Response – Group Leadership

Response – Group Leadership

Hello Milissa Sipe,

Thank you for your post. I agree with the highlighted critical aspects that a leader requires, particularly when working with a diverse group. I also appreciate the emphasis you put on why it is important for a leader to maintain a composed and confident demeanor since nonverbal cues can have a considerable impact on the group’s dynamic and faith in the leader’s vision, goal, and plans. It is admirable that you are aware of your own challenges and are open to improving yourself by having a co-leader to share the responsibilities. Seeing how our communities are becoming more diverse based on differing factors like ethnicity, race, sexuality, and gender identity, among others, your concern about potentially offending someone is valid. As such, I agree with you and, as stated by Aririguzoh (2022), that by developing cultural competence, one gets a deeper understanding, and the risk of misunderstanding is reduced, thereby reducing conflict in the group. This awareness and commitment to learning will certainly improve your success as a leader in diverse settings. Lastly, your scoring is almost similar to mine as I got a total of 66 and I think my strengths especially seeing as a preferred democratic leadership approach would go hand in hand with your preference to have a co-leader and delegate responsibilities.

References

Aririguzoh, S. (2022). Communication competencies, culture, and SDGs: effective processes to cross-cultural communication. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9(1), 1-11.

Hello Sally Jo (Sj)

Thank you for your post. Your post helped me reflect on the significance of understanding and adapting the leadership approach according to the setting of the group. In addition to the three major leadership styles you have mentioned, others include servant leadership, whereby the leader takes up the role of a supporter and puts the team’s needs ahead of theirs (Xie, 2020), for example, as demonstrated by Jesus. Another is transactional leadership. Your adaptability and willingness to learn are demonstrated in your experience in managing professional task groups, making you an effective leader. Further, seeking to enhance your skills in psychoeducation and brief counseling groups is commendable. Working with a group will mean that diversity will be a factor and with this comes the risk of conflict from misunderstanding or unintended offenses. As such, I agree with you that cultural competence is essential for everyone on the team, as is conflict resolution strategies. Lastly, the willingness to continuously learn and being self-aware of your blind spots is essential for facilitating diverse groups successfully. My score was also 66 and I find that my approach to leadership, which is using democratic leadership, is the same as yours. This means we would learn from each other and complement each other’s strengths.

References

Xie, L. (2020). The impact of servant leadership and transformational leadership on learning organization: a comparative analysis. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 41(2), 220-236.

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Response to 2 fellow students: Compare your scoring to 2 of your fellow students, identify how you would be able to complement their strengths or weakness if you were co-facilitating a group.

Response – Group Leadership

Discussion post 1:
Milissa Sipe

Reply from Milissa Sipe
I have learned that to provide good leadership, you cannot show fear, stress, or personal judgement to those you are leading. Facial expression can damage the chance of success for the group if you are not careful. A person’s response, receptiveness, openness, and willingness to participate depends on the leader, co-leaders, and their confidence to lead. My leadership style is empathy and active listening, which makes others feel comfortable, listened to, and not judged. Conversely, I struggle with delegation in my daily life which leads to sometimes feeling overwhelmed because I am going it alone. Having a co-leader who can actively say “I’m going to do this” rather than feel like I have the sole responsibility on myself would be ideal. Planning things out as a team and playing to one another’s strengths is the smartest way to share responsibility. I have a positive attitude regarding groups and what they can provide.

Leading a group that has a mix of diverse cultural backgrounds does not make me uncomfortable, but the idea that I may offend someone’s cultural background or beliefs sometimes worries me. Improving my understanding and awareness of unfamiliar cultures will help me when working with diverse groups. One class I have this semester is Human Diversity and Multiculturalism in Social Work, so I am hoping to gain more knowledge and skills when it comes to this area.

The one group from the assignment’s reading that stood out to me the most was the therapeutic group. This group gives the members a chance to work through their issues while learning about themselves – while getting the chance to improve their personal social skills, learn new methods of behaviors, and teaching ways to interact with others in a positive way (Corey, et al., 2018, p. 55). One of the questions that was answered with an “agree” or “disagree” response was, “is it good for leaders to allow some responsibility to member but also retain some (Corey, et al., 2018, p. 56)?” It is good that others are given some responsibility, but it does need to be taken into consideration the amount allotted so the group as a whole and the members as individuals are still able to work and contribute in the proper ways to not cause any setbacks. Setbacks happen and you deal with them as they come, but the effort to prevent them should still be taken. I don’t have a lot of self confidence in working with groups, mainly because I have never been exposed to that setting, but I hope with more experience and more skills learned that feeling changes, after all that is why we are all here, to learn and improve our abilities to help others. I like the summary given by the University of Kansas in their article Building Relationships with People from Different Cultures. They mention that the relationships we have with others bring meaning to our own lives and give us inspiration to create change. The connections we make and build with people on an individual level and a group level are crucial when making change/improvements within communities and others lives, these connections help build strong relationships throughout many diverse cultures and backgrounds (University of Kansas, 2024).

My score was 63, I had 10 strong agree, 8 slight agree, 11 slight disagree, and 1 strong disagree.

Reference:

Schneider Corey, M., Corey, G., & Corey, C. (2018). Introduction: Basic Issues in Group Work. In Groups: Process and Practice (10th ed.). essay, Cengage.

The University of Kansas. (n.d.). Building Relationships with People from Different Cultures. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/building-relationships/mainLinks to an external site.

Discussion post 2:

Sally Jo (Sj)
Reply from Sally Jo (Sj)
HI,

In the questionnaire on group leadership, I had 10 answers I completely or strongly agreed with, and I had 5 that I complexly disagreed with. The other 15 questions were in the middle for me. My total score was 66. Based on my score, I learned that the attitudes of the group leadership matter very much. Our chapter did go into leadership skills for being culturally competent and some to dos, like generating trust but I believe that understanding what type of leadership style you have could prove to be very beneficial. According to Leadership in Groups, there are 3 major types. There is a Laissez-faire approach that means “let do” where leaders take a laid back or hands off approach. This is a type of leadership where the leader refrains from directly directing the group and might be favorable for highly skilled and motivated members. Authoritarian leadership style is where a leader would exert maximum control over a group and is beneficial when a group needs direction to help the group stay efficient and organized to accomplish goals. The last style it talks about is a democratic style where decision-making power is shared among the group. Decisions are not made by one individual. It goes on to state that, “There is not one right way to be a leader for every group. Effective leaders are able to adapt their leadership style to fit the needs of the group.” (Leadership in Groups | Introduction to Communication, n.d.)

I have managed group settings in my professional career and been a part of groups in my personal experience. I feel that I have skills in task groups in professional settings which were used to get our team on board with changes and new applications that were being highlighted. However, I would like to acquire or improve my skills for psychoeducation and brief counseling groups which require real training. I am life learner so I would still love to improve my skills in task groups as well. The groups I have attended in my personal life have been much more democratic where things are discussed with the members and votes are cast on changes, however the initial structure of the group was not being called into consideration to be changed. I have enjoyed these groups for years and facilitated many of them. These groups are generally for a population that has a specific struggle and are open to any population, race, or culture.

Since I grew up in New Mexico I have some confidence in my ability to facilitate a group with some diverse cultures, however I also feel like this is a life learning experience as well. I have learned a great deal in other classes about other cultures but without having their unique experiences I feel I need to continue to refresh my knowledge and ask questions as well as be transparent about any blind spots I may still have. I do hope there is some grace for learning with the groups I may participate in facilitating. However, today, I would say I am a beginner still in my confidence in terms of experience with this.

References:

Leadership In Groups | Introduction to Communication. (n.d.). https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-introductiontocommunication/chapter/leadership-in-groups/