Group Leadership Skills
Leadership primarily determines the success of an organization. According to Jacobs et al., (2016) leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done to accomplish a given goal. There are several skills required by the leaders to lead a group session effectively. This discussion has provided some of those skills that seem to be easy and hard for me to incorporate in a group.
One of the easiest skills is the use of progress reports. When starting a meeting, it is essential to go through the previous session. The leader should allow the members to update themselves on what has happened since their last session (Forsyth, 2019). This enables the group to determine what has been accomplished and what still needs to be accomplished. Another skill is being able to stimulate members’ thoughts. Not all the sessions that members are always ready to share their ideas. Thus, the leader needs to stimulate them through exercise and other activities. There is also the use of general questions or comments that keep the members encouraged and active.
However, there are some skills that hard for me to incorporate into my group leadership. One of the skills is changing the leadership style. There are times that leaders feel the need to change their style. This might be hard because the members will be affected by the new style. Also, some prefer things to stay the way they are, and if changes are to be made, conflict might arise. Another hard skill is changing the group structure. These changes are likely to take different forms, such as adding new members, changing meeting times, and dividing the group among others (Forsyth, 2019). This might be difficult for me because convincing the members might take time.
References
Forsyth, D. R. (2019). Group dynamics (7th ed.). Cengage. ISBN: 97811337408851.
Forsyth: Ch. 10
Jacobs, E. E., Schimmel, C. J., Masson, R. L., & Harvill, R. L. (2016). Group counseling: Strategies
and skills (8th ed.). Cengage. ISBN: 9781305087309
Jacobs et al.: Ch. 7–8