How to be an effective group leader PDF
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How to be an Effective Group Leader How to be an Effective Group Leader Bill D. Schul No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, scanning or any information storage retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from the Author. © Copyright 1975 by Bill D. Schul First e-reads publication 1999 www.e-reads.com ISBN 0-7592-1086-1 Table of Contents Introduction vi Chapter 1 On being chosen leader 1 Chapter 2 Preparing for leadership 9 Chapter 3 Influencing others 19 Chapter 4 The first meeting 27 Chapter 5 Creating atmosphere 36 Chapter 6 Establishing goals 43 Chapter 7 Order, control, and discipline 51 Chapter 8 Handling group discussion 59 Chapter 9 Maximum group participation 72 Chapter 10 Individual members 84 Chapter 11 Informal groups 97 Chapter 12 Formal meetings 108 Chapter 13 Conferences and workshops 120 Chapter 14 Business staff meetings 131 Chapter 15 The successful leader 137 Bibliography 148 How to be an Effective Group Leader Introduction [e-reads] Introduction G roups of people meeting to discuss their common problems, needs, fears, hopes, and aspirations have probably existed since the begin- ning of man’s ability to communicate with verbal symbols. In recent years, the meeting of groups for the democratic interchange of ideas as a conscious process has become more prevalent. This is witnessed by the increased membership in churches, discussion groups, forums, service- giving agencies, service and civic clubs, professional fraternities and sorori- ties, encounter and sensitivity groups, community centers, and a variety of youth organizations. The organizations and groups to which a person belongs usually play an important role in his life, contributing to his education, his leisure, and pro- viding a medium through which he can express his ideas and opinions to other people and learn from them. His need for these associations more than likely has increased due to the complexity of modern society. Smaller family units and compartmentalization of human responsibilities have increased the feelings of alienation in our technological society. Furthermore, the growing complexities of society have become the responsibility of government, social agencies, institutions, and organiza- tions, ranging from the neighborhood up to national and international lev- els. The demands in areas of problem-solving, education, and gaining public vi Introduction [e-reads] support foster a mushrooming number of committees, commissions, study groups, and workshops which call upon adults and youths from all walks of life to share in a large or small way the responsibility for making it a better world in which to live. The success of any group, whether it be a Boy Scout troop, the public rela- tions committee of the local PTA, or a commission named by the president to study a national problem, depends to a large extent on its leadership. Without strong and competent leadership, the most well-meaning group will be reduced to impotency or chaos. Most of these groups are made up of volunteers, and their leaders, chosen from their ranks to serve as president, chairman, or whatever, are not profes- sionally trained for their roles. It is to these persons—the youth who finds himself head of a school organization, the woman elected president of her professional sorority, and the man who, with little previous experience, is named chairman of a state commission—that this book is dedicated. It is essentially a how-to-do-it text, covering the whys and wherefores, the dos and don’ts of leadership, the magic of leading groups. For a number of years, I have been engaged in the training of both adults and youths to be group leaders. In my work with all types of groups, I have become increasingly aware of the need for a particular kind of book, one in which group leadership methods and techniques are explained in nontechni- cal terms, a book which takes the novice step-by-step toward competent leadership and which will, at the same time, provide the more experienced with a guide and a reminder. Long in search of such a text, I decided to write it myself. In endeavoring to meet this need, I have tried to keep the focus on the countless untrained leaders who have assumed, or will assume, the responsi- bility for the leadership of a group of people—children, adolescents, adults or elderly people. I have attempted to present leadership training in clear, non- professional terminology. I have written about those items which are dis- cussed with leaders when they ask, “What procedures must I know to lead a group? How do I go about it? Are there any guidelines I can follow?” I have used considerable illustrative material which has evolved from my experience as a leader and my efforts to train others. I believe the cases used from my files and memory will be of use to readers. vii Bill D. Schul—How to be an Effective Group Leader [e-reads] 1 On being chosen leader Y ou have been elected to serve as a leader. You may be pleased about this and looking forward to the role. On the other hand, you may feel honored by being so named but anxious about the assignment and fearful that you will be unable to handle the job successfully. Bear in mind that any person selected to lead a group, club, committee, orga- nization, lodge, or whatever, would likely feel much the same way. There is some comfort in the knowledge. Some person or group selected you for leadership responsibility because they had confidence in your personal qualifications for leadership. You should not consider this confidence of others as a burden, for they do not expect perfection of you. Examine the qualities that others might have seen in you as a potential leader. How can these qualities be used to guide the group you will lead? Accept the fact from the beginning that everything will not run smooth- ly. Don’t fantasize problems but simply acknowledge to yourself that conflicts will occur, as they always do when persons of different opinions work togeth- er for common goals. Actually, we would not want matters any other way. If all members of the group held a single opinion or belief, there wouldn’t be any 11 Bill D. Schul—How to be an Effective Group Leader [e-reads] need for group action. As Walter Lippman once stated, “Where everyone thinks alike, no one thinks very much.” During some sessions, you will leave with a glow of satisfaction, while oth- ers will fill you with great discouragement. Accept these ups and downs as part of the game. You will make mistakes. Rest assured that even after many years of leading groups you will still make mistakes. The day you start expect- ing perfection will be the beginning of endless frustration and disappoint- ment. You will move closer to effective leadership as long as you are able to learn from your mistakes. You will find that what works successfully in one meeting, or with one group, may precipitate a crisis at another. Unfortunately, there are no blue- prints showing what a leader might do from moment to moment. There are basic guidelines, however, that you can use to direct your course. And while there is no tidy formula, the purpose of this book is to provide a kind of basic guidance which will help you find your own solutions to leading your group. WHAT IS LEADERSHIP? By way of defining leadership, we could say that it refers to that process whereby an individual guides, directs, or influences the thoughts, feelings, or behavior of other human beings. Better still, we might add that good leader- ship helps others to arrive at a better understanding of themselves, of others, of the issues at hand, and to use this greater understanding to accomplish whatever common goals brought the members of the group together. Whether leadership is planned or unplanned, it always has a purpose and a goal. It is a process of human interaction. There can be no leadership with- out followers, but the relationship is only successful as long as the followers wish to follow the leader. The distinction is an important one. A leaderless society doesn’t exist, for whenever two or more persons come together there is no such thing as uncontrolled, unrestricted, or uninfluenced behavior. The existence of any group is evidence of the willingness of the members to work together rather than alone toward a goal. Working together is a give-and-take business, and the leader is the catalyst of the process. He is successful when the members find the group accomplishments greater than those which could have been achieved by individuals. There are reasons to believe that some persons have greater natural ten- dencies for leadership than others, but there is sufficient experimental evi- dence to prove that leadership can also be created, trained, and developed in persons of normal intellectual ability and emotional stability who are willing to make the effort to learn. 22
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