“A great leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”
If you are an employer looking to imbibe a lasting sentiment of leadership among your employees, this article is just the perfect read for you.
In this article, we discuss in detail a host of leadership training activities for employees that will not only shape your employees into the leaders of tomorrow, but such leadership activities also facilitate a greater degree of communication and engagement among themselves.
Table of Content
Leaders are indispensable to a company’s growth for they help regulate the following aspects:
- Making sure that the workplace climate is inclusive and comfortable for all.
- Instilling motivation and inspiration among the team members.
- Defining a common set of values for the team and making sure they adhere to it.
- Coming up with strategies to improve team spirit and bonding.
- Looking after the wellbeing of their employees.
- Ensuring that the communication between team members doesn’t falter.
- Fostering leadership skills in their subordinates.
It is no secret that the backbones of the world’s most successful and established companies are formed by good and effective leadership. And yet, there continues to be a dearth of quality leaders among us.
This is primarily attributed to the visible lack of leadership-building activities in the majority of the corporations out there.
Moreover, when it comes to building teams, leadership training activities for employees can prove to be extremely productive, engaging, and thought-provoking. Not to mention, if executed properly, they can double up as highly efficient ice-breakers as well.
In the segments below, we discuss a set of 17 effective leadership activities that you can try out with your employees at the earliest. But before we do that, let’s start by addressing some fundamental questions.
What is a Leadership Training Activity?
A leadership training activity is broadly defined as an individual or team exercise that allows the employees to examine and subsequently refine their abilities in a controlled situation.
By nature, these drills aren’t much different from those adopted by the world’s leading sports teams in the buildup to an important competition.
The end goal of these leadership workshops/activities for leadership is to prepare the team members for tackling any adverse situations that might come their way.
Besides promoting learning and inspiring innovation, leadership activities also work towards addressing the areas where significant leadership gaps exist. They are:
Transparency
For employees to be able to trust and respect one another, there must exist a healthy layer of transparency at every hierarchical level of the organization.
Failure of transparency within an organization sets off a chain of extremely undesirable events. At the grassroots, it causes a lack of communication which in turn snowballs to eventually hamper the quality of the final output.
Internal Collaboration
A good leader not only pushes the individual team members to reach their maximum potential but is also responsible for ensuring that they collaborate and coordinate amicably with one another. Therefore, a leader needs to have sound conflict resolution skills.
Performance Management
A leader is responsible for defining the framework based on which they can measure the performance of their employees. This allows them to both understand their members’ behavior and identify the scope of improvement.
Goes without saying, leadership skills don’t come naturally to everyone. These leadership training activities do in essence help employees adopt a routine of dedication, commitment, and self-awareness.
Ultimately contributing to their personal and professional growth and leadership skills.
Benefits of Team Leadership Activities
There are multiple benefits of team leadership activities. Some of them have been stated below:
- Leadership training activities help improve the workforce’s overall productivity by instilling a sense of purpose and direction.
- Leadership development activities significantly reduce employee turnover as they promote more engagement.
- Leadership development activities nurture future leaders, giving the company a choice to assign leadership positions from within their talent pool.
- Leadership development training teaches employees new strategies that help them hone their managerial skills and abilities.
- Developing leadership skills allow employees to work upon their risk management skills.
- Leadership training activities are a great way of communicating to your employees that you care about them, thereby improving the corporate culture in the process.
- Leadership development activity transforms employees into better decision-makers, allowing them to make informed and intelligent business decisions.
Want To Benefits of Knowledge Base For Your Business?
Get in touch with us and we will share how the knowledge base can benefit your business in many ways!
17 Activities For Leadership Training For Employees
While leadership training activities are incredibly crucial, settling upon the right set of activities for your employers can be fairly tricky. Keeping that in mind, we’ve compiled below a curated list of the 17 most effective leadership activities for employees. Read on to find out more about them!
The Leader’s Task
Ideal for fostering a sentiment of accountability among your employees.
The first step of this activity involves organizing an essay competition or a debate that tackles various leadership topics. The contest has to be designed in such a manner that only a few individuals can emerge winners at the end.
At the end of this round, segregate the winners and the remaining participants into two different groups. Now, create teams of two and three and assign the winners of the first round as the leaders or captains of these teams.
Once this is done, hand over different assignments to all the leaders. It is their responsibility now to organize their team as per the requirement of the assignment.
The teams that emerge victoriously are rewarded, and those who don’t are allocated additional office hours or duties.
30 Seconds Left
Ideal for improving the communication of your employees.
The task is fairly simple. Gather around your employees and ask them to close their eyes and think of the most exciting moment of their life. Allow them one minute to do so.
Once they’re ready with their responses, ask them to repeat the activity and filter out the best 30 seconds out of the moment that they had chosen.
Give them around 2 minutes to reflect upon their experience and prepare their response. At the end of those 2 minutes, ask them to share their responses. Urge them to maintain transparency and honesty while narrating their experiences.
Not only does this task help build clear communication but also fosters emotional intelligence, two traits that are essential for a successful leader.
Race Of The Leaders
Ideal for gauging an employee’s self-esteem and self-confidence.
Moreover, it rouses leadership behaviors, allowing your employees to distinguish themselves from the crowd. The first step of this task involves making your employees jot down a list of leadership qualities on a sheet of paper.
Ask them to write down about ten to twenty statements that they think express leadership qualities.
These statements could be something like, “I don’t blame others for my actions”, “I never shy away from accountability”, and the like.
Once they’re done writing, collect all the sheets and ask your employees to gather around. Now, one by one, read out aloud all the sentences that have been mentioned in the paper.
Ask your employees to put one step forward for every statement that they resonate with.
Every time someone steps forward, ask them to justify their step in detail. Employees must only step forward if they’re completely willing to hand over an explanation for their steps.
From an employer’s perspective, this task gives you a great insight into some of the lesser-known traits of your employers and spots individuals who have leadership potential.
The “What If” Game
This situational leadership philosophy is ideal for assessing your employees’ problem-solving and decision-making faculties.
Start the activity by gathering around your employees and presenting them with various hypothetical problem statements.
Keep the statements fairly challenging such as, “One day you wake up to discover that your company has lost its funding. How do you react to this information and how do you plan on conveying the same to your employees“.
Give them about 5 minutes to reflect on their answers, and ask them to express it in detail on a piece of paper. Going through the various responses will allow you to gain an idea about the analytical and rational thinking abilities of your employees, as well as observe their presence of mind.
The Survival Game
Ideal for identifying employees who have strong creative thinking and strategic thinking skills.
To start the game, you first have to divide your employees into teams of 5 to 10.
Once the teams have been formed, present them with a hypothetical life-threatening situation. Also, mention a list of about 20 odd items that they can make use of to rescue themselves. Ask them to justify the usage of each item that they use.
Allow them around 10 minutes to form their answers. Such an exercise not only prompts the employees to think on their feet but also lets them problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Shark Tank
Ideal for testing the business intelligence and presentation skills of your employees, values that you would look for in a future effective leader.
Start the game by dividing the employees into teams of 3 to 5.
Ask each one of them to come up with a new business idea and prepare a pitch for the same. The pitch should include the brand’s name, tagline, marketing plan, business plan, financial projections, and potential roadblocks.
Once the teams are done with their pitches, ask them to present one after another. To win, the teams not only have to convince the panelists to approve their pitches but also get them to put their money in the same.
Minefield
This team-building activity is ideal for team bonding.
Create teams of 5 to 10. Employees are required to blindfold one team member and specify an obstacle course or “minefield” for them.
Once the minefield has been laid out, the other members of the team are supposed to help their blindfolded member navigate the obstacle course only by using specific verbal cues, none of which should exceed 2-3 words.
This activity is very useful for honing the employees’ communication skills and for building trust among them.
The Human Icebreaker
Ideal for breaking the tension in a room encouraging conversation and group discussion among your employees.
This task requires each employee to come up with a set of questions that relate to people but are general. Questions could be something like, “Who plays tennis?”, “Who has a pet cat?”, and the kind.
Once the questions have been listed out, the participants must interact with one another to find the individuals who fulfill the criteria of their questions. The employee who gets the most of their questions answered, wins.
This task is great for developing communication as well as inter-personal skills.
Leaders You Admire
Ideal for understanding each employee’s leadership parameters or desirable leadership characteristics.
In this game, the participants get together to discuss their favorite leaders and highlight the reasons behind the same.
Besides improving team cohesion, it helps employers understand what qualities and attributes their employees look for in a leader.
Round Tables
This leadership training activity is Ideal for building delegation skills and successful leadership skills.
In this game, teams are formed, and four tables are set up, each with a different task. One of the group members is appointed as team leader for each of these small groups.
The tasks must entail different responsibilities that can be delegated among the team members. The team leader is required to carry out this delegation.
Zoom
This is one of the amazing team exercises that’s ideal for testing the employee’s patience, communication skills, and tolerance.
Here, the participants are required to stitch up a coherent story from a set of sequential pictures that are provided at random.
They must determine the correct sequence of the story while being unable to see the pictures that the other participants possess.
Tallest Tower
This leadership activity is ideal for improving team communication and coordination.
In this game, the participants are supposed to make use of the objects that are readily available around them to build the tallest free-standing structure.
Besides testing their creative problem-solving skills, the game also throws light on the ability of a team to delegate their tasks.
What I Need From You
This leadership activity is ideal for improving transparency and group communication among employees, especially among those who are working together in a team.
The participants are required to clearly articulate the expectations they have from their fellow employees. And in turn, engage in active listening when it’s their colleague’s turn.
In the process, they acknowledge each other’s requirements and work collectively towards resolving the issues raised during the task.
Chinese Puzzle
Ideal for improving team coordination and bonding.
Here, the participants are required to stand in a circle, close their eyes, and put their hands into a circle. While their eyes are still shut, they aim to find two other hands to hold.
Afterward, they open their eyes and the group has to attempt to get back into a circle without letting go of the hands they are holding. They’re allowed to change their grips, however.
Pass The Hoop
This leadership activity is ideal for promoting problem-solving and teamwork.
Participants are required to stand in a circle and hold hands. One person in the group puts a hula hoop around their arm.
Subsequently, the game requires them to pass the hula hoop all the way around the circle, testing their communication skills and coordination in the process.
Explore Your Own Values
Ideal for discovering your employee’s intuition.
It is conducted over multiple rounds. In the first round, every participant lists down at least 10 values that they consider to be most valuable to them. Each value is written down in a separate post-it note.
Every subsequent round requires them to discard 3 values, meaning 3 post-it notes, which comparatively hold lesser importance for them. The rounds continue until each participant is left with just 3 post-it notes, i.e., values.
At the end of the game, encourage participants to reflect upon their choices and discover more about their fellow employee’s personalities.
Silver Lining
Ideal for gaining insight into the different perspectives of your employees.
Form teams of 2 to conduct this activity. Make sure that the two have worked together on a project that turned out to be negative for them.
Ask one person to describe all the negative aspects of the project, and the other to talk about the positive takeaways, i.e., the silver lining. In the course of sharing these perspectives, the teammates forge deeper relationships with one another and improve the overall team bonding team-building skills in the process.
Decided To Create An Internal Knowledge Base?
CloudTutorial is an advanced knowledge base platform, allowing you to create an internal knowledge base platform.
Some examples of leadership activities are captaining your school football team, presiding as the president of your debate society, getting assigned as team leader for a particular project, taking the lead in a community outreach program, and the like.
The skills of leadership include having the ability to delegate tasks, ensure proper communication techniques, excellent presentation skills, and meet deadlines among others.
A good team leader is someone who puts the interest of their team members before themselves and is an expert problem-solver and decision-maker.
They are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
Conclusion
Identifying effective leaders is as crucial to your company’s future as finding new business prospects. The 17 activities stated above will not only engage employees and help you foster leadership and entrepreneurial skills among your employees but also play a significant role in improving the culture and environment of your company.
To create such leadership training activities documents and articles, make use of CloudTutorial that is a leading knowledge sharing platform, allowing businesses to create a knowledge base for their employees to guide them.
Try it out before you decide.
Create a test article NOW!
Using this tool, all you have to do is add your first test article and see how it looks. Now, you don’t have to sign-up or login into CloudTutorial software just to check how your first article appears.
