5 Team-Building Activities to Spark Leadership Thinking
As the year comes to a close, you’re no doubt bringing your team together for some sort of fun and connection. Amidst the team lunches and lawn bowls, don’t miss out on the opportunity to take stock and set the stage for a successful new year!
To help you out, here’s five fun, easy to run activities you can use to close out the year on a positive note and create cohesion and alignment before the next year begins.
Activity 1: Newspaper Headline
In this activity, each team member crafts a newspaper headline that captures a key learning, achievement, or memorable moment from the past year. Sharing these headlines sparks reflection and helps uncover collective wisdom to carry forward.
Instructions:
Arm each team member with paper and a pen.
Give them 5-10 minutes to brainstorm and write their headline.
Have each person share their headline and why they chose it.
Discuss key takeaways as a team and how these learnings can shape progress in 2025.
Activity 2: Team Identity
What makes your team unique? This activity helps you creatively capture your team's identity. By visually representing who you are as a team, you can create clarity, alignment and a sense of shared purpose. It’s also a good laugh!
Instructions:
Grab a whiteboard or some large sheets of paper and divide them into six sections (labelled with Vehicle, Place, Object, Person, Activity, Drink).
Split the team into small groups, and have each group work together to fill in each section by using a word and picture to describe the team's identity. For example, ask “if we were a vehicle, what would we be and why?” and so on, so fourth. Encourage the team to have some fun and take creative freedom with their drawings.
Each group then shares back their choices - what did they choose and why?
Once all groups share back, discuss and agree on the top 3-5 themes that emerged (you can choose single words or short statements). Use this to discuss and start shaping how you as a team want to show up in 2025. Make some draft agreements as a team for how you need to work together to achieve it. For example, what might you need to stop, start, keep doing?
Take photos and revisit the agreements to finalise them upon return in the new year.
Activity 3: Superhero Profile
This activity encourages team members to recognise each other's strengths and contributions in a lighthearted way. By creating superhero profiles, you'll celebrate individual talents and foster a sense of appreciation within the team.
Instructions:
Give each team member a "Superhero Profile" worksheet.
Have them pair up with a teammate and fill in the worksheet for their partner. Prompts include things like "superhero name," "leadership superpowers," "greatest challenge overcome," and any other details like “What colour is your superhero costume?”.
Once completed, encourage everyone to share their partners profiles and celebrate the strengths, quirks and diversity they bring to the team.
Activity 4: VIA Strengths
Want to uncover your team's hidden superpowers? The VIA Character Strengths survey is a fantastic tool for identifying each person's top character strengths, connecting them to real-life examples and understanding how to leverage them for team success.
Instructions:
Have each team member take the free VIA Character Strengths online survey. To take it, create a free account. Results are then sent via email.
Ask everyone to share their top 3-5 strengths and describe a time when they effectively used those strengths in action within the team. This helps the team to better understand when they’re at their best. You might facilitate this by getting people to finish prompts like “I’m at my best when…”, “a time where this strength was in action was…”, “what gets in the way of using this strength is…”).
Discuss how your team can collectively leverage these strengths to get the best out of each other in the coming year.
Activity 5: Connection Wall
Want to build deeper connections within your team? This interactive activity helps you learn more about each other on a personal level (eg. shared interests, experiences, and values). Strengthening bonds and promoting a sense of belonging outside of the office can improve how the team communicates and collaborates.
Instructions:
Take Polaroid photos of each team member and have them write their names on the photos.
Stick the photos on a wall and give everyone a marker.
Have each person draw lines connecting themselves to others who share something in common (e.g., hobbies, favourite foods, family structures, travel experiences).
The person with the most connections wins a small prize (keep it simple with a box of Favourites, or get creative!).
Progress, not perfection!
These are just some of our favourites. Like any activity, feel free to adapt them to maximise how they land for your team and unique context.
We hope these activities inspire you to close out the year with a bang and set your team up for success in 2025! If you try any of them, we'd love to hear how it goes. Share your stories and tag us on LinkedIn!
If you're facing more challenging team dynamics or want to explore deeper leadership development opportunities, get in touch. We're here to support you to make progress in 2025.
