Activity - Leadership skills - You get what you inspect

Materials needed

– Main message ” you get what you inspect” printed each word on one A4 paper –  a set/complete sentence per team(5 sheets of A4 paper)

– 5 plastic pegs per team

– Rubber bands

– Blind folds (one for each team member except the leader)

–  3 meter Clothesline per group

–  2 chairs per team

Instructions

Divide participants into groups of 5 , Assign  or have each team choose a team leader.

Take all the team leaders outside the room for debrief.

hand each team their needed items and instruct them that they are to take back the items to their teams  and from that moment on , they are not allowed to touch anything , neither the items they have nor their team members.  They need to make sure each of their team members is blindfolded.

Each team leader needs to guide his/her blindfolded team to position two chairs two meters apart  and tie the rope between the two chairs forming  a clothesline , each team then is tasked with  hanging the A4 papers using the pegs and the rubber bands over the line forming  the sentence ” you get what you inspect!”  The team that finishes first is the winning team.

Debrief

Record the time and once the first team finishes the task and declare the wining team then ask the blindfolded participants to take off the blind folds and see what they achieved. (The words “you get what you inspect” should be hanging on the rope neatly and in the correct order)

Ask all blindfolded team members if they all felt they received enough attention from their team leader or not ?

(Usually in this activity leaders tend to focus on some team members and  maybe assign one task to other members throughout the activity and then forget them for the rest of the activity)

Reflect further on how the ignored team members felt like as they did not receive enough attention from the leader as their colleagues.

Ask if everyone felt they received enough direction at the start of what is required exactly , did the leader give any appreciation for a task well done throughout the exercise. Did the leader treat you with respect and provide you with all the needed tools to complete the required task in the shortest possible time.

One of the main take outs from this activity is that as a manager and a team leader you will only get what you inspect. You have to constantly evaluate each of your team member’s performance and ensure they have the right skills to perform their task perfectly and always be ready to offer your guidance to ensure they are doing the best job possible.