Page 225 - Essentials of Human Communication

204 Chapter 10 Members and Leaders in Small Group Communication

sKiLL DeveLopMent experienCe

empowering Group Members

For each situation, indicate what you might say to help empower the other person, using such strategies as
(a) raising the other person’s self-esteem; (b) listening actively and supportively; (c) being open, positive, and
empathic; and (d) avoiding verbal aggressiveness or any unfair conflict strategies.
1. A team member is having many difficulties: He recently lost his job, received poor grades in a night class,
and is gaining a lot of weight. At the same time, you’re doing extremely well. You want to give your team
member back his confidence.
2. You’re managing four college interns, three men and one woman, who are working on redesigning your
company’s website. The men are extremely supportive of one another and regularly contribute ideas.
Although equally competent, the woman doesn’t contribute; she seems to lack confidence. Because the
objective of this redesign is to increase the number of female visitors, you really need the woman intern’s
input and want to empower her.
Power is not a zero-sum 3. You’re a third-grade teacher. Most of the students are from the same ethnic-religious group; three, how-
game; empowering ever, are from a different group. The problem is that these three have not been included in the social
others often adds to, groupings of the students; they’re treated as outsiders. As a result, these children stumble when they have
rather than subtracts to read in front of the class and make a lot of mistakes at the chalkboard (though they consistently do well
from, your own power. in private). You want to empower these students.

encourage Ongoing evaluation and Improvement All groups encounter obsta-
cles as they try to solve a problem, reach a decision, or generate ideas. No group is totally
Watch the Video effective. All groups have room for improvement. To improve, the group must focus on
“The Interns” at itself. Along with trying to solve some external problem, it must try to solve its own internal
MyCommunicationLab
problems—for example, personal conflicts, failure of members to meet on time, or members
who come unprepared. When you notice some serious group failing, address it, perhaps
suggesting that a particular issue (say, member tardiness) is a problem to be solved.

Manage Conflict As in interpersonal relationships, conflict is a part of small group in-
teraction. And it’s a leader’s responsibility to deal with it effectively. The conflict manage-
ment techniques that are useful in small groups are the same techniques discussed in the con-
text of interpersonal communication (see Chapter 8) . You may wish to think of them as
small group conflict management strategies.

Mentor Another function of leadership that is especially applicable to the small group but
is used extensively in the workplace and in business and personal relationships generally is
that of mentoring—a process that occurs when an experienced individual helps to train less
experienced group members. An accomplished teacher, for example, might mentor younger
teachers who are newly arrived or who have never taught before. A group leader might be the
group members’ supervisor and may mentor those supervised. The mentor guides new peo-
ple through the ropes, teaches strategies and techniques for success, and otherwise communi-
cates his or her accumulated knowledge and experience to the “mentee” or protégé. At the
same time, the mentor benefits from clarifying his or her thoughts, from seeing the job from
the perspective of a newcomer, and from considering and formulating answers to a variety of
questions. Just as a member learns from the leader, the leader learns from the members.

Objectives self-Check
● Can you define leadership and explain its myths?
● Can you explain the approaches to leadership and the general styles of leadership?
● Can you effectively apply the skills of leadership: preparing members, building cohesiveness, main-
taining effective interaction, guiding discussion through the agenda, ensuring member satisfaction,
empowering group members, encouraging ongoing evaluation, managing conflict, and mentoring?