Learning LEADERSHIP skills: Not as hard as you might think?

Post Reply New Topic

And indeed is suitable mainly in business (especially large corporations) and the military.

Not quite so suitable in support groups, networking groups, educational groups, or recreational/hobby groups, especially when the groups are small. My intended focus in this thread is on leadership primarily in groups in these latter categories.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 17 Sep 2019, 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ahh ... support groups ... not for problem-solving or production, but for making people feel good about themselves.

Then what you need is a Facilitator, not a Leader. You need someone whose primary goal is to give each person a chance to speak about what is on his or her mind, someone who can paraphrase and repeat what was just said, and someone who knows when to call a break to let the hot-heads cool down and the traumatized a chance to compose themselves -- a manager, not a boss.

Very similar to Quakers. I didn't know that about Presbyterian churches. Only Quakers have no pastor. The clerk fills the role of the Elder.

I am the leader of a small agency. It has been a challenge for me. I do have respect, but inside I can still feel the ...I'm not good enough... set in. I make sure the topics are covered, everyone gets a chance to speak, and conclusions are generally agreed to by all.

"Problem-solving" and "making people feel good about themselves" are not necessarily mutually exclusive aims. In any group whose members are more akin to customers than to employees, contractors, or draftees, pleasing the members (or, at least, the vast majority of members) does need to be one of the goals, though hopefully not the only goal.


"Facilitator" is indeed the most commonly-used term for the person who runs a support group. However, that term is not so commonly used in the other kinds of groups I mentioned (educational, recreational, networking) as some types of groups that I think some of us should consider founding and leading.

I was using "leader" in a generic sense to refer to the person who leads/manages/coordinates/facilitates/whatever a group of any kind.

Ah!

I tend to follow the dictionary definition of each word separately, the differences of which may be subtle -- or even non-existent to some -- but they are significant to me.

Cheers!