Articles / Leadership Training Workshop Ideas: 40+ Activities That Work
Development, Training & CoachingDiscover 40+ leadership training workshop ideas that engage participants. From icebreakers to team challenges, find activities that develop real leadership skills.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Tue 30th December 2025
Leadership training workshop ideas encompass the activities, exercises, and structured experiences that transform passive learning into active capability development. Research from the Journal of Applied Psychology demonstrates that employees who undergo leadership training improve their learning capacity by 25% and their performance by 20%—but only when training includes engaging, participatory activities rather than passive instruction alone.
The challenge facing most L&D professionals isn't finding activities—it's finding the right activities for specific development objectives. A workshop designed to build communication skills requires different exercises than one focused on strategic thinking or emotional intelligence. This guide provides a curated collection of leadership workshop ideas organised by learning objective, duration, and group size, enabling you to design sessions that genuinely develop leadership capability.
Selecting effective workshop activities requires matching exercises to specific learning objectives. Activities that work brilliantly for one purpose may prove irrelevant for another.
| Learning Objective | Best Activity Types | Example Exercises |
|---|---|---|
| Communication skills | Verbal challenges, listening exercises | Minefield, Telephone Game |
| Trust building | Collaborative challenges, vulnerability exercises | Trust Falls, Heard Seen Respected |
| Problem-solving | Complex challenges, time pressure activities | Escape Rooms, Survival Scenarios |
| Decision-making | Scenario simulations, resource allocation | Budget Games, Ethical Dilemmas |
| Team collaboration | Group construction, interdependent tasks | Marshmallow Challenge, Chain Reaction |
| Self-awareness | Reflection exercises, feedback activities | Leadership Coat of Arms, 360 Debrief |
Effective leadership activities share common characteristics:
Opening activities set workshop tone and build the psychological safety essential for effective learning. These exercises should energise participants whilst beginning to surface leadership themes.
Duration: 15-20 minutes | Group size: 5-20 participants
Participants share three statements about their leadership experiences—two true, one false. The group votes on which is the lie. This classic icebreaker gains relevance when statements focus on leadership moments: "I once led a team through a major crisis," "I've managed people twice my age," "I started my leadership journey at eighteen."
Learning connection: Active listening, reading people, sharing vulnerability.
Duration: 10-15 minutes | Group size: Any size
Each participant identifies an animal that represents their leadership style and explains their choice. A participant might choose an owl for wisdom and observation, a lion for courage and presence, or an ant for persistence and teamwork. The exercise encourages self-reflection whilst revealing how colleagues perceive their own approaches.
Learning connection: Self-awareness, leadership identity, perspective-sharing.
Duration: 15 minutes | Group size: 10-20 participants
Hide an object somewhere in the room. One participant knows the location and guides teammates using only "warmer" and "colder" cues. The exercise seems simple but reveals much about communication clarity, patience, and how leaders give direction.
Learning connection: Clear communication, directing without doing, verbal precision.
Senior executives often resist activities perceived as childish or time-wasting. Effective icebreakers for experienced leaders:
Communication failures underpin most leadership challenges. These activities develop verbal clarity, active listening, and the trust that enables effective team function.
Duration: 20-30 minutes | Group size: 8-20 participants (pairs)
Create an obstacle course using office furniture. One participant is blindfolded whilst their partner guides them through using only the words "right," "left," "forward," and "backward." Partners cannot touch or use additional vocabulary.
Setup: Scatter chairs, boxes, and obstacles throughout a defined space. Pairs take turns navigating.
Debrief questions:
Learning connection: Clear communication, trust, listening, patience.
Duration: 30 minutes | Group size: 8-15 participants
Participants don blindfolds and receive a circular rope. Working together using only verbal communication, they must form the rope into a perfect square and place it on the ground. No participant may remove their blindfold until the group agrees the task is complete.
Variations: Try triangles, rectangles, or letters for additional complexity.
Learning connection: Leadership emergence, verbal coordination, consensus-building.
Duration: 35 minutes | Group size: Any size (pairs)
Participants pair up and share personal stories about times when others didn't hear, see, or respect them. Partners practice active listening without interruption, then reflect the story back. This Liberating Structures exercise creates authentic human connection and develops empathetic capacity.
Structure:
Learning connection: Active listening, empathy, psychological safety.
Trust-building requires vulnerability, and vulnerability requires safety. Create conditions for trust through:
Leaders regularly face complex challenges requiring analytical thinking, creative solutions, and decisive action. These activities develop problem-solving capabilities in engaging formats.
Duration: 20 minutes | Group size: Teams of 4-5
Teams build the tallest freestanding structure possible using twenty sticks of spaghetti, one metre of tape, one metre of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow must sit on top without the structure collapsing.
Developed by Tom Wujec, this exercise consistently reveals assumptions about planning versus prototyping. Teams that iterate and test early outperform those that plan extensively then build.
Debrief questions:
Learning connection: Iteration, prototyping, assumption testing, team coordination.
Duration: 30-45 minutes | Group size: Teams of 5-7
Present teams with a survival situation—plane crash, shipwreck, or desert stranding. Provide a list of fifteen available items and challenge teams to select and rank the five most important for survival. Teams must reach consensus on their choices.
Variations:
Learning connection: Critical thinking, consensus-building, prioritisation, advocacy.
Duration: 45-60 minutes | Group size: Teams of 4-6
Create or rent themed escape room experiences with leadership-relevant puzzles. Challenges might include communication problems, ethical dilemmas, or resource allocation decisions alongside traditional puzzles. Teams must collaborate under time pressure to "escape."
Learning connection: Collaboration under pressure, creative thinking, role emergence.
Duration: 60-90 minutes | Group size: Teams of 4-5
Teams develop innovative solutions to real workplace challenges—improving employee engagement, integrating remote team members, or enhancing customer service. Teams pitch their solutions to a panel of "investors" who question assumptions and evaluate feasibility.
Structure:
Learning connection: Innovation, strategic thinking, presentation skills, handling challenge.
Effective leadership requires understanding yourself—your strengths, blind spots, values, and impact on others. These activities develop the self-awareness that underpins leadership growth.
Duration: 30-45 minutes | Group size: Any size
Participants draw their personal leadership coat of arms on paper divided into quadrants. Each quadrant represents a different aspect of their leadership: values, strengths, development areas, and legacy. Participants then share their coat of arms with the group.
Quadrant prompts:
A gallery walk displaying all coats of arms creates shared understanding of diverse leadership philosophies.
Learning connection: Self-reflection, values clarification, leadership identity.
Duration: 20-30 minutes | Group size: Any size
Provide participants with fifty value cards (or a written list). Through rapid, intuitive selection—not overthinking—participants narrow to their five core leadership values. Partners then interview each other about their selections, exploring why these values matter and how they manifest in leadership behaviour.
Learning connection: Values identification, self-awareness, authentic leadership.
Powerful reflection questions for leadership workshops:
Leadership rarely happens in isolation—most leaders work through teams. These activities develop collaborative capabilities and reveal team dynamics.
Duration: 15-20 minutes | Group size: 8-12 participants per group
Participants stand shoulder to shoulder in a circle, place their right hand in someone's right hand across the circle, then do the same with left hands (different person). Without releasing hands, the group must untangle themselves into a circle.
Learning connection: Collaboration, communication, patience, natural leadership emergence.
Duration: 60-90 minutes | Group size: Teams of 5-8
Teams design and build Rube Goldberg machines—complex chain reaction devices where one action triggers another in sequence. Teams must connect their machines so that one team's ending triggers the next team's beginning.
Materials needed: Dominoes, balls, ramps, tubes, pulleys, and assorted building materials.
Learning connection: Innovation, cross-team coordination, systems thinking, creative problem-solving.
Duration: 20-30 minutes | Group size: Teams of 6-10
Teams must cross an imaginary river using limited "stepping stones" (carpet squares or paper plates). Stones must always be in contact with a person or they "float away." Teams that lose stones must start over.
Rules:
Learning connection: Resource management, coordination, strategic planning, teamwork.
Workshops often include participants with varying leadership experience. Design inclusive activities by:
Workshop energy fluctuates throughout the day. Short energiser activities restore attention and create transitions between major sections.
Duration: 5 minutes | Group size: Any
Read statements about leadership. Participants stand if the statement applies to them, sit if not. Statements progress from general ("Stand if you lead a team") to specific ("Stand if you've had a difficult conversation this week").
Learning connection: Physical movement, shared experience recognition, energy restoration.
Duration: 10-15 minutes | Group size: Any (pairs)
Participants pair up for two-minute conversations answering a leadership question. When time expires, they find new partners for a new question. Questions might include: "What's your biggest leadership challenge right now?" or "What leadership advice would you give your younger self?"
Learning connection: Networking, perspective diversity, energy restoration.
Duration: 5 minutes | Group size: Up to 20
Each participant shares one word describing their current state or reaction to the preceding content. This rapid check-in surfaces group energy, identifies confusion or resistance, and creates collective awareness.
Learning connection: Emotional awareness, group pulse-taking, psychological safety.
Understanding individual activities helps, but seeing how they combine into complete sessions provides implementation clarity.
| Time | Activity | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00-0:15 | Two Truths and a Lie | Opening, energy, connection |
| 0:15-0:30 | Workshop objectives and ground rules | Orientation |
| 0:30-1:00 | Minefield exercise | Communication skill development |
| 1:00-1:15 | Break | Energy restoration |
| 1:15-1:45 | Blind Square challenge | Advanced communication practice |
| 1:45-2:15 | Heard, Seen, Respected | Deep listening development |
| 2:15-2:45 | Communication application planning | Transfer to workplace |
| 2:45-3:00 | Commitments and close | Action orientation |
| Time | Activity | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00-0:30 | Leadership Spirit Animal + objectives | Opening, self-awareness |
| 0:30-1:15 | Leadership Coat of Arms | Values and identity exploration |
| 1:15-1:30 | Break | |
| 1:30-2:00 | Marshmallow Challenge | Problem-solving, team dynamics |
| 2:00-2:45 | Survival Scenario | Decision-making, consensus |
| 2:45-3:30 | Lunch | |
| 3:30-3:45 | Speed Leadership Networking | Re-energise, perspective sharing |
| 3:45-4:45 | Dragons' Den Innovation | Strategic thinking, presentation |
| 4:45-5:00 | Break | |
| 5:00-5:45 | Heard, Seen, Respected | Empathy, listening |
| 5:45-6:30 | Action planning and commitments | Transfer, accountability |
| 6:30-7:00 | Reflection circle and close | Integration, community |
For participants new to leadership development, start with accessible activities requiring minimal vulnerability: The Marshmallow Challenge develops collaboration without personal disclosure, whilst Two Truths and a Lie creates connection through structured sharing. Avoid exercises requiring deep personal reflection until psychological safety is established. Build complexity gradually through the session.
Individual activities typically run 15-45 minutes, including debrief. Icebreakers and energisers need 5-15 minutes. Complex simulations or team challenges may require 60-90 minutes. Always allocate debrief time—the reflection often proves more valuable than the activity itself. Plan no more than 3-4 hours of cognitively demanding activities daily.
For a half-day workshop, plan 3-4 substantive activities plus opening icebreaker and closing reflection. Full-day sessions accommodate 5-7 major activities. Quality trumps quantity—rushing through activities without adequate debrief undermines learning. Build buffer time for activities running long or rich discussions emerging.
Virtual workshops require adapted activities: Breakout rooms enable pair and small group exercises. Digital whiteboards (Miro, Mural) support collaborative activities like Leadership Coat of Arms. Online escape rooms provide team challenges. Avoid activities requiring physical materials or extensive movement. Shorten activity duration and increase frequency—virtual attention spans are shorter.
Effective debriefs follow the "What? So What? Now What?" structure: What happened during the activity? So what does this mean for leadership? Now what will you do differently? Ask open questions rather than explaining insights. Allow silence for reflection. Connect observations to participants' real workplace situations.
Non-engagement typically signals psychological safety concerns, unclear purpose, or inappropriate activity selection. Address by: explaining the learning purpose explicitly, offering observer roles for reluctant participants, checking activity appropriateness for the group, and creating lower-risk participation options. Some participants engage more deeply through reflection than performance.
Small groups (under 10) work best with whole-group activities where everyone participates visibly. Large groups (20+) require small-group structures with representative reporting. Very large groups (50+) benefit from simultaneous identical activities with cross-group comparison. Always consider how activity design scales with your specific participant numbers.