselves.
Keep track of how long it takes each team to finish the project. Once all teams have completed their assignment, instruct them to move to the next table. Begin the process over again, picking a different person as the leader each time. Repeat the process four times so that each team member gets to play the leader role.
Once all four rounds are done, name the team with the lowest overall time total as the winner.
GREAT LEADERS CREATE SUCCESSFUL TEAMS
You should never underestimate the influence of leaders on their teams. The results their team members produce are often heavily impacted by how good their leader is at their job. With this reality in mind, you can see why making time for leadership team building activities at offsite meetings is a wise investment.
Do you want to include leadership team building activities at your next corporate meeting or event? If so, contact Gavel International to see how working with a meeting planning company can benefit your organization.
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SOURCE(S):
1 https://www.tryhighrise.com/blog-posts/leadership-statistics
2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318737359_Leadership_Training_Design_Delivery_and_Implementation_A_Meta-Analysis
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