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Effective leadership is the crux of any successful organization. And while self-development books and on-site experience are helpful, leadership activities are a fun way to encourage team building and employee growth.
Whether your team is on-site or online, finding unique ways to bring everyone together to learn new skills is a great way to improve engagement. Who knows — outside-the-box activities might even promote outside-the-box thinking.
And everyone has the potential to lead, if fostered correctly. You can use leadership games to prepare more entry-level employees or pinpoint great potential managers. Whatever the cause, there’s an activity to suit.
What are leadership activities?
Leadership activities are games and workshops designed to teach employees how to effectively lead a team. They focus on teaching a wide range of skills, like communication, decision-making, and delegation, as teammates work together to complete tasks and come to collective decisions.
Sometimes, upper management organizes and conducts leadership exercises. Or an employer might bring in an off-site professional or career coach to determine the best activities for the team and carry them out.
8 workplace benefits of hosting leadership activities
According to Highrise, delays in leadership development can cost companies 7% of annual sales. So, while your teams will likely enjoy participating in leadership activities and games, hosting them also positively impacts a company’s bottom line. One 2017 study even found that leadership training programs can lead to a 20% increase in overall job performance and a 28% increase in leadership behaviors, all of which contribute to a company’s success.
Here are eight more benefits of hosting these activities.
1. Improved communication
Leadership exercises are typically group activities where employees must speak up and share their ideas to effectively solve problems. They must also actively listen to their coworkers to catch important information and ensure everyone feels supported. And all this practice combines to improve their communication skills, making them better leaders who know how to express themselves and advocate for others’ ideas.
2. Strengthened commitment
Every good relationship is a two-way street. Just like managers expect direct reports to commit to their work, employees want leaders that are committed to their professional development. And that’s precisely what hosting and participating in these activities showcases.
3. Enhanced creativity
Creativity enables leaders to think outside the box and approach problem-solving from an unconventional standpoint. And unique leadership games take employees out of their element to practice finding innovative solutions to common workplace problems.
4. Increased trust
Establishing yourself as a trustworthy leader is critical in developing high-performing teams. Employees who view their leaders as reliable are more likely to approach with questions and concerns, creating an open and communicative work environment. If the reverse is true, employees might experience low morale, and the leadership team might miss out on leveraging unique employee insights.
5. More accountability
As a leader, you’re partially accountable for your organization’s performance — good or bad. So you must own your and your team’s progress and productivity. And one way to do so is to encourage your team to participate in activities that boost their performance. You can also see which direct reports take responsibility for their self-improvement by noting those who attend — and really put effort into — these activities.
6. Boosted positivity
Creating a positive work environment and strengthening employee morale help leaders and team members work collaboratively toward a common goal, since all employees enjoy their coworkers and feel happy and motivated to contribute meaningfully. And high employee morale can also improve retention rates and symbolizes a more loyal and engaged team.
7. Increased flexibility
No matter the workplace, unexpected obstacles arise. A good leader knows how to remain composed and sees challenges as opportunities to grow.
Often, employees don’t know what to expect from training activities, making these an excellent chance to practice their critical thinking and cognitive flexibility.
8. Improved delegation skills
Effective delegation requires several soft skills, like:
- Time management
- Active listening
- Effective communication
- Task management
Many team-building exercises focus on developing these sorts of behavioral leadership skills so managers can confidently assess individual skill sets and assign work.
3 types of leadership activities
Most leadership exercises fall under one of three categories. You might choose a variety of activities that cover all three or find one style perfectly suited to your team’s needs.
1. Situational leadership activities
Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard developed the situational leadership theory to emphasize the importance of adapting different leadership styles to specific situations and team needs.
An example of a situational leadership activity is a game that places one person in charge of guiding their teammates in completing a task. Exercises like this are an excellent way to place new leaders in an unknown environment and see how they communicate with each teammate's learning requirements.
2. Leadership development activities
Leadership development activities work on building employee leadership skills in an interactive environment, usually facilitated by a third party. Examples of leadership development exercises include workshops, leadership retreats, and peer learning groups.
To incorporate these activities in the workplace, you might organize a retreat that takes all leaders outside the office to participate in various leadership exercises or host a workshop where a professional coach helps employees with shared management concerns.
3. Leadership team-building activities
Leadership team-building activities aim to improve the collaboration skills among team leaders and their direct reports. These exercises enhance your leader's teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills in group settings.
You might set aside time within the work week for a leader and their team to participate in a problem-solving game, monitoring the manager’s words and actions and offering feedback afterward.
6 leadership activity examples
Leadership activities are more than icebreakers for team bonding. They’re purposefully-designed games meant to enhance everyone’s teamwork and leadership qualities.
Here’s a list of six fun leadership activities to offer your team.
In-person leadership-building activities
Marshmallow challenge
One of the more common team-building activities, this requires teams to compete against one another to create the highest-standing structure or the strongest bridge. Organizers give teams a collection of everyday items, including:
- Spaghetti
- Toothpicks
- String
- Tape
- Marshmallows
Divide your leadership team or employees into small groups and decide whether the teams will compete to create the tallest tower or strongest bridge. Give each team an even assortment of the materials above and a time limit for completing their structure. You might amp this challenge up by seeing which structure can withstand a certain weight.
This game pushes employees to collaborate and think creatively to problem-solve. The groups may assign their own team leader or contribute equally to developing their structure. Either way, this exercise requires strong active listening skills and task delegation.
Human knot game
This activity focuses on team collaboration and communication. Get everyone to form a circle facing one other and ask each participant to lock hands with two separate players. This hand-locking creates a human tangle that group members need to untangle together.
Once they’ve untangled the knot, the game is complete. And the game starts again if any participant’s hands unlock from their teammate.
Leadership race
This is a great way to spot leadership qualities like self-advocacy and confidence. Appoint a designated caller who will call out leadership traits to the rest of the group. Then, have all other team members stand in a straight line shoulder-to-shoulder. The caller is responsible for calling out qualities such as positive, people-oriented, self-motivated, etc., and players who relate to the trait step forward.
Each player taking a step forward must explain to the group how they embody that leadership quality. And the player who takes the most steps or reaches the finish line wins.
Tip: Select a small panel of judges to determine whether or not the player’s reasoning is acceptable to keep the game fair.
Minefield
This interactive leadership game builds trust and effective communication. Teams of two must work cooperatively to navigate an obstacle course — but one player is blindfolded.
Here’s how you play:
- Build an obstacle course and divide your team into groups of two.
- One player wears a blindfold and stands at the beginning of the course, and the other stands outside the course to give instructions.
- Ask the navigator to use commands such as “forward,” “backward,” “left,” and “right” to guide the blindfolded player.
- The navigator should guide the other player through the obstacle course to ensure they avoid mines (obstacles).
- If the blindfolded player steps on an obstacle, they start again or switch roles with the navigator.
Remote leadership development activities
Silver lining
This exercise promotes positivity and teaches key motivational skills. While on a group video call, have each team member take a turn in telling the group about a negative experience they had while working on a project. After they’re finished telling their story, have the rest of the team point out the positive aspects of the same project and their coworker's contribution.
Exercises like this are a great way for teammates to relate to one another. It also showcases how well employees can share their leadership ideas.
Guess the drawing
This interactive game helps participants improve their communication and creativity skills. To start, one team member must communicate an object with only gestures to the rest of their team, and teammates need to draw what they think their colleague is conceptualizing.
Each person can do this with paper and markers, holding up results to the screen, or with a private whiteboard they share in turn.
Assign the team member gesturing as the meeting host so their video is the largest on screen. While they’re gesturing, they can’t speak or use drawings.
After the description phase, each team member shares their picture. Those who guessed correctly get a point, and those who guessed incorrectly explain why they didn’t understand the description.
Build better leaders for stronger teams
As the common phrase goes, “Leaders aren’t born, they’re made.” And leadership activities are one of the many ways you can develop leadership qualities in every employee.
This investment is well worth it, offering every teammate the chance to work with exceptional — and well-trained managers — that are capable of handling individual learning preferences and workplace concerns. And when you include more entry-level employees in these exercises, you can scout out future managers and build the excellent talent you seek.
