Experiential Leadership Training

Experiential Leadership Training

Experiential leadership training’s purpose is to create good leaders, which is accomplished using hands-on experiences.

Leaders are the cornerstone of every business, organization and government. John Maxwell, a national author and speaker on leadership said that leaders are not born, they are made. Leadership is a continual process of training and developing individuals who are given authority over people. One of the most effective ways to educate and train leaders is through experiential development. Experiential leadership training uses hands-on situations to demonstrate a specific leadership principle.

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Definition
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Experiential leadership training is the process of educating, developing and inspiring people in authority using a hands-on approach through individual and team participation. Leadership seminars provide participants with lectures, resources, hands-on activities, discussion groups and a question-and-answer session.
Purpose
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The purpose of experiential leadership training is to provide leaders-in-training with an experience that will teach a leadership principle or put into practice a leadership skill. The intention is to place leaders in real-life situations where they can use the knowledge taught from lecturing and reading leadership books. Its purpose is to produce confident leaders who know how to handle any situation with peace and ease.
Focus
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Experiential leadership training focuses on developing leaders in specific leadership skills. Communication skills are a common focus of experiential leadership, training people on how to effectively send and receive messages verbally and nonverbally. Team building, another focus of experiential leadership training, includes vision casting, delegating, organizational skills and the ability to create unity among team members. Other skills focused on in the workshops include conflict-resolution and decision-making skills.
Types – Objectives
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Objective activities provide the leaders with a specific task to accomplish create an obstacle they need to overcome and allows the leaders to figure out the solution by working together. For example, the training participants are asked to put together a simple puzzle. Half the team wears blindfolds and the other half uses their sight but cannot touch the puzzle pieces. The leaders with no blindfolds have to communicate with the blindfolded participants to direct them on how to put the puzzle together. The leader participants have to use oral communication, organizational skills and delegation in order to accomplish the task.
Types – Role Playing
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Role playing provides a scenario between two individuals, and in this exercise, the leaders act out a scenario using leadership skills and techniques. For example, one person plays the part of an angry employee and the other plays the part of the manager. It plays out for a few minutes and then the other leaders observing the scene provide feedback on how to make the interaction more effective. The two actors then act out the situation again, this time implementing the group feedback. Participants in the role playing activities are forced to put into practice specific skills such as conflict resolution. Returning to work the leaders will be more confident in handling conflict and will instead use it as a positive teaching experience for their staffs.
Outcome
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Experiential training provides the opportunity for managers to learn certain leadership skills by participating in different experiences that are sometimes outside their realm of comfort. For example, the participants might be put in two teams and asked to set up a campsite in a forest atmosphere. In order to win, team members will have to use the skills of cooperating, delegating and communicating to successfully complete the assignment in the least amount of time. They will bring these skills “home” to their positions in the workplace and be able to effectively lead their corporate teams through their assignments in order to achieve company goals.
Aquired Skills
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Experiential leadership training provides in a fun and challenging way the following skills: communication skills, organizational development, team building, problem solving, conflict resolution, decision making, listening skills and motivational skills.

Nicole Papa
Nicole Papa has been a freelance writer since 2004 with a focus on SEO and Internet marketing. She has written for instinctmarketing.com and JOLT! Marketing. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in mass media communications, and from the University of Texas with an associate degree in theater performance.
By Nicole Papa, eHow Contributor

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