Leadership Team Building Activities

Priya told Marcus at her midyear review that she'd like to lead a team someday, so for July he asked her to run the team's next activity, What Great Looks Like?, instead of running it himself.

• Pick the activity together, 5 minutes. Choose one from the Leader's Guide that the team hasn't done yet.

• Walk through it, 25 minutes. Sit down a few days ahead and read the steps together. Ask how they'll open it, what example they'll give and how they'll keep time. Priya rewrote the opening line in her own words and took her example from a file the team had handled in June.
• Let them run it. Sit in as a participant and leave the facilitating to them. If they get stuck, wait a moment before stepping in, because the group often helps.
• Talk it over afterward, 10 minutes. Use the questions below, then tell them one specific thing you saw them do well.

Questions for your talk afterward

• What would you do the same way next time?
• What would you change?
• Where did the group surprise you?

Priya said keeping time was harder than she expected. Marcus told her the way she drew Theo into the discussion was exactly what a team lead does, and he's going to ask her to run the August activity too.

What to watch for: Stay out of it while it runs, even when it isn't how you'd do it. Stepping in undermines the facilitator and teaches the room that the activity still belongs to you.

Virtual version: Make the team member the host of the video call, so they control screen sharing and the breakout rooms.

The team building and leadership section of the team building activities page covers the basics they'll need, and it's a good read before your prep conversation.

React or Respond asks people to look back at a recent moment that went badly and decide whether they reacted or responded. A reaction is fast and emotional, and a response takes a breath and thinks about what happens next. Marcus ran it the month a storm doubled the team's caseload, when short tempers were starting to show up in the team chat.

• Write down three letdowns, 5 minutes. Ask each person to write one recent moment that didn't go the way they wanted with a customer, one with a coworker and one outside work. Tell them nobody will see the page.
• Write what you did and mark it, 5 minutes. Next to each one, people write what they said and did, and how they said it. Then ask, "Looking back, did you react or respond?" People put a check beside each response and an X beside each reaction.
• Draw three columns, 10 minutes. Label the flip chart Victim, Passenger and Leader. Read the first situation in the box below and fill in how each one would handle it, then let the group work through the other two.
• Connect it to work, 5 minutes. Use the debrief questions below.

Debrief questions

• What usually happens on our team in the first five minutes after something goes wrong?
• What helps you take a breath before you answer?

With a leadership team, add one more question: "When your people see you react, what do they learn about handling a bad day?" 

What to watch for: Keep each person's examples private unless they offer one. Go first with one of your own reactions, so it's clear nobody is being judged.

Virtual version: People keep their notes on paper, and you draw the three columns on a shared whiteboard.

When a lead role opens, people start guessing who'll get it, and whoever is picked can start with half the team wondering why. This activity has the team define what the role needs before anyone applies, so the new lead starts with a standard the team helped write. Marcus ran it when he had a project lead role to fill for the year-end file audit and three people on his team were interested.

• Explain the role, 5 minutes. Say what the role is for and how long it lasts, and that anyone interested can apply after the meeting.
• Outline it in small groups, 10 minutes. Give each group a blank outline with five headings: what the role is responsible for, the skills it needs, how it supports the team, how it works with other departments and what success looks like when the project ends.
• Agree on one version, 10 minutes. Each group reads its outline aloud, and you combine them on the flip chart into one version the room agrees on.
• Explain what happens next, 5 minutes. Anyone interested applies and includes a few lines on how they meet the outline. Marcus's team put "keeps everyone's file list current without being asked" under responsibilities, and nobody had thought of it until Nina said it. When he announced that Nina had the role, he told the team she'd matched their outline most closely, and people already knew what to expect from her.

Debrief questions

• Which part of the outline surprised you?
• What would you need from the person in this role to do your best work?

What to watch for: Run this only when the choice is still open. If you've already picked someone, the team will notice and the outline turns into an exercise that can erode a leader's credibility. Be transparent in your intentions whenever possible.

Virtual version: Use one shared document with a section for each group, then combine the sections on screen.

This activity starts with a story, and the one I use comes from my college years. A man everyone on campus called Uncle Ben spent his days walking around pulling a short rope behind him, and every so often he'd look back at the end of it and say, "Come on now, keep up." People assumed he thought he had a dog on the other end, and sooner or later somebody would ask him why he was pulling that rope.

Stop the story there and hand everyone a piece of string. Once everyone has the string laid out in front of them, ask them to push it across the table. Next, have them pull on the string. Now ask everyone what they think Uncle Ben said to the people who asked why he was pulling the rope.

Then finish the story. Uncle Ben would answer, "Have you ever tried pushing a rope? It doesn't work very well," and then he'd walk off laughing.

A rope you pull follows you anywhere, and one you push bunches up and goes nowhere, and people work the same way. They follow a leader who works alongside them and knows where they're going, and they resist one who stands behind and pushes everyone to produce without making the effort to coach and support.

Debrief questions

• Where do we push people at work when pulling would work better?
• Who's someone you followed because of how they worked alongside you?

With a leadership team, ask each person to name one thing they’re pushing on their own team right now, and what pulling would look like instead.

What to watch for: Tell the story in your own words, or swap in one of your own with the same point, because a story you lived lands better than one you read.

Virtual version: Ask people to bring a shoelace or a charger cord to the call.

This is team building for leaders, and it's the one activity on the page written for a leadership team. Teach, Coach, Expect is how we describe fair accountability. You teach people what good work looks like, you coach by watching them do it and helping until they've got it, and only then do you expect it. Dana runs this with her four team leads, Marcus among them, at the start of each quarter.

• Pick one skill, 5 minutes. Each lead writes down one skill their people need right now.
• Fill in the three columns, 10 minutes. Under Teach, they write how they'll show it. Under Coach, they write when they'll watch and what they'll look for to ensure proficiency. Under Expect, they write the date they'll start holding people to it and how they'll know.
• Share and borrow, 10 minutes. Each lead walks through their page, and the others add one idea from their own team.
• Commit, 5 minutes. Each lead says what they'll do first, and the group checks back at the next leadership meeting.

Debrief questions

• Where do we tend to skip straight to expect?
• What did you gain from someone else's ideas?

What to watch for: Keep the conversation on the skill and how to teach it. If a lead starts talking about one person who's struggling, save that for a one-on-one.

Virtual version: Share one document with a page for each lead, so everyone can read along and add ideas.