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12 Team Leadership Development Activities & Tips

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Leadership shouldn’t just be a title—the best leaders know that leadership development activities are the key. They’re your secret weapons for creating extraordinary teams and harnessing your superpowers.

Too many of today’s leaders get caught up in their titles and status, completely missing the point of true leadership. They forget that leadership development activities and training exercises are essential to continually develop their skills. 

Successful leadership is a daily practice that relies on people-focused personality and skills—these skills have nothing to do with how you look on an org chart. As Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

This article explores how true leadership can serve as an ongoing journey of growth and how leadership training activities can help. Are you ready to lead differently? 

How Does Leadership Affect Teams?

Leadership is all about influencing the behaviors, attitudes, and thoughts of others. As a leader, your actions are held to an unspoken standard of what’s appropriate and what’s not. 

Team members learn about acceptable behaviors by observing the actions of their leaders. Office dress code is a good example of this. By wearing clothes that meet the dress code, a leader demonstrates in an indirect manner which attire is acceptable. 

While employees should have access to a clearly defined dress code, they’ll likely also take queues from how their leader dresses. This is called leading by example. 

Likewise, when you get your employees involved in leadership team building activities, you’re strengthening their bonds and skills. You’re also showing them what’s expected of leaders in your organization so they know what to aim for in order to advance their careers. 

4 Tips for Strong Leadership

Before we start looking at some popular leadership development activities, let’s review some of the essentials of strong leadership. From productivity to consistency, each of these top tips will help strengthen your foundation and be the leader your team members need. 

1. Do the Work That Others Expect You to Do

Actions speak louder than words. What you do, the steps you take, and the decisions you make have an overall impact on how others perceive you.

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If you’re hard-working, meticulous, and dependable, you can subtly set expectations and encourage your team members to strive to meet similar standards. The same goes for the quality of your work—if you don’t do the work that’s expected of you, you can’t expect your team members to do what’s expected of them. And even if you do, it won’t make you a good leader. 

Your actions as a leader have a large impact on company culture, and it’s up to you to show your employees what your workplace is all about. 

Bottom Line: Great leaders hold themselves up to the same standards as they would their team members.

2. Be Positive 

Effective leaders don’t just hear problems—they find positive solutions. You should be able to help solve the problems your team members are facing on a day-to-day basis. 

When your team comes to you with problems, they expect you to help solve them. Being positive while you do so helps encourage them to continue turning to you for help and shows them how to behave when they’re solving problems, too. 

Be a compassionate listener, provide helpful advice, and follow your words with concrete actions. If you don’t have a solution for a problem, take ownership of that fact, be positive about the situation, and work with your team to solve it. It’s all about helping your team find a solution and guiding them through the process of finding alternative methods of addressing the situation.

Bottom Line: A good leader can use positivity to turn obstacles into learning opportunities. 

3. Be Approachable for Your Team Members

As the team leader, you’re one of the most important resources for your team. It’s important to make sure that this resource (that’s you!) is accessible to them at all times. When you’re not there for your team members, you’re wasting company money and preventing your employees from flourishing. 

If you exude positive energy and a judgment-free attitude, your team will be more likely to approach and trust you with their concerns, questions, and suggestions. 

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One of the best ways to ensure open communication is to create an open-door policy—this allows all employees to chat with upper management whenever they have concerns. It’s a great way to build trust and transparency, and you can tweak it however you need to for your organization and situation. 

Bottom Line: Approachable leaders foster trust and open communication, which helps teams strengthen trust and collaboration. 

4. Always Be Consistent 

While anyone can be placed in a position of authority, it’s the leaders who can gain the respect and trust of their team members. Your employees need to see you consistently setting a good example. 

An inconsistent leader sets the standard for an inconsistent company culture. Unless you want inconsistent team members, that’s not the way to create a productive and healthy workplace. 

Make sure you’re always doing what’s right for the team. Support them in developing their skills, and be there to defend them in the good times and the bad. 

Bottom Line: Trust and respect are built on consistent supportive and positive behavior. 

leadership activities that work

12 Impactful Leadership Development Activities 

There are many ways to improve leadership skills within your organization. Therefore, it is crucial to extend leadership skills activities and training to all team members, not just team leaders. These activities are designed to identify natural leadership abilities within the team and may uncover potential leaders who can step into leading roles within the organization.

Leadership training activities, workshops, exercises, and programs help team members develop a wide range of skills that are essential for effective leadership. By engaging all team members in these activities, organizations can build a strong and capable leadership team.

The highlighted leadership development activities mentioned above can help team members manage stress, connect with each other, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and more. Cultivating team improv skills, participating in Corporate Survivor challenges, completing Team and Leadership DNA assessments, attending professional development workshops, and engaging in emotional intelligence training are just a few examples of activities that can benefit all team members.

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By implementing these leadership development activities, organizations can create a more cohesive and effective team. Encouraging all team members to participate in these activities can lead to increased engagement, improved communication, and enhanced performance across the organization. Ultimately, investing in the development of all team members can contribute to the overall success of the team and the organization as a whole.

Participants Engage in Leadership Activities for Adults

Participants will split into small groups, assign specific roles, and then work to replicate a model in a set amount of time while working with simple components.

iBuild leadership activity for adults

Strengths Finder 2.0

Strengths Finder 2.0 is based on Clifton StrengthsFinder Training. This simple online assessment comes with accompanying resource materials to serve as guides for discovering the true strengths of your team members.

It’s designed to put success—both in life and leadership—within the grasp of every participant from your team.

Maximize Team Potential with Leadership Development Activities

Investing in team leadership activities exercises will always pay off if your goal is to work toward a motivated and productive team. It’ll show your team that you’re not placing yourself on a pedestal as “The Leader,” but looking to do your best and bring out the best in every employee.

By creating a supportive and healthy environment, you can foster a positive company culture that will benefit your organization and employees. Remember, a title does not define your leadership qualities, but your abilities and behaviors do.

Do you want to strengthen your team and leadership skills? We’re here to help! At TeamBonding, we’ve been learning what works best for over two decades. In that time, we’ve identified the most effective leadership activities for adults everywhere.

Contact TeamBonding to see what we can do for you. Don’t forget to check out the rest of our professional development programs for more ideas.

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