12 Leadership Games & Activities To Spot Your Future Leaders

Proper leadership is imperative for success at all times. It’s the vision and guidance of the leaders that makes them so important for us. Traits like strong dependability, firm integrity, intelligent analytical skills makes these individuals vital for success in the business world today.

No matter the heaps of advancement, for these traits alone, the need for leaders shall always be there. Therefore, because of this continuous need for leadership, one must always be on the next leader's lookout. One way to do this is through leadership games and activities.

Games have always been an age-old method of finding the best from many for a particular skill set. These can for finding the ones most physically fit, mentally sharp, and an all-around team player.

Amazingly, games and activities can also help you find the ones with the most leadership abilities. Games can point out vital leadership traits like being a team player, having deep analytical abilities, being a strong strategist, etc. Therefore, in spotting your next captain, games can be an effective tool.

So, here are a few of these leadership games and activities that can help you find your leader.

Leadership Games to spot your Future Leaders

1. Tallest Tower

• Tools for the Game: Anything lying around the Office
• Time: 10-15 minutes
• Members: 6-7 in a Team

How to play:

This is a game involving construction of a tower out of any materials participants can find in an office. For this, materials used can be anything from bottles, papers, boxes, etc., whatever they can find. The objective here is to build the tallest tower that can support a marshmallow at the top.

The team with the tallest tower that can hold a marshmallow wins the game. This game involves critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and proper workplace communication. These are a few of the vital characteristics of a leader.

2. Minefield

• Tools for the Game: A few chairs to make a obstacle course
• Time: 10 minutes
• Members: 2 in a Team

How to play:

Minefield is a leadership game that involves navigating through a passage while wearing a blindfold.

You need to design an obstacle course around the office, different for each team. Here, one person wears a blindfold and tries to get past the course while the other shouts out directions. The team to do this in the least amount of time wins the game.

This game mainly focuses on the importance of teamwork and workplace communication.

3. Spotting The Difference

• Tools: N/A
• Time: 5-10 minutes
• Members: 8-9 in a Team

How to play:

This is a replica of the old-school game, which you may find in newspapers to spot the difference between two photos.

To play this game at the office, you need two teams at a time. The participants of two units must stand in a line facing each other. In the first minute, everyone must observe the opposition.

After this, both teams face the other way, and each member changes a few things about themselves. It can be exchanging clothes, putting a pen, folding the sleeves, etc. Once the changes are complete, both teams stand facing each other again.

Now, the members of the opposition must spot the change the other teams did in their time. The team to spot the most differences wins the game.

This game focuses on the essential trait of attention to detail of a leader.

4. Office Trivia

• Tools: Pen and Paper
• Time: 5-10 minutes
• Members: 3-5 in a Team

How to play:

Office Trivia is a straightforward question and answer game to know who knows more about a team.

This game works by asking questions to the opposition players on office trivia. The questions should be on the players rather than their work. At the end of the quiz, the team with the most right answers wins.

The point of this game is to ascertain the knowledge of team members. In a proper leadership approach, to lead a team, you must know the team first. This game will help you decide who knows their team members the best.

5. The Leadership Race

• Tools: Some Open Space
• Time: 10-20 minutes
• Members: Individual race

How to play:

This is a race that uses certain leadership qualities to advance and win.

To play the leadership race, everybody starts at a line and steps forward if they satisfy a specific leadership trait. For example, a referee can say the attribute "reliable.". Now, the participants who think they are reliable can take a step forward and justify their answers.

For every reason that a participant gives, he/she can back it up with an example. If the jury finds the explanation plausible, then the players can proceed. This goes on for 20 or odd traits, and the person who takes the most steps at the end wins.

This game will help you understand who has the right skills for the job.

6. Scavenger hunt

• Tools: Simple office day-to-day supplies
• Time: 15-25 minutes
• Members: 5-8 in a Team

How to play:

This game is a take on the classic scavenger hunt games to search for things in different areas.

The objective of scavenger hunt in the workplace is to find the hidden objects around the office. Each group decides on things to hide around the office and hands the list to the opposition. The team that can find all its stuff in the least amount of time wins the game.

This game emphasizes the significance of teamwork and maintaining one's calm.

Leadership Activities to spot your Future Leaders

1. Situations

• Tools: Pen and Paper
• Time: 10-15 minutes
• Members: Individual or Teams of 2-4

How to participate:

This is a leadership activity wherein teams/individuals face certain hypothetical situations. These can be how to win back clients, cut costs, implement new rules, etc.

After dishing out the situations, give some time to the players to think of their answers. Once the discussion gets over, each team should share their answers with everyone participating.

By practicing this activity, workers exercise their creative thinking ability to tackle situations. This is an essential part of leadership, as one needs to have a different approach to win in difficult situations.

2. Leaders You Admire

• Tools: Pen and Paper
• Time: 10 minutes
• Members: Individuals

How to participate:

In this activity, the participants pick up a leader they admire and write down the reasons why. It can be their style, intelligence, charisma, etc. After a good think about their answers, they share their views with the entire group and ascertain desirable leadership qualities.

It helps one understand what makes a great leader. After the discussion, you can also come to know about the essential leadership traits.

Related Article: 9 Leadership Styles With Their Pros And Cons

3. 30 Seconds on the Clock

• Tools: Pen and Paper
• Time: 10 minutes
• Members: Individuals

How to participate:

This activity involves the workers talking about one of the significant moments of their life. It can be from their professional or personal life. The trick here is to convey the whole experience in 30 seconds.

Through this activity, participants can exercise clear communication in a group. It also promotes emotional intelligence by how people respond to one's moments. These are two of the vital necessities of a future leader.

4. Round Table

• Tools: Pen, Paper, and Tables
• Time: 10-20 minutes
• Members: 4-5 in a Team

How to play:

This is an activity that involves problem-solving skills and time management techniques. In this activity, you need to have teams with a leader in each of them. After deciding on the teams and leaders, a few round tables are scattered around in an area.

Every table will have a task that will require completion to move to the next table. In this activity, the leader must oversee and delegate tasks but can not any task himself/herself. The objective of the team is to advance to as many tables as possible in less time.

This activity looks at determining how well workers can guide and delegate tasks to the team members.

5. Back-to-Back Drawing

• Tools: Pen and Paper
• Time: 5 minutes
• Members: 2 in a team

How to play:

Back-to-Back Drawing is an activity set to establish effective communication within a group. To take part in this activity, you must have groups of two for each team. After this, both persons sit facing the other way.

Here, one member will have an object, and he/she must describe the item to the other person who shall draw it. In no circumstances is the person with the object allowed to say the actual name of the item.

This activity looks at how well two people communicate with each other to solve a problem. In this activity, you'll know who is a great communicator in the team, an essential feature of a leader.

6. Shipwreck

• Tools: Pen and Paper
• Time: 10-15 minutes
• Members: 6-8 in a Team

How to play:

This activity is a hypothetical situation to exercise critical approach, analytical thinking, and teamwork. Here, you give the teams a situation wherein they are on a lone island due to a shipwreck.

Now, to survive on the island for a few things, teams must decide on the five things they'll need. Give the teams around 10 minutes to discuss among themselves and come up with their list. After this, every team must share their list with the group.

Here, everyone must discuss the viability of the things on the list for survival. In this activity, you can also design different scenarios other than a deserted island.

These were our ideas for some of the leadership games and activities you can organize in your workplace.

Conclusion

Finding the leaders can be a very grueling task, but there's no reason you cannot make it enjoyable. Games and Activities have always been fun in a workplace that can ease workplace stress and improve the workplace environment.

Since through games, you can find your leaders as well, this is all the more reasons to play some more games! We hope you find your appropriate leadership games and activities from our mentions above.

This article is written by Jyoti Prakash Barman. He is an in-house Content Marketer at Vantage Circle with interests in music and automobiles. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com