Unconventional workspaces can boost creativity, and have you looking forward to Mondays. What if we told you that you could up your leadership game by simply indulging in some fun evening games? The world of gaming requires focus and undivided attention. Imagine if you could harness this same level of dedication and apply it to solving real problems at work, developing products or services or simply learning a new skillset.
Here’s how you can simply press play on the following board games to enhance your leadership quotient at work.
Power Grid
Train your mind to see the big picture with Power Grid, the English language edition of the multiplayer German game called Funkenschlag. Each player in the game represents a company that owns power plants to supply electricity to cities. It tests you on parameters like how well you use the available resources. The game helps players hone important skills to sidestep hasty and wasteful decisions, which can cost the business dearly.
Risk
Invented by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse, Risk is one of the most popular board games of all times. It assesses the players’ diplomatic skills as they form alliances with other players in a bid to expand their political territory. No man is an island, this is especially true at a workplace with multiple minds, opinions and ideas. Develop your professional relationship-building skills to organise a collaborative, harmonious team that works towards a common goal.
Agricola
Learn to become a masterful juggler, finding your expert balance and rhythm with Agricola. The focus here is on a middle-of-the-road strategy. Players are farmers (like in the popular social network game Farmville) who tend to their fields, sowing, ploughing, collecting wood, building stables for their animals, and expanding their farms to feed their families. Narrow vision is penalised, balanced approach rewarded.
Pandemic
Are you a good team player? Pandemic will help you find out as you discover cures for diseases that threaten mankind with extinction. Victory in this game (which seems straight out a Robin Cook novel) depends on cooperation rather than competitiveness. As you don the roles of a dispatcher, medic, scientist, researcher, operations expert, or quarantine specialist, the game will test your ability to negotiate effectively and put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Chess
Pure tactical brilliance and competent problem-solving – these are qualities that define a great leader. And there’s no game like Chess to help you hone those skills. Believed to have been derived from Chaturanga, a 7th century AD Indian board game, this popular board game teaches you to make the right moves to tap into lucrative opportunities. After all, a worthy leader is someone who can predict his opponent’s strategies and goes in for the kill. Checkmate!
Cashflow 101
Cashflow 101 is perfect for all start-up owners, especially self-funded ones. It will teach you important lessons in financial accountability. Buy, sell, invest, and raise your monthly income to accumulate a cash flow of $50,000. Financial statements replace conventional score cards so you know where your money is going. Sound financial planning is the key to success – in the game as well as at work.
Rubik’s Cube
This 3-D combination puzzle – named after its inventor Ernő Rubik, Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture – was originally advertised as having over three billion combinations with only one solution. Rubik’s cube helps you analyse your response-rate to problems. Do you resolve obstacles calmly by identifying step-by-step solutions? This is a great game to train your mind to think like a leader.
To sum up
These board games are an entertaining way to hone leadership qualities that’ll help you become a game changer at work. How about introducing a fortnightly game night at office? Besides being great stress-busters, these are effective tools for team-building too. Without further ado, let the games begin!
