Do you know how much a polar bear weighs? Enough to break the ice!
When new people meet eachother for the first time at work, there can sometimes be a feeling of coldness or awkwardness when they first interact.
It’s completely natural, but there are so many ways you can improve this first interaction by using icebreaker activities.
We’re putting a spin on icebreakers, so that they not only help people relax and build team bonds, but they also let staff develop skills to transform them into future leaders.
Let’s get into it!
What exactly are icebreakers for leadership?
Icebreakers are games and activities companies can use to help their staff, especially new starters, to get to know eachother better.
The “ice” in “breaking the ice” refers to the cold and unpleasant feeling sometimes felt when you meet someone new, for the first time. You’re not sure what this new person might think about you, and you know you only have one chance to make a good impression.
This can sometimes lead to a nervous and tense feeling that makes people feel cold and icy.
So leadership icebreakers are activities that focus on improving the skills that a strong leader needs. Instead of just making people laugh and bond, it also adds a sense of purpose and determination, perfect for future-leaders.
20 icebreakers focused on leadership
Now, here’s our list of 20 of the absolute best leadership icebreakers to try out with your teams.
1. “Triple H”
Don’t worry, we’re not talking about the wrestler Triple-H. Nobody needs to somersault from the top rope of a wrestling ring! Triple H stands for “Heroes, Highlights, and Hardships.”
In this activity, everyone shares a significant event related to their heroes, their highlights or their hardships. Someone might mention a hero who inspires them growing up, a personal achievement at work, or a hardship that made them stronger. All of these aspects help make leaders resilient and considerate of another person’s point of view and experience.
This activity is fun and flexible as each member can choose any one out of the three, as long as it is significant to them. By sharing defining moments or inspiring people, conversations are sparked and trust grows as each member shares a little bit of their personal life. It’s great for icebreaking, try it out!
2. Defining moment
This activity is basically a quicker version of Triple H, without mentioning a hero. Each person in the group shares one highlight of their life, an event they see as a moment that defined who they are as a person. You’re encouraging everyone in the office to dig deep and find that make-or-break event in their life that made them who they are today.
As they share their moments, they reveal aspects of their personality that someone else might relate to. Perhaps someone won a trophy with their football team or got a workplace qualification after passing a course. All of these moments help people better understand what motivates them, and how they can use this motivation to become a great leader.
Help your staff recognize themselves as leaders!
3. Jenga questions
As long as you’ve got a Jenga set, some pens and paper, you can try out this great little icebreaker activity. We all know and love Jenga, now you can use it in the office as a way to break the ice while developing leadership.
On each Jenga block, you’ve got to write a number and create a corresponding list of icebreaker questions that match each number. Let’s say, for example, a block with the number 10 on it. Question 10 can be a “get to know me question,” and you can make this question as work-related or leadership-based as you like. Questions like “Can you name a time you had to lead a team?” work well, or play around with more fun questions if it suits the atmosphere.
You’re simultaneously helping people get to know each other while developing a leader’s mentality. Win-win!
4. Who am I?
Here’s a great icebreaker activity that is used worldwide from ESL classrooms to corporate get-togethers. Create a list of famous names, from business leaders to household celebrity names. Print off each name or write it on a sticky note. Attach the paper to a person’s back, and get people working in pairs or groups, asking “who am I” questions.
This activity is great for pinpointing attributes that a leader or a famous person has. If you want, you can keep the people on each sticky note related to the business world, but it might be more fun to have a cool celebrity on the note.
People sometimes react in a fun way when Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson or Miley Cyrus is written on their backs, great for fun reactions and breaking the ice!
5. One-word leadership
This is a quickfire icebreaker that works well for large groups. You need to first design some questions beforehand that relate to leadership. The aim is for each person to think of one-word answers to your questions. Some example questions could be:
- What word best describes the ultimate leader?
- What is the biggest downfall of many leaders?
- What is the most important personality trait a leader needs?
As each person shares a quickfire, one-word answer, you’ll gain some insights into their opinions of leaders. There are many kinds of leaders in the world, each with a different style, and many people hold different opinions on what makes them so good at leading others.
You’ll probably get some funny responses if you set a very fast timer too, so try this one out and let the ice-breaking begin!
6. Get your act on!
This activity involves fun roleplay and considering situations from another person’s perspective. Before starting, design a list of scenarios that can easily happen at work. These scenarios could include:
- An employee arrives late to work
- An employee misses a critical deadline
- Someone asks for a salary raise
- Someone misses a day of work sick, without notifying
What you want to do is have one person act as the boss and one member act out the scenario with them. From this, you can have fun and role-play what they would do if they were the office leader, helping them understand what leadership involves.
This activity strengthens leadership in a fun way, so try it out in your next team meeting for a great icebreaking session.
7. Circle of achievements
This powerful activity is great for helping everyone get to know each other better and recognize their hard work. It even works well with remote teams too, as it can be done completely online with screen-sharing.
Get everyone into teams, and ask each team to open up a blank PowerPoint. Then get them to design a “brainstorm” shape, which is a giant cloud in the middle of the page with lots of branches coming off it. Their team name goes in the middle and each person writes their biggest recent achievement on a branch. Doing this in teams means it’s a great icebreaker for introverts who don’t want too much attention.
At the end each team will have a cool little diagram that celebrates each member, letting each team recognize their successes. Great practice future leaders.
8. Pairing card roulette
This is an icebreaker that works great in meetings or corporate events. Leaders are always good at connecting with new people and this activity helps new people break the ice with their colleagues. Prepare pairs of business cards before the activity.
Let’s say you have 20 people attending. On two cards, write the same leader or famous person, as well as a little bit about their leadership skills. Do this 10 times until you have 10 pairs, making 20 cards.
Then give one card randomly to each person. Set a timer, and have everyone in the room move around and try to find their pair. Make the celebrity or leader as work-related as you wish, as having surprising names on the cards can help start fun conversations.
Try this out for a fun icebreaker.
9. Three snapshots
Here’s a snappy and fun way to get some ice broken while improving communication skills, essential for a leader. It takes a little bit of set-up, but the payoff is totally worth it.
Ask each person attending the meeting to print out three pictures from their phone that are meaningful to them. It could be of themselves, their family and friends, or just random photos they took of something that they love. They share the photos with the group and describe why it’s so meaningful.
You’re encouraging and kick-starting conversations that are great for icebreaking. Photos give glimpses into personal lives, and let people focus on things that are really important to them. Try this one out in your next icebreaker session.
10. Energy check-in
Here’s a meeting energizer that doesn’t even need any time to prepare. At the start of a meeting, ask everyone to share what they feel is their “energy level” today, on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 is dead-tired, 5 is a happy caffeine tornado). Whatever number they give, let each person know that they’re supported by the rest of the team, and ask if there’s any way the group can help.
This is a fantastically simple icebreaker that actually helps to improve each person’s energy level if done properly. When we know we can help a team member who needs some support, or even a bit of understanding while they vent, a positive atmosphere of friendship buzzes around the office.
Icebreakers like this work wonders to create a supportive culture and to boost team morale.
11. ABC alphabet intros
This fun word game/icebreaker hybrid is great when you have large groups. It’s a light-hearted game that helps everyone get to know each other a little better. Every person picks one letter of the alphabet. Suggest to them that they choose wisely, but don’t explain why.
Each person then has to use words beginning with that letter to describe themselves. This simple icebreaker gets members to begin thinking about words that describe a strong leader and creates a fun atmosphere, conducive to building team bonds.
Give them the challenge of making a minimum amount of 5 words to describe themselves, if you wish. Remember, you warned them to choose wisely. We wish them luck if they choose the letter Z.
12. Time for money
This is a quick and somewhat unusual icebreaker that will perk everyone’s ears up in curiosity, and it works well for small groups. Prepare a bag of random coins before the activity starts, or ask each member of the team to provide one themselves (just remember to give them back!).
Each person has to find the year printed on the coin. Then they take turns in a circle to introduce themselves, then explain what they were doing during the year written on the coin. For example, “Hi everyone, I’m Gavin. My coin says 2002, and in that year I think I was riding elephants in the jungles of Thailand.”
You’re giving them something a little different with this activity. So if you’re short on time (but long on coins) try this one out to get everyone chatting quickly!
13. Networking Bingo
At one time or another, every one of us has probably played Bingo. Put a leadership twist on it with this activity.
Provide everyone attending the session with a bingo sheet, but instead of using numbers, each square contains a unique activity. Statements like “someone that has traveled to 5 countries” or “a person who has captained a sports team before.” Each person with their sheet moves around the room and seeks out someone who has done the activity, then puts a tick in the box. When the sheet is full, BINGO!
This is great for new staff or quieter people who have trouble breaking ice with people. You’re giving them a fun prompt for a conversation starter while getting them thinking. Smiles all round!
14. I am!
If you’ve got everyone arranged on-site, try out an icebreaker called “I am” to get the leadership ball rolling. You need a big whiteboard for the room, and each person needs a marker. Ask each person to write a positive “I am” leadership statement about themselves on the board that starts with “I am.” Some simple examples could be:
- I am a member of a strong team!
- I am great at what I do!
- I am strong, proactive, and resilient!
The aim of the activity is simply to generate positive reinforcement and to encourage members to think about traits they like in a leader. You’re helping them to become the person they want to be in the workplace, so try this one out for your teams.
15. Silver linings
Think about all of the great leaders you know. One of the defining factors of a leader is, when they face truly hard times, they can still motivate their teams and find the “silver lining” in every dark stormcloud. That’s the overall gist of this activity.
Get everyone in attendance to make small groups, and give 1 chair to each group. One leader sits in the chair, while other members of the group share with their leader a time when they faced a challenge or difficulty. The leader needs to listen, and afterwards, think of a way to find the “silver lining” in the story, the positives that can be found among difficulties.
This is a very prosperous way to practice leadership and find good things even when times are hard. Try this one out.
16. Theme song
Here’s an activity that breaks ice wonderfully, and works perfectly as a virtual icebreaker for remote and hybrid workers (if they can share their screen with sound). Music is a powerful tool for making connections and can be used by leaders. Tell each member beforehand to think about this:
Imagine you are the main character in a movie. What is your theme song?
Their imaginations will be set ablaze as they scour Spotify for a song that represents them. They might go with energetic music like the Rocky Theme, or they might go for something quieter and more thoughtful. You never know what they’re going to choose.
So get this activity sorted for your teams and use the power of music to shatter the ice for new starters!
17. Hot and cold
This is one of those games we have all played at one time in our lives. If everybody is on-site, try “Hot and cold” for a fun way to break ice for your teams and get your leaders practicing their directing and commanding skills.
You start the game by hiding something valuable, like a phone or a watch somewhere in the office. Everybody in the team then needs to find out where it’s hidden, while one team leader (even though they know the location of the item) can only say “Hot,” “cold,” “warmer” or “colder” to their team as they search.
Simple games like this are great as a quick icebreaker and bring fun and positivity into any meeting.
18. Word Wheel
This is a fun little activity that’s used in classrooms aswell as boardrooms as an energizer to get brains switched on. The online version at ESLGAMES works perfectly (even if it says it’s for kids, trust us, it works for adults too!).
WordWheel is a letter-game icebreaker. Split your large group into 2 teams and choose one leader. They will be shown a wheel full of letters. Teams must create words (with more than 3 letters) out of the letters available. They must also make sure each word uses the letter in the middle of the wheel. As a bonus, there is also one 9-letter word teams can form.
Set a timer to build words, then get your leaders to come up and write as many words as they can (a 1 minute timer works best). It’s a great way to improve teamwork, listening and problem-solving skills, which leaders certainly need.
19. Getting to know you
This simple game is filled with many leadership-based questions. You need to design some questions beforehand, and hand out these questions to pairs of people. Some great questions to ask could be:
- What is the best piece of leadership advice you’ve ever been given?
- How do you change workplace culture as a leader?
- What should a leader think about before they do something that could be risky for the team?
Questions like this really get the brain jogging, as each person considers the most crucial skills a leader needs. You can get some really focused responses and ideas from your teams if you set the tone right!
20. Group visionboarding
Our final activity is visionboarding, but made for groups, and with leadership in mind. A visionboard is a giant collection of quotes, images, aspirations and dreams that people have, and it’s shown off to any and everyone.
Ask your future-leaders to really think about where they want to be in the future, what they hope to achieve, and what quotes they live by. Then get funky and create a collage using pictures, printed words and just about anything else that can be added to the board.
This is a simple activity that doubles up as an icebreaker for people who love doing craft-related things. Try this one out to get your leaders thinking about their future!
Ice-breakers work great in-office, but they’re even better on a leadership retreat!
Some people think that you can’t learn how to be a leader, you are simply born a leader or you are not…
Here at Surf Office, we know this simply isn’t true. Leaders are formed when a strong, healthy team needs someone to captain the ship. We’ve learned that the ultimate way to find incredible leaders in your teams is by taking them on an unforgettable leadership retreat.
A twice-annual retreat develops all the skills a leader needs, and for new members of staff, it’s an amazing way to break some ice too! Here’s what we offer:
- Stress-free transfers? We got you! ✅
- Quality-assured accommodations? Check! ✅
- Engaging team-building activities? Our speciality ✅
- Restaurant reservations? That's on us! ✅
- Expert retreat planning assistance? Of course, we have this covered! ✅
- Onsite support, tailored to your needs? Absolutely ✅
Not only this but we also have access to 160+ locations around Europe, APAC, the US, Latin America, and now Africa, meaning the sky is your limit when it comes to choosing the right location for you and your team.
So don’t just rely on using your usual office to get teams bonded and to help leaders grow. Use an once-in-a-lifetime experience of a leadership retreat in a beautiful destination to create memories your teams will never forget.
Let us sort out the tricky logistics for you. Spaces are very limited, so get in touch now!
