Being a leader can help you climb the career ladder and establish yourself as a trusted professional in your field. But what exactly does it take to be an effective leader and what are the most important leadership skills? Great leaders are people-oriented, inspiring, and capable of making hard decisions. They know how to think strategically and can direct a team with a solid vision. Leaders also possess strong communication skills that allow them to build relationships and get their point-of-view across in a respectable manner. Of course, not everyone is born with these qualities and characteristics.
Become An Effective Team Leader With These 5 Activities
If you want to become a more effective team leader, certain team training activities can be useful in building your skillset.
1. Exploration
Exploration activities focus on self-evaluation and assessment. Look back at what you have done so far to advance your leadership skills. Have you made much progress? If so, you may want to consider adapting some of these practices into your leadership training. If your progress has been slow-going, consider making a change. One way to examine your progress is by looking at your past and current behaviors.
Important leadership behaviors include actions like conflict resolution, collaboration, brainstorming, observing, directing, informing, encouraging, discipline, and reflection. For each behavior that you think of, write down how much time you spend on the behavior on a daily basis. Compare this to the amount of time that you estimate you should be spending on the behavior. If there is a gap, you know that you need to focus on developing these areas.
2. Establishing
As a leader of your team, you will have countless responsibilities. While certain jobs will be delegated to your team members, you will be expected to establish project guidelines including specifics like timeframes and objectives. If financing is required, you may need to take initiative to find grants, fundraisers, and sponsorships to cover the cost of the project.
For this team training activity, it can be useful to create an outline that states the details of the project. Include the projected start and end dates, how many team members will be involved, and what materials and supplies will be required for completion. You will also want to create a clear budget that describes expenses and where you will find funding. Once your project outline and budget are complete, share them with your team.
3. Organization
Organization is one of the most important skills that a leader can possess. From team projects to team training events, you will need to partake in the organization of all types of activities. Team training events are an effective way to foster collaboration between team members, increase motivation, encourage creativity, improve communication, and maintain positive reinforcement.
For this exercise, schedule a team training event designed to unite your team as one. Decide how many team members will partake, what team building activities will take place and where, how meals will be handled, and what you want the ultimate goal of the event to be. Share your ideas with your team and ask for feedback. Be sure to address any questions that your team may have.
4. Facilitating
This next team training activity involves implementing exercises within your office. Using your leadership skills, bring your team together to partake in a fun and informative activity. Team training exercises can be scheduled right in your building to prevent your team members from having to travel. However, as the event will take place in a business setting, you will need to pick a time that works for your staff and business.
Scheduling a team building event is just the first step. Once it is on the schedule, you will need to encourage your team members to attend and actively participate. Even the best team training activities will be useless if your staff is not willing to do their part to collaborate. Feedback is also an essential step in team leader training. Ask the other participants for feedback on your skills and on the event as a whole.
5. Trust
Building trust is critical throughout team training and beyond. You want your team to trust you when you make decisions or share ideas. Without a sense of trust, you will likely experience more conflict and frustration then necessary. Team building activities can be useful for building trust between team members. To reach a solution, teams must rely on one another which requires the building of trust.
Learn More About Team Building Activities
Team building activities offer more than just a good time. They can also be highly useful for improving communication, increasing productivity, developing problem-solving skills, and keeping employees motivated. Are you ready to grow your leadership skills through a team training exercise? Contact Bond’s Escape Room today to learn more or to schedule a team building event for your team.