Manager & Supervisor Responsibilities & Skills Business Game

This stimulating training game allows participants to:

• use consensus seeking skills to identify the duties and skills required to be a successful manager or supervisor
• recognise the role of the supervisor or manager
• discover whether they are people-oriented or task-oriented
• identify characteristics that have no relevance to a manager’s or supervisor’s effective performance
• identify areas to develop for more effective management
• formulate an action plan for their development.

This training game gets participants thinking, discussing, and learning about the role, duties, and responsibilities of a supervisor or manager.

Divide the participants into groups of two or three and issue the cards you feel are most appropriate for your organisation or company. The set of printed plastic cards contain statements that apply to the duties, role, responsibilities and characteristics of a manager. For example:

• “Looks for ways of improving efficiency”
• “Monitors Health and Safety issues”
• “Believes in getting results through people”

Some other cards contain characteristics that are irrelevant to a manager’s effective performance. For example:

• “Easy to get on with. You can usually get what you want”
• “Still very much one of the guys”

The task of the participants is to read the statement on each card they are given and decide which heading the cards fit under.

The headings are:

1. Those which contain statements that apply to the role, skills and characteristics of a manager.
2. Those which contain characteristics that have no relevance to a manager’s effective performance.

After 20 minutes, each group takes a turn to tell the other groups what was on their cards and whether they considered them to apply to the role, skills and characteristics of a manager, or have no relevance to a manager’s effective performance.

They also give reasons for their decisions, and the other groups will have the opportunity to agree or disagree with them.

This part of the activity provokes a meaningful discussion on the duties, role and skills of a manager. It enables the trainer to observe managers in action and identify areas for development.

Issue the participants with a questionnaire and allow them to read each statement concerning their duties, role and responsibilities in the following four key areas:

• Managing Activities
• Managing Resources
• Managing Information
• Managing People.

They are required to mark from 1 to 7 how they normally function in that area.

This helps the participants focus on their development needs in the four key areas.

It is also useful to see which of the four key areas each participant has the least areas of development in. This could reveal whether they are task-oriented or people-oriented.

It also helps them to focus on their development needs and formulate an action plan.

• Understanding of manager responsibilities and skills
• Understanding of supervisor responsibilities and skills
• Increases awareness of underlying values that influence how individuals manage activities, resources, information and people
• Skills in coaching, performance management and Human Resources (HR)
• Improved communication skills.

Manager & Supervisor Responsibilities & Skills is a flexible training activity that allows you to examine key competencies required for a manager or supervisor.

It is used in assessment programmes, including as part of the recruitment process, and development courses, to test knowledge, skills, leadership and interaction with others.

It’s helpful for decision-making before promoting staff to supervisor or manager roles.  And has been used effectively by coaches to support new supervisors and managers.

It is also a popular game for supervisor or management courses, and for managers’ conferences and seminars.

• Manager & Supervisor Responsibilities & Skills Business Game PDF
• Business Games Brochure
• Course Brochure
• Team Building Brochure

“An excellent tool for assessing colleagues’ problem-solving, lateral thinking and commercial skills in a group context.  They also give a good indication of personal attributes and behaviours, including team working, interpersonal and listening skills.  We found that they helped give us an objective overview of current skill-level, strengths and development areas which could, in turn, be incorporated into development plans at both corporate and individual level.”  A. Mitchell – SSC Document Services

“Manager and Supervisor Responsibilities and Skills is easy to use and an excellent activity to get managers talking and thinking about their role and skills. It highlighted those who were people managers and those who were more task oriented.”

“This is an ideal training activity. I use it to bring out key points on communication and management issues. I also use it for graduate recruitment. Excellent value for money.”

• There’s no restriction on the number of times you can use our games.
• It is possible to play Manager & Supervisor Responsibilities & Skills in other languages if the trainer verbally translates the English instructions.
• Also available to play remotely.