The route to being a good leader is arduous and not always straightforward. If you ask 100 people what constitutes a good leader, you will probably get 100 different responses. However, if you do leadership activities, you will be able to identify who has the skills required to go into that role and what you need to do to increase that potential.
Leaders have a lot of power and responsibility for their teams. Some of the things they should keep in mind are:
- Creating a Workplace Climate
- Motivating team members
- Establishing team values
- Improving team cohesiveness and spirit
- Overseeing their team’s communication and well-being
- Developing others’ leadership abilities
These are not small responsibilities, and leadership abilities do not come readily to everyone. Working hard, being self-aware, and being devoted to personal progress are essential for gradually learning leadership abilities.
Even the most innovative marketing team utilizing the greatest CRM for their marketing agency would be unsuccessful if their communication abilities were deficient. Use them how you see them suitable for your firm. In this article, I will provide a detailed list of team-building activities.
Participating in events that promote further leadership development will help you keep effective leadership practices. You may design these team-building activities according to your company’s needs.
In this article, we have researched 12 team-building activities that you may use in your company to develop more effective leadership and boost team spirit.
12 Team Building Activities That Every Team Leader Should Do
Disney, Kraft, & Volvo utilize scavenger hunts, charity events, murder mystery games, kayaking, and other icebreakers to promote team spirit and efficiency.
Here are 12 leadership-building activities to help you enhance your leadership skills and establish stronger working relationships:
1. Code of Conduct- A Great Trust-Building Activity
A simple yet significant team-building activity establishes the tone for a gathering and fosters consensus on similar values. Ideal for kicking off an event or session. On a whiteboard, teams write down what is important to them.
How To Play?
- Write the words “Meaningful” and “Pleasant” on a whiteboard.
- Let everyone in the group scream out what they think will make this session valuable and enjoyable. Ask them to put their thoughts on sticky notes instead.
- Create a mind map with each participant’s proposal.
- For each recommendation, confirm that all participants comprehend the concept. If not, revise the proposal until all participants receive unanimous approval.
- Analyze each idea and ask participants how they would guarantee the concept is implemented throughout the session. Stick them on the whiteboard with sticky notes.
- The group’s Code of Conduct is comprised of all thoughts that have been generally agreed upon as “pleasant” and “meaningful.”
How Does It Help Team Leads?
This game would help you establish the correct culture in a group of people and foster mutual trust. It will enable all participants to act on the game’s outcomes. On a separate note, doing so also fosters mutual trust in the organization.
2. The Human Knot- Team-To Develop Problem-Solving Skills
Next on our list of top team-building activities is The Human Knot game. It has long been utilized as a team-building exercise and a smooth way to get to know more people. This engaging problem-solving activity usually takes 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the number of individuals in your party and the complexity of the human knot you build.
How To Play?
- First, participants in the activity must collaborate to generate a list of broad questions such as “who here owns a dog?” or “who drives a red car?”
- Once they have created a list of questions in this fashion, you can have them communicate with one another
- Keep track of how many individuals they spoke with and received replies from for each question.
- By the end of the exercise, the individual with the most correct answers to each question wins
How does it Help Team Leads?
This activity would build collaboration by assisting a group in learning how to collaborate. Furthermore, it develops leaders, enhances team communication skills, and encourages perseverance by fostering trust.
3. Spectrum Mapping-For Team Diversity
Map the diversity of opinions on a subject by arranging them on a spectrum. This is one of the best team-building activities to generate novel ideas and demonstrate the range of viewpoints within a team. It can also inspire those with extraordinary views, which might usually remain silent to contribute.
How To play?
- Begin by defining a few essential issues on which you want participants’ insights and perspectives.
- In the center of a whiteboard, jot down a topic. Then, using sticky notes, invite participants to jot down their thoughts and ideas on the issue. Place these notes in a horizontal line on either side of the topic.
- Once everyone has spoken out, collaborate with the group to arrange the notes as a “range” of ideas. Outlying thoughts should be placed to the right. To the left are similar group thoughts.
Repeat until you have sorted all ideas as a “spectrum,” with the most popular ideas on the far left and the least popular ideas on the far right
How Does It Help Team Leads?
Team building activities like Spectrum mapping reveal individual viewpoints on pressing matters and tell you how many individuals in your group hold specific types of views and where their endpoints are.
4. Minefield- A communication Activity
Minefield team building is an activity that is intended to increase communication skills. Your group will be split into pairs and will follow the guidelines below. Each duo will be encouraged to trust each other and listen intently; this is critical to success
How To Play?
- You may use cushions, office chairs, and other commonly accessible materials.
- Divide the participants into equal teams and assign a leader to each group.
- The group leaders should stand after the obstacle course, facing their blinded team members.
- The team leader must communicate how to overcome obstacles to their team members.
- The leader who gets all of their team members to the opposite side first wins
How Does It Help Team Leads?
Taking chances is essential for every team’s growth and success. Team development activities such as Minefield assist team leaders in determining how their team will perform in high-risk situations.
5. Make Your Movie- To Enhance Creative Skills
What better approach to promoting creativity than having your team create their short film? This enjoyable activity may be done both indoors and outdoors. It will take some equipment, such as cameras, tripods, and microphones, but your team will enjoy it.
Instructions
- Acquire the necessary equipment, including a quality camera (DSLR cameras will do), shotgun microphones, tripods, and a laptop loaded with film editing cameras
- Form huge groups of participants (minimum 8 people). Request that each team split tasks
- Request that groups develop screenplays for their own 5-7 minute film. As a rule of thumb, a single screenplay page equals one minute of cinema.
- Based on the storyline, teams will construct films and borrow equipment.
- At the end of the activity, show all completed films and offer awards to the top selections.
How does it help the Team Lead?
Teams must be inventive to achieve the desired story and effects as they work in a constrained space. This can encourage unusual, lateral thinking.
6. Active Listening Activities- To Enhance Team Productivity
This technique benefits both leaders and employees. Active listening is paying attention to what someone is saying while using eye contact, facial expressions, and specific movements to convey enthusiasm.
How To Play?
- Make each group member stand in front of the others and read a narrative you have written
- Include questions for the presenters to ask after their session.
- After each participant has finished their narrative, they randomly choose audience members to recollect precise details or incidents from the story.
How Does It Help Team Leads?
This is an excellent practice for employees to gain better listening skills, but it is also vital for department heads to learn how to better grasp their employees’ questions and ideas.
7. Your Favourite Manager- To Evaluate Teammates’ Leadership Qualities
This team-building activity focuses on recognizing commendable attributes that workers value in individuals who lead them.
How To Play?
- Six willing participants should read from notecards describing a boss character
- Allow the remaining participants to collaborate in voicing the good and bad qualities of each ‘manager’ and rating them from worst to best
How Does It Help Team Leads?
Team building activities are also a terrific way to determine the leadership attributes and styles that perform best for your workforce.
Team-building activities are fundamental reasons organizations like Uber, Facebook, and Salesforce have a supportive environment.
Visit Forbes post to know how these businesses leverage great team-building to create overall corporate success.
8. Office Trivia- To analyze Team Knowledge
This game does not need any special equipment or preparation. It can also be held indoors or outdoors, with small or big groups, making it a versatile team-bonding activity.
How To Play?
- Make a list of trivia questions about your place of employment. “What does the cafe sign conclude? “How many people work in the billing department?” and so on
- Make index cards with all of your questions and answers
- Pose questions to the entire group and request responses aloud
- In conclusion, the participant with the most correct answers wins
How Does It Help Team Leads?
A brief activity may be necessary to break the ice and encourage people to engage in an event. In such instances, asking relevant “trivia” questions about the workplace can be effective.
9. The Train Murder Mystery- A Great Puzzle-Solving Activity
This murder mystery team-building activity combines an enjoyable task with a different twist!
How To Play?
- When the session begins, the Event Manager will virtually brief the group, offering information about the murder
- You will practically travel back in time to the 1920s to solve this moving murder case
- Teams then use their cellphones to navigate the evidence by touching on the interactive map and artifacts
- While gathering clues, participants must also use video and augmented reality on their cellphones to collect data and answer the killer
- The team that finds the killer and scores the most points would be declared the winner
How Does It Help Team Leads?
Murder mystery games for team building assign everyone a distinct role within the concept of the mystery. This encourages communication and collaboration, along with plenty of laughter.
10. Campfire Tales- For Team Bonding
A popular activity that encourages storytelling and strengthens team bonds. Teams form a circle and discuss their work experiences.
How To Play?
- Make a list of trigger words for starting a storytelling session. Consider the terms “first day,” “work travel,” and “side project,” among others. Put them on post-it notes.
- Draw two sections on a whiteboard. Place the preceding section’s sticky notes on one side of the whiteboard.
- Instruct a participant to select one trigger word from the sticky notes and describe an event using it
- Rep until you build a “wall of words” with interwoven stories.
How Does It Help Team Leads?
Such team development activities will promote storytelling while also strengthening team relationships. Teams form a circle and share workplace anecdotes, experiences, and helpful information with their peers.
11. Memory Wall-To Appreciate Employee Contribution
A physical activity that generates and recreates shared team experiences. Teams sketch and put their shared experiences on the wall. The wall is a focal point of the team’s bonding throughout the competition.
How To Play?
- Provide each participant with paper, markers, and tape
- Have everyone in the room have a look around. While working together for 15 minutes, write down positive memories of shared events and experiences
- After participants have shared a few memories, have them draw a few of these events on new sheets of paper. The images might represent abstract interpretations of the “memory situation.”
- To create this artwork, they might solicit the assistance of partners who have shared the recollection. Allow up to 30 minutes for them to accomplish this work
- When the time is up out, have participants clip their memory sketches to the wall
- Request that volunteers approach the wall and share their experiences that they taped on the wall with the entire group
How Does It Help Team Leads?
A graphic “memory wall” promotes a welcoming environment while reinforcing strong team relationships. Making each memory into a painting, alone or in groups, adds much-needed lightness and companionship to the practice.
12. Odd Couples- To Build the Art of Respecting Differences In Opinion
Every team comprises people with a variety of personalities. But there are times when these diverse characters share a bond. Recognizing these team members’ distinctions and similarities might improve team relationships.
How To Play?
- Make a list of unusual pairs of things that go well together. As in “peanut butter and jelly,” “chocolate and coffee,” “salt and pepper,” and so on
- On separate pieces of paper, write down the names of the objects in each pair
- Tape a piece of paper to the back of each participant. This should be done for all participants
- Tape opposite pairings on people with contrasting personalities if possible, although this is not required
- Request that participants mix with the group. Their goal is to decipher what is written on their backs
- Participants must find the other half of their pair after deciphering what is written on their backs
- Once participants have identified their partners, they must identify three things they share with their opposite pair
How Does It Help Team Leads?
Bringing different people together is one of the most challenging components of any team-building event. An activity like this might allow individuals to sit down and talk about their experiences with people they might not normally interact with.
Bottom Line
This is a long list of team-building exercises. How you carry out these tasks will be determined by your goal, the team’s size, the surroundings, and the overall prep time.
You want team building to be both successful and enjoyable. Feel free to try some indoor activities outside and vice versa. For best results, combine serious team-building exercises with some Fun antics.
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