Leadership activities: 30 games and exercises sorted by the skill they build

Leadership activities for making decisions

Most slow teams are not short of ideas. They are unsure who decides, how, and when a decision is good enough. These five practice exactly that.

1. 1. Decision styles sort

   Builds: Matching how you decide to what the decision needs.

   20 minutes · 4 to 12 people · Index cards · works on video

   1. Write four styles on the wall: I decide, I decide after asking, we decide together, you decide.
   2. Hand out ten cards, each with a real decision from the last quarter, such as a hire, a tool change or a moved deadline.
   3. Pairs place each card under the style that would have fit best, then mark the style that was really used.
   4. Talk through the cards where the two differ.

   Debrief

   • Which style do we overuse, and what does it cost us?
   • Which decisions should stop going up to the leader?

2. 2. Reversible or not

   Builds: Spending time on a decision in proportion to how hard it is to undo.

   15 minutes · 3 to 10 people · No materials · works on video

   1. List every decision waiting on the team right now.
   2. Sort each one into easy to undo or hard to undo. Some people call these two-way and one-way doors.
   3. Give every easy-to-undo decision one owner and 48 hours.
   4. Book proper discussion time for the hard-to-undo ones only.

   Debrief

   • Which easy decision have we been treating like a hard one?
   • What is the worst that happens if we get a reversible call wrong?

3. 3. The in-tray exercise

   Builds: Prioritizing under time pressure and explaining why.

   30 minutes · Pairs or trios · 12 made-up messages, printed · works on video

   1. Give every pair the same 12 messages a manager might find on a Monday morning: a customer complaint, a sick team member, a request from the boss, a broken tool, an invoice to approve, a job candidate waiting for an answer, two meetings at the same time, a colleague asking a favor, a missed handoff, a new hire starting today and your own overdue report.
   2. They get 15 minutes to rank all 12 and mark each one do, delegate, delay or drop.
   3. Pairs compare their top three and what they dropped.

   Debrief

   • What rule did you use to rank, and would your team guess it?
   • What stopped you from delegating more of the pile?

4. 4. Half the facts

   Builds: Deciding with incomplete information instead of waiting.

   25 minutes · Groups of 4 to 6 · A one-page case · works on video

   1. Give each group a short case with a decision to make and some key facts missing, such as whether to renew a supplier, with the new price and the rival quote left out.
   2. They may ask the facilitator three questions, and each one costs two of their ten minutes.
   3. At ten minutes, every group commits to a decision and rates its confidence from 1 to 10.
   4. Reveal the missing facts and see which decisions hold up.

   Debrief

   • Which question was worth its two minutes?
   • Where at work do we wait for information that would not change the answer?

5. 5. Assigned dissenter

   Builds: Making disagreement a job instead of a risk.

   20 minutes · 4 to 10 people · No materials · works on video

   1. Pick a real proposal the team is leaning toward.
   2. Assign two people to argue against it for five minutes, as strongly as they can. Everyone else only listens.
   3. The group names the two strongest objections and decides whether to change the plan, test it or go ahead.
   4. Rotate the role every time, so it never sticks to one person.

   Debrief

   • Which objection would have gone unsaid without the role?
   • How did it feel to hear the plan challenged when it was nobody's personal view?

Want the team to practice solving something together first? See our problem solving activities, which include the premortem and the 5 whys.

Leadership exercises for delegation

Delegating is a skill with parts: choosing what to hand over, briefing it well and staying out of the way. Each exercise isolates one part.

1. 6. Delegation levels

   Builds: Agreeing how much authority goes with each task.

   25 minutes · A manager and their team · No materials · works on video

   1. Write five levels on a board: do as I ask, look into it and report back, recommend and I decide, decide and tell me, decide and no need to tell me.
   2. List eight recurring tasks or decisions.
   3. The manager and each team member privately write the level they think applies to each one.
   4. Reveal the answers and discuss every mismatch.

   Debrief

   • Where did the manager and the team write different levels?
   • Which task can move up one level this month?

2. 7. The two-minute brief

   Builds: Handing off work so it comes back right the first time.

   20 minutes · Pairs · No materials · works on video

   1. Each person picks a real task to delegate and gets two minutes to brief their partner: the outcome, the deadline, the limits and what done looks like.
   2. The partner repeats back what they heard, then lists what they would still have to guess.
   3. Brief again in one minute, closing the gaps. Swap roles.

   Debrief

   • What did you leave out because it felt too obvious to say?
   • Which part of a brief do we skip most often on this team?

3. 8. Only I can do

   Builds: Finding what to let go of.

   20 minutes · Any number, working alone and then in pairs · Paper · works on video

   1. List everything you did last week, one task per line.
   2. Mark each line: only I can do this, someone else could with help, or someone else could today.
   3. Pick two tasks from the last two groups and write a name and a handover date beside each.
   4. Tell a partner, who checks in with you on that date.

   Debrief

   • What made you keep a task someone else could do?
   • What would you do with the hours you get back?

4. 9. Stretch assignments match

   Builds: Delegating for growth, not only for speed.

   20 minutes · Any number of managers, in pairs · Paper · works on video

   1. List your team members and, beside each name, one skill that person wants to grow.
   2. List six pieces of work coming up in the next quarter.
   3. Match each piece to the person it would stretch, not the person who would finish it fastest.
   4. For each match, write the support that person needs and when you will check in. Compare with a partner.

   Debrief

   • Who gets your hardest work today, and why them?
   • Which match makes you nervous, and what would make it safe to try?

5. 10. Give the problem back

   Builds: Coaching with questions instead of supplying the answer.

   20 minutes · Trios · No materials · works on video

   1. One person brings a real problem, one is the coach and one observes.
   2. For six minutes the coach may only ask questions, such as "What have you tried?" and "What would you do if it were your call?". No advice.
   3. The observer counts every time advice slips in dressed as a question, like "Have you thought about doing X?".
   4. Rotate so everyone coaches once.

   Debrief

   • How close did the problem owner get to an answer of their own?
   • When is it right to simply give the answer?

Leadership games for giving and receiving feedback

Feedback gets easier with repetition on low stakes. Run these in pairs and trios, so nobody practices in front of the whole room.

1. 11. Feedforward pairs

   Builds: Asking for ideas about the future instead of verdicts on the past.

   15 minutes · 6 to 30 people · No materials · works on video

   1. Each person picks one thing they want to get better at and says it in one sentence.
   2. Pair up. Your partner gives two suggestions for the future, and you may only say "thank you".
   3. Swap, then find a new partner. Run five rounds of two minutes.

   Debrief

   • Which suggestion will you try this week?
   • How was this different from hearing feedback about something you already did?

2. 12. Rehearse the hard conversation

   Builds: Saying a difficult thing clearly and kindly.

   30 minutes · Trios · No materials · works on video

   1. Each person writes down a conversation they have been putting off, with the names changed.
   2. In trios, one person practices their opening two sentences, one plays the other side and one observes.
   3. The observer says what they heard as the main message. Try again until the message heard matches the message meant.
   4. Rotate until all three have practiced.

   Debrief

   • How did your opening change between the first try and the last?
   • What have you been protecting by putting the conversation off?

3. 13. Rewrite the vague feedback

   Builds: Turning fuzzy feedback into something a person can act on.

   15 minutes · 4 to 24 people · Cards with vague feedback lines · works on video

   1. Hand out cards with lines like "Be more proactive", "Show more ownership" and "Work on your communication".
   2. Pairs rewrite each card so it names something you could have seen or heard, and ends with one clear request.
   3. Read the rewrites aloud and pick the clearest one for each card.

   Debrief

   • Which vague line have you received, and what did you do with it?
   • Which one have you given this year?

4. 14. Receive it well

   Builds: Taking feedback without defending.

   15 minutes · Pairs · No materials · works on video

   1. Each person asks their partner: "What is one thing I could do better in meetings?"
   2. While receiving, you may do three things only: listen, ask one question to understand, and say "thank you".
   3. Afterward, the giver says how the reaction felt. Swap.

   Debrief

   • What did you want to explain or defend?
   • How does a leader's reaction to feedback decide whether they get any more?

5. 15. The upward ask

   Builds: Getting honest feedback from the people you lead.

   20 minutes · A leader and their team · Sticky notes · works on video

   1. The leader asks one question: "What is one thing I do that makes your work harder?"
   2. The team writes answers on unsigned notes while the leader is out of the room, then groups the similar ones.
   3. The leader comes back, reads the groups aloud, asks only clarifying questions and picks one thing to change.
   4. Report back to the team in a month.

   Debrief

   • What made it safe, or not, to write the truth?
   • What would the leader have to do so the next round needs no anonymity?

Feedback only lands on a team that trusts each other. If yours is not there yet, start with the trust building activities in our trust fall guide.

Leadership team building activities for communication

A leader's message is only as good as what the last person hears. These show the gap between what was said and what arrived.

1. 16. Bottom line first

   Builds: Leading with the point.

   15 minutes · Pairs · No materials · works on video

   1. Each person brings a long email or update they wrote recently.
   2. Rewrite it in five minutes so the first sentence says what you need or what was decided. Background comes after.
   3. Partners read both versions and say which one they would act on faster.

   Debrief

   • What did you cut that nobody will miss?
   • Who on your team needs the bottom line first, and who wants the story?

2. 17. Cascade test

   Builds: Seeing how a message changes as it passes down.

   20 minutes · 8 to 20 people · A five-sentence announcement

   1. The first person reads a short announcement with a date, a reason and one action, then briefs the next person privately from memory.
   2. Pass it down a chain of five people.
   3. The last person tells the room what they heard. Compare it with the original.
   4. Run it again with the message cut down to the three facts that matter.

   Debrief

   • What dropped out first: the date, the reason or the action?
   • How do our real announcements reach the last person in the chain?

3. 18. Three audiences

   Builds: Fitting the message to the listener.

   20 minutes · Groups of 3 or 4 · No materials · works on video

   1. Give every group the same news, such as a project slipping by a month.
   2. Each group writes three 60-second versions: for the team, for a senior leader and for a customer.
   3. Groups read one version aloud and the room guesses the audience.

   Debrief

   • What changed between versions, and what had to stay the same?
   • Where have we sent one message to everyone when it needed three?

4. 19. Read before you talk

   Builds: Getting everyone's thinking before the loudest voice sets the direction.

   30 minutes · 4 to 12 people · A one-page memo · works on video

   1. The leader writes a one-page memo on a real decision: the situation, the options and a recommendation.
   2. Open the meeting with seven minutes of silent reading. Everyone writes comments in the margin.
   3. Go around once for questions, starting with the most junior person. The leader speaks last.

   Debrief

   • What came up in the margins that a slide deck would have hidden?
   • How did the speaking order change the discussion?

5. 20. The hard questions drill

   Builds: Answering tough questions honestly under pressure.

   20 minutes · 4 to 10 people · No materials · works on video

   1. One leader takes the front for five minutes on a real topic, such as a reorganization or a missed target.
   2. The team asks the hardest fair questions it can think of.
   3. The leader may give three kinds of answer: a straight answer, "I don't know, I'll find out by Friday", or "I can't share that yet, and here is why".
   4. The room says which answers built confidence. Then the next leader takes a turn.

   Debrief

   • Which answer was hardest to give honestly?
   • What does our team hear when a leader dodges?

Leadership development activities for vision and direction

Direction is useful when people can repeat it and use it to say no. These turn a vague ambition into words a team can work from.

1. 21. Magazine cover story

   Builds: Picturing success in concrete detail.

   30 minutes · Groups of 3 to 5 · Flip chart paper and markers · works on video

   1. Imagine it is two years from now and a magazine is running a cover story on your team.
   2. Each group draws the cover: a headline, a cover image, two quotes from customers or colleagues and three numbers.
   3. Groups present. Circle whatever appears on more than one cover.

   Debrief

   • What shows up on every cover?
   • What would have to be true in six months for that headline to be possible?

2. 22. One-sentence vision

   Builds: Saying where the team is going in words people can repeat.

   20 minutes · 4 to 12 people · No materials · works on video

   1. Everyone writes the team's direction in one sentence of 15 words or fewer, with no jargon.
   2. Read them all aloud without comment.
   3. Underline the words that keep repeating and build one shared sentence from them.
   4. Test it: could a new hire repeat it tomorrow?

   Debrief

   • How different were our sentences, and what does that tell us?
   • Which word did we argue about most?

3. 23. Even-over statements

   Builds: Making priorities real by naming what loses.

   25 minutes · 4 to 10 people · No materials · works on video

   1. Explain the format: "We choose A even over B", where A and B are both good things. For example, quality even over speed.
   2. Each person writes two statements for the team's next quarter.
   3. Share them and find the pairs that conflict.
   4. Agree on three statements the whole team will stand behind.

   Debrief

   • Which tradeoff were we avoiding until we wrote it down?
   • What recent decision would have gone differently under these statements?

4. 24. The empty chair

   Builds: Keeping the people you serve in the room when you decide.

   15 minutes · 4 to 12 people · One spare chair

   1. Put an empty chair at the table and name who sits in it: a specific customer, a new hire or the team downstream.
   2. Run a real agenda item as usual.
   3. Every five minutes, one person answers from the chair: "What would I say about this?"

   Debrief

   • What did the chair say that nobody in the room was saying?
   • Whose chair is missing from most of our meetings?

5. 25. Farewell toast

   Builds: Choosing what you want to be known for as a leader.

   20 minutes · Any number, in pairs · Paper · works on video

   1. Imagine your team is toasting you on your last day in this role, years from now.
   2. Write the three sentences you hope they say about how you led.
   3. Share with a partner, who asks: "What did you do this week that fits those sentences?"
   4. Write one thing to start and one thing to stop.

   Debrief

   • What is the gap between the toast and last week?
   • Which sentence will be hardest to earn?

Leadership activities for handling conflict

Leaders are paid to handle disagreement, and most learn it by accident. These give a safe first try, with made-up disputes before real ones.

1. 26. Five conflict styles

   Builds: Knowing your default and when to change it.

   25 minutes · 5 to 25 people · Five signs

   1. Post five signs around the room: compete, avoid, accommodate, compromise, collaborate. These are the five styles in the Thomas-Kilmann model.
   2. Read a scenario, such as two teams wanting the same engineer. Everyone walks to the style they would really use.
   3. Each corner explains its choice in 30 seconds.
   4. Repeat with three scenarios, raising the stakes each time.

   Debrief

   • Did your corner change when the stakes went up?
   • When is your default style the wrong one?

2. 27. Positions and interests

   Builds: Finding what people need underneath what they demand.

   20 minutes · Pairs · No materials · works on video

   1. Tell the classic negotiation story: two people argue over the last orange and split it in half. One wanted the peel for baking, the other the juice.
   2. Each person writes a current disagreement as two positions: what each side says it wants.
   3. With a partner, ask "why does that matter?" three times for each side to find the interest underneath.
   4. Look for an option that meets both interests.

   Debrief

   • What interest did you find that the position was hiding?
   • How could you ask about interests in the real conversation?

3. 28. The red-blue game

   Builds: Seeing how fast trust between groups is lost and how slowly it returns.

   30 minutes · 8 to 30 people in two groups · A red and a blue card per group · works on video

   1. Put two groups in separate rooms and state the goal once: both groups should finish with a positive score.
   2. For ten rounds, each group secretly plays red or blue. Both blue: 3 points each. Both red: each loses 3. One of each: red gains 6 and blue loses 6.
   3. After rounds four and eight, one person from each group may meet to talk.
   4. Add up the scores and read the goal again. Two groups that play blue every round finish on 30 each.

   Debrief

   • Did you play to beat the other group or to meet the goal, and who decided that?
   • Which teams at work are playing red against each other?

4. 29. Switch sides

   Builds: Understanding a view well enough to argue it.

   20 minutes · Pairs or two small groups · No materials · works on video

   1. Pick a real disagreement on the team, such as build or buy, or which days to be in the office.
   2. Each side gets three minutes to make its case.
   3. Swap. Each side now argues the other's case for three minutes, well enough that the other side says "yes, that is it".
   4. Finish by listing what both sides agree on.

   Debrief

   • What did you understand only once you had to argue it?
   • Has the disagreement got smaller, or only clearer?

5. 30. Mediate it

   Builds: Helping two people settle something without settling it for them.

   30 minutes · Trios · Two short role cards · works on video

   1. Two people get role cards for a workplace dispute, such as who owns a customer account. Each card holds a fact the other side does not know.
   2. The third person mediates for ten minutes: each side speaks without interruption, the mediator sums up both, then asks what each one needs.
   3. The mediator may not propose a solution.
   4. Rotate roles with a new dispute.

   Debrief

   • What did the mediator do that moved things forward?
   • When you step into a real dispute, do you mediate or judge?

Some conflict is a normal part of a team growing up. The stages of team development explain when to expect it and what a leader should do at each stage.

10 leadership icebreakers

One question to open a leadership meeting or training day. Everyone answers in a sentence or two, the most senior person last.

1. 1. Best boss in one sentence

   “Describe the best boss you ever had in one sentence, without naming them.”

   The room builds its own list of what good leadership looks like before any slide does.

2. 2. First time in charge

   “What was the first thing you were ever put in charge of, at any age?”

   Paper routes, younger siblings and school plays put the whole room on the same level.

3. 3. The hat I wear most

   “Coach, referee, translator, builder or firefighter: which hat did you wear most this month?”

   It shows where each leader's time really goes, and which hat nobody picks.

4. 4. Two words from my team

   “Which two words would your team use to describe a meeting you run?”

   It makes leaders look at themselves from the other side of the table.

5. 5. What I changed my mind about

   “Name one thing about managing people you believed five years ago and no longer do.”

   It shows that changing your mind is normal here.

6. 6. The leader I'd follow

   “Pick a fictional leader from a book, film or show you would happily work for, and say why.”

   Fictional only, which keeps it light and keeps real people out of it.

7. 7. Advice I give but don't take

   “What advice do you give your team that you struggle to follow yourself?”

   A small, honest admission that makes the rest of the session more open.

8. 8. The meeting I'd cancel

   “If you could cancel one recurring meeting tomorrow, which one would it be?”

   Quick, a little funny, and it often ends with a meeting really being cancelled.

9. 9. Starter or finisher

   “Are you better at starting things or finishing them? Stand on a line between the two.”

   The line shows in seconds whether the group is all starters.

10. 10. Motto in six words

    “Write your leadership motto in exactly six words.”

    The word limit forces a choice, and people remember each other's.

For activities the whole team can do, not only its leaders, see our 32 team building exercises.

How to plan a leadership session

Start with who is in the room. The same activity that helps a new manager can bore a vice president.

What fits new managers and what fits a senior team

• New managers need repetition on the basics: briefing, delegating and hearing feedback. Use pairs and made-up cases, so nobody practices a real conflict in front of a real colleague.
• Experienced managers know the theory. Give them harder cases, less time and an observer who says what they saw.
• A senior team should work on real material: a live decision, a real tradeoff, an actual disagreement. Role-plays feel like school to them, and their real conflicts are the valuable part.

A half-day leadership session agenda

5 skills, 2 breaks and a commitment at the end, from 9:00 to 1:00. It works for 8 to 24 managers with one facilitator. Swap any block for another activity from the same skill.

Three rules for the day

1. 1One skill per block. Keep a feedback exercise out of the decisions block. People learn more from one skill practiced properly than from three touched once.
2. 2Give the debrief a third of the time. The activity is the excuse and the conversation afterward is the lesson. If you are running late, cut the activity short, not the debrief.
3. 3End with a date. Every leader names one thing they will do differently and when. Put a 30-day check-in on the calendar before people leave the room.

Want a facilitator to run it?

Leaders practice more honestly when one of them is not also running the session. We host live 60-minute sessions on Zoom by default: The Art of Self-Leadership is a workshop on setting meaningful goals and overcoming self-doubt, and Fostering Emotional Intelligence is an expert talk by psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora on handling hard moments with empathy and resilience. See the hosted options for leadership team building, or all team building workshops. Book about 2 weeks ahead, or get a free quote.