The most productive and effective teams trust one another and use each contributor’s strengths to the fullest. Because of this, getting your team closer to reaching its highest performance level involves getting group members better acquainted with one another.
To work toward advancing your team’s level of trust and cultivating a leadership mentality, try the following activities recommended by Arden’s coaches and facilitators.
1. Do Something Fun with the Whole Group
The corporate environment doesn’t exactly lend itself to letting loose and having fun. While this is good from a professionalism standpoint, it makes it difficult to be entirely you and see the true colors of your team too. That’s where doing something fun with the whole group where everyone gets to let their guard down comes in.
To allow your team to connect, you need to get them in a different environment outside the office and doing something carefree and fun. Whether you choose to play a round of mini golf or go on a bus tour of your city, make sure that this activity takes place during business hours so team members don’t have to choose between the team and their family.
2. Go on a Corporate Retreat
Taking your team on a retreat allows you to work on the business content at hand and take a step back to review the team’s strength and areas for improvement while getting the outside opinion of an experienced facilitator.
Most people don’t step out of their day-to-day environment enough to put effort into advancing their team’s relationships and overall rapport. They sort of expect the teamwork side to just take care of itself. But if you make this your intention going into a business retreat, it can be purposeful and worthwhile.
3. Take Part in a Community Service Project
Participating in a community service project works to lay the foundation for strong team relationships.
To choose a way to give back that everyone can enjoy, pick a volunteering opportunity that allows your team to utilize their skills outside what they get to do on a daily basis. For example, if you’re the head of an accounting department and want to pursue this activity, don’t go with having the group donate their time to do taxes.
Help Habitat for Humanity, work at a food bank, or provide support to a marathon or race that goes through your town. Just make sure that the initiative you choose is one that everyone will want to support.
Team volunteering can have a company-wide impact! Find out how here.
4. Take a Group Leadership Assessment
Taking a high-level leadership assessment as a group can be fun, especially if you have an outside facilitator to direct you in your results.
Using a tool like the DiSC® Profile, a personal assessment tool that our coaches use with groups enrolled in the Arden Leadership Academy, is a great way to learn something new on the individual level and provide value to the team by building better communication between members.
When used correctly, these personal development tools allow you to not only learn about your own behaviors and tendencies but get to know other team members’ styles and figure out how you can adapt to work better with them.
Building Leadership One Step at a Time
At Arden Coaching, we’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of successful teams and have even played a role in helping many groups that weren’t on the same wavelength reach an accelerated level of advancement. We challenge you to take your leadership building initiatives outside the office and doing something new. What you learn about yourself and your team may just surprise you!
Want more tips on how to cultivate leadership within your team? Check out our article on how to start a leadership culture, starting with you!