Games to Test Your Leadership

Laser Tag

• Laser tag is an effective tool to see who emerges as a leader. This role playing game encourages quick planning and decisive thinking. Typically a real leader will rise to the occasion for the betterment of the team.

  Divide the group into three or four teams consisting of at least three players per team. Let each team decide on its name and team color. If practical, allow each team to design a colored t-shirt to wear to laser tag.

  Play two or three rounds of laser tag and record the game results. Observe how team members communicate with one another; does one person tell the group how to play or do several individuals work against each other to emerge as the leader?

  Meet with the teams afterwards and ask who they thought emerged as the team leader and why. Ask the teams why they thought they succeeded or didn't succeed at the exercise.

Trust Game

• Being trustworthy is a key ingredient to solid leadership, and the Trust Game tests how well others trust you.

  Create a safe obstacle course in an outdoor space or within a large room, such as a conference room. Use chairs, large cones, rope and even small tricycles to build your course.

  Divide everyone into teams of two and give one blindfold to each team. One team member is blindfolded and the other member must be the guide using only his voice. For example, he would tell his blindfolded teammate to walk five steps then walk two steps to the left and sit down. Let each team member take a turn being the guide, then gather the group to discuss how the member felt being the guide or the one who was blindfolded. Ask each team member how she felt being led around by her partner.

Family Feud Game

• Test your leadership ability and product knowledge skills using an in-house version of the game show Family Feud. "Families," which in this case are cross-functional teams, will answer questions based on corporate product knowledge. Or you can play the game for fun using pop culture for questions. Divide the group into teams of five. Mix workers from different departments of the corporation to level the playing field.

  Write questions on index cards and designate one person to be the host. Call two families to the front of the room to compete and ask them to determine who will be the head of the household of their group. Typically the head of the household is the person who leads the group. Play the game and examine how team members interact with each other. Does one person lead the group towards answers, or does one person dictate how team members answer questions?

  The winning team from the first round plays the next team on deck. Continue playing until you have a grand champion and see if a leader emerges from the grand champion group.