The psychological climate is an important component of every work team. In a team where a friendly atmosphere prevails, there are fewer problems. Employees are more loyal and motivated. Therefore, it is not surprising that every manager tries to influence the team’s cohesion and improve the organization’s microclimate. One of the effective methods of improving team interaction is leadership team building.
Leadership Team Building: Definition, Functions, and Tasks
Leadership team building is a specially designed event to unite a single, strong, and effective team. The members aim to achieve a common goal: interaction, complementing, support, respect, and harmonious interaction.
The main task of team building is the unification of each employee into a single system for establishing relations within the organization and the successful work of each of its links. At the current stage, this method is very popular both among small businesses and among giant organizations with a world-famous reputation.
Functions of leadership team building:
- Training employees to work in a team, in particular, division of roles in a team, collective resolution of controversial issues, development of the ability to use the resources of each team member, etc.;
- Creation and maintenance of friendly relations in the team;
- Adaptation of new employees to the team;
- Removal of psychological tension and reduction of conflict situations;
- Increasing the level of trust and mutual assistance in the team;
- Increasing the level of personal responsibility for the result;
- The transition of employees’ thinking from a state of competition to a state of cooperation;
- Increasing team spirit;
- Increasing the willingness of employees to share experience, openly discuss problems, analyze past experience, draw conclusions, and consider mistakes;
- Increasing the initiative level of employees.
One of the most important functions of team building is identifying incompatible people and determining ways of their non-conflict interaction, which is especially important at the first stage – the stage of team formation. Team building is especially important at the stages of formation and normalization since the experience of institutions that have achieved significant success in organizational and innovative activities confirms that work teams play the most critical role.
Therefore, a leader and manager’s most important professional quality is the ability to form a coherent and cohesive team. Various leadership team-building activities help to unite the team and identify potential leaders. Find out more about this below.
Effective Leadership Team Building Activities You Should Pay Attention To
Team building is one of the most promising corporate management models, which ensures the company’s overall development. In addition, it is one of the most effective tools for personnel management. However, various activities are required to ensure the effectiveness of leadership team building. The top 10 leadership team-building activities are described in the following sections.
Online Team Building Games
Multiplayer online games can be an excellent activity for team building. Now many specialized games contribute to the development of team building. These can be quests where the participants look for a way out by solving a series of riddles. The second option is simulation games.
Players must learn to make effective decisions together as the game progresses and determine the path forward. This helps bring team members together and requires leadership to be successful.
Secret Agent: The First Mission is a striking example of an online team-building game. This is a classic exploration game in which players must roam a vast world and look for shelters, each containing blueprints, traps, and puzzles.
Outdoor Scavenger Hunt
Treasure hunting is great leadership and team-building activity. The game is usually played outdoors, most often in the forest. The goal is to find the key to the treasure chest. Teams are created, each with its own set of search hints. Each team soon realizes that the only way to find the treasure is to work together. Hints can only be obtained when the participants complete certain team tasks.
Team collaboration imitates a workflow where participants must first complete their tasks before the entire company can realize its goal.
Workshops
Collaborative learning is a great way to bring a team together. An effective form of group learning today is the organization of workshops. Workshops are devoted to considering a particular problem and providing for its discussion. Discussing issues enables participants to become more deeply acquainted with the problems and various points of view and discover gaps in their knowledge, which stimulates cognitive needs. This is the motivational function of the workshop.
The most effective forms of workshops are disputes, discussions, round tables, role-playing games, press conferences, etc. Each of these forms is unique, has specific functions, and has its method of preparation, organization, and conduct.
Suitcase Mystery
Suitcase Mystery is one of the most popular team games offered by Invite Japan. It resembles an escape in a box. The game includes a series of consecutive tasks and puzzles. The players must solve them. It is important to do this quickly since the game duration is 60 minutes.
Each of the puzzles tests the different skills of team members. The situations are often quite complex. Therefore, in order to find a solution, participants have to unite, work together, exchange important information, and make decisions as quickly as possible. The game reveals the talents and leadership skills of team members.
Yes Let’s!
This is another exciting activity that contributes to forming a leadership team. It is very easy to do, and no preparation time is required. The advantage is that the participants become leaders during the “Yes Let’s!” game. So, everyone can reveal talent, show unique skills, and demonstrate strengths.
The leader invites team members to do something. It can be anything. For example: “Let’s become superheroes!”, “Let’s fly into space!” etc. The more original the activity, the more exciting the game. Team members like the proposal say, “Yes, let’s!” and act out the activity. Those who don’t like the offer just collapse onto the floor and do nothing. The game continues as long as there are those who are ready to participate in the activities.
Leaders You Admire
This is a relatively simple but effective leadership team-building activity. All players are divided into teams in groups of three or four people. Each of the participants must remember the leader they admire. It can be any person. For example, celebrities, historical figures, current employers, etc. It is essential to determine why this particular person is admired and to remember personal traits, strengths, achievements, etc. Then everyone should tell the other members of their team about this leader.
The game is exciting. It allows participants to determine the characteristics of an ideal leader, and understand such a person’s values. By collecting team ideas, participants can create a list of qualities essential to a good leader and strive to develop these in themselves.
Leadership Styles
“Leader Styles” is another entertaining game. Its purpose is leadership team building. During the activity, participants are divided into teams of approximately 5 people. Each team is involved in discussing the question, “Who is the leader?”. The four key leadership styles, such as delegating, coaching, directing, and supporting, are considered in detail.
During the game, participants receive pieces of paper and divide them into four parts. Brainstorming is carried out. Each section of the paper outlines situations appropriate for each leadership style. There usually is a discussion at the end of the game. General and specific situations for different styles are revealed.
Evaluate Your Yesterday
This simple activity involves sharing and discussing ideas about members’ daily schedules and how they fit into long-term plans. The ability to form clear goals is vital for every leader. Therefore, this activity is very popular today.
At the beginning of the game, the participants divide a piece of paper lengthwise into two equal columns. In the first, they write what they did yesterday. And in the second, they evaluate the compliance of their activities with long-term goals. Then there is a discussion. Compliances and inconsistencies are determined. Actions that contribute to a faster and more effective goal implementation are allocated.
One Year from Now
During this activity, participants think about their future and try to break down big goals into small steps. The course of the game is quite simple. Team members write down how they see their careers in a year. Then they work in reverse. It is determined what will be done to achieve the goals in 6 months, 3 months, etc. This is followed by discussion in teams.
Scenario Improvisation
The game begins with team members writing down a few leadership situations (holding a meeting, starting a project, etc.). Then the pieces of paper are collected and mixed. Teams come out in front of the audience one by one, take one of the pieces of paper, and act out the described situations. This is a good activity that allows participants to practice leadership skills and gain new experiences.
Conclusion
Therefore, leadership team building is not just a method of uniting the team. It performs a vital educational function – teaching teamwork. The above activities will help in achieving this goal.
