Rescue Skills and Leadership Activities

Good leadership activities should allow participants to practice being both a leader and a follower. A leader can't lead unless there are people to lead. Leadership training should develop skills such as teamwork, communication, trust, confidence and overcoming obstacles. Many leaders will also need to practice rescue skills as their leadership positions may require them to take followers into places of possible danger.

  1. Ropes Course

    • Taking your team to a ropes course provides training in rescue and outdoor skills, leadership development and team building. These courses contain obstacles a group must work to overcome together. Common ropes course activities include trust activities such as a backward fall into the group from a platform, balancing with a partner on parallel tightropes or helping teammates maneuver around one another on a narrow log. Ropes courses also provide activities for team members to conquer fears such as jumping off a high platform through a ring, walking across a 30-foot suspended beam or rappelling down a steep cliff. These activities allow leaders to develop trust, confidence, strategic planning and teamwork---all essential qualities of a good leader.

    Water Rescue Activities

    • Water rescue skills are essential for any leader to know who will be taking his followers near water. These types of leadership qualities are found in lifeguards, river guides, fishing guides, kayakers and surfers. A common activity that teaches water rescue skills involves stuffing a set of clothing with a relatively heavy substance such as sandbags and throwing it into the water. The potential leader must jump in after it and get it to safety. Leaders should also practice jumping into water fully dressed and trying to get out of their clothing underwater. This helps remove extra weight when in the rescue process. Leaders should also learn CPR, which should be taught by a certified CPR instructor.

    Building Communication

    • Making a peanut butter sandwich can help potential leaders enhance their communication skills. The leader must tell the follower how to make a peanut butter sandwich. The follower must do exactly as the leader says, so if the leader says, "Spread some peanut butter on the bread," the follower should take the whole loaf of bread and smother it with peanut butter. The object of this activity is to help the leader recognize the importance of being specific in his directions or the final outcome could end up very different than he had originally planned.

    Overcoming Weaknesses

    • Give a group of people a task to complete, such as building the tallest tower out of paper cups. As they begin, give each team member a handicap such as not being able to talk or only being able to use his left hand or having to build with her eyes closed. The team then has to figure out how to complete the task using the abilities that each team member still has. This helps people recognize that weaknesses can be overlooked, and despite a weakness, each member can still contribute to the team.