Overview Of My Leadership Style In A Group

First, I need to improve on expressing myself so that others feel more open to expressing their ideas as well. There has been many times in groups where I am quiet and simply go with the flow of things, even if they are not what I am wanting out of the group. I need to be able to facilitate a group by not only expressing myself, but allowing everyone to express their selves as well. Facilitators of groups need to be able to encourage members to express how they feel about different topics pertaining to the group. When a leader has the capability of expressing their ideas and encouraging others to do the same, this helps bring the group closer together because they all feel as if they can participate. Second, I mostly need to improve on requesting information, questioning, and probing. When these skills are used, the facilitator is able to see what the issues are and fix them to help expand the groups work in a way that all members can be satisfied.

Questioning members in the correct manner can help unload information that can then be assessed and fixed if need be. I have always been a curious person, but I do not speak upon what I am thinking most of the time. If I could be able to talk to the members more easily and be more open to asking questions, I feel that I could help fix problems so the group could excel. Lastly, I need to work on my confrontation skills. A good leader needs to be able to be outspoken and have the ability to confront members if something is wrong. This skill is a key action for fighting through barriers and getting members more involved. I try to get along with everyone in my life, and the thought of a confrontation going bad is what bothers me. Confrontation can also help by showing a member their personal strengths. There has to be a part in me that changes so that I do not sweat a bad confrontation, and look forward to confrontations in the hope that I am helping someone fix something in their life.

I believe a group that relates to substance abuse or mental health are groups in which I would feel comfortable leading. If I was a facilitator of a court ordered group for alcoholics, I would teach them the negative impacts that alcohol has not only on their body and try to restore purpose in their life. I always try to bring a smile to peoples face, and keep them positive about life, so that is why I would feel comfortable in these groups. Even though I am shy, I feel as if I could lead or facilitate almost any group. If I had to choose, the group that I would feel most uncomfortable facilitating would be a group for elderly people. Even though I would get along with the members, I feel as if there is a disconnect due to the age gap and change in society. I do not feel as if I would be able to really connect with them because of these reasons. The group situations that would make me feel the most uncomfortable would be the not following the rules and controversy within the group. I try to keep everything organized, so that means having standards is extremely important to me, and it would bother me having these standards broken by members of the group.

Controversy within the group would make me feel most uncomfortable due to the fact that I have a hard time speaking up. I also lack the ability to be confrontational towards people, which would therefore make the situation of breaking up a controversy extremely hard for me. I am a person who is laid back and organized, so disorder is what bothers me the most.

I believe my major strengths as a leader are my ability to involve group members and my focusing skills. Helping involve group members is extremely important, not only for their own growth, but they will then be able to form their leadership skills inside the group.