Power to the People - Getting the best out of groups part III

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This article is the third of a four-part series exploring the underlying dynamics that affect these groups and providing insight into how we can be better group leaders. 

Learning style is an important influence on personality but so is power, for the simple reason that people thrive on feeling empowered.  Part of the reason for these differences in people’s personality is that we are all looking to feel satisfied and fulfilled.    

People come into groups with different backgrounds and strengths and at the same time wants to have a sense of empowerment.  When used for a common good, these needs and desires are a good thing as they provide the group with power.  This collective power provides the ability to achieve goals and for group members to feel fulfilled and satisfied.

 

When people join groups, because they each bring different traits, strengths and skills and aims, everybody performs different roles and fulfills different functions.  Some people come up with ideas, others have a knack for bring people together, some connect the group to other groups and others complete all the important administration tasks.   All these contributions are forms of power that people bring to give groups vital energy. 

Because people have a wide range of different personalities they derive power in different ways in-group situations.  Some people put all their energies into coercing those around them.  Other people focus on being experts in their relevant field.  There are those who use their personality to sway group decisions or others who use their connections to get what they want.  Understanding power dynamics within groups is helpful for any group leader.  It gives insight into why people might act the way they do and can assist leaders to be less intimidated by powerful people.  It provides the foundation to focus and use power for the benefit of all.  By harnessing collective power, groups can achieve much more than individuals can.  Forms of power in groups include but are not limited to:

Coercive power	Relies on threats, domination and bullying to inspire fear and awe in those subject to that power.  Coercive leaders are usually sticklers and adhere to hierarchies of power.
Connection power	Based on a person’s links with influential people/resources in or outside the group.  Leaders relying solely on powerful connections might not have great self-confidence
Expert power	Power derived from ones expertise, skill and knowledge to achieve authority and respect from group members.
Information power	This is power derived from ones access to information that others in the group perceive to be important.
Legitimate power	Power that comes from the position a person holds.  It is based on the rights a person has in the post they occupy.
Referent power	This is power derived from personality traits or charisma.
Reward power	This is power that comes from a persons ability to provide gain or reward to others i.e. money, resources etc.

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES

So what can you do as the facilitator to make the most of the situation and become more effective in leading groups of people?

As the group leader, you are responsible for establishing and maintaining the culture and structure of the group.  This is the basis for the concept of ‘governance’ and combines both the intangible (cultural) and tangible (Structural) elements.  What I mean is that on one hand the leader sets the tone for the atmosphere of the group, the openness of conversations and the way people interact and relate to each other.  On the other hands the group leader also directly manages the systems people follow and the processes that people work through during group activities, to make decisions and carry out actions.

As the leader, if we are responsible for the culture of a group then is follows that for the group culture to be established, we must establish it.  Alternatively for an existing group, for a group culture to change, if we are a part of that culture, we must change first.  If we want to change the dynamics of a group that we are a part of, we first need to change our own perceptions. 

Changing a perspective of a situation requires we learn to see things differently.  To this end a fundamental part of changing the dynamics of a group is taking the time to put ourselves in other group members’ shoes so that we can see situations from their perspective, before deciding what to do.

When leaders present their ideas, others listen and agree…or at least that’s how it works in theory.  However, if it were that simple, more people would be great leaders.  All this talk about systems of governance sounds very lofty but it’s actually all around us and a part of all our groups no matter how small or large.

STYLES OF LEADERSHIP

There are many different group leadership styles out there in our society.  You could argue that each group has a slightly different style.  But it can be helpful to define a few general categories within which different managers and organisations operate for ease of explanation.  To this end, I will identify three general categories that sit along a continuum. 

·      Authoritarian (Dictatorship)

·      Laissez Faire (Free market)

·      Participative (Democratic)

At one end of the continuum is Authoritarian rule, which is sometimes referred to as dictatorial rule, dictatorship, or a top down structure.  At the other end of the continuum is a Laissez Faire approach, which is also commonly known as a free market or capital system.  Somewhere in the middle is the democratic or participative management style.

Authoritarian dictatorship

In this system, leaders dictate strategic directions and what tasks are to be carried out, and managers also dictate how tasks are to be carried out, leaving workers to simply carry out required tasks as directed.  In a work context this is sometimes referred to as micro-managing.

Participative / democratic

In this system, managements role is to act as facilitator and provide guidance.  Decisions are based on collective understanding so workers are actively engaged to provide input into decision-making.

Laissez Faire / Free Market

With this system decision-making is fully decentralised.  Workers / subordinates make all their own decisions about what to work on and therefore choose their direction.  They have either considerable or full degree of autonomy in choosing and completing routine work activities.

Most management texts will explain that different management styles are suited to different situations and that the best managers need to be able to adjust their style accordingly.  This may be so, but it is also commonly acknowledged that democratically managed groups can produce high quality and high quantity work for long periods of time. While there is no universally accepted definition of democracy, equality and freedom have both been identified as important characteristics since ancient times. 

The term democracy came into existence following a popular uprising in Athens 508 BC through which a new style of leadership emerged.  The democratic process has been described as "not only a political system but an ideal, an aspiration, intimately connected to and dependent upon a picture of what it is to be fully human.  Many group members also like the responsibility and freedom and respond with cooperation, team spirit, and high morale. 

Whilst it’s important to be flexible initially when we enter a new situation, we should aspire towards a democratic style of leadership.  In this situation people have freedom of expression and self-determination, but also combined with a common direction and a strong sense of group association.  This aspirational ideal is what allows collective intelligence to best prosper.

WHY BE PARTICIPATIVE?

The advantage that participative or democratic leadership and governance has over the other extremes is that it brings together and shares elements of both.  Creating a democratic group allows the freedom for group members’ strengths to flourish whilst also harnessing those strengths and driving them towards a singular purpose and collective goals.

Democratic decision-making requires genuine two-way communication that is honest, sensitive and open.  Democracy is linked to having the freedom and right to self-determination.  In a group situation this equates to the ability to influence and help determine group decisions.  Democracy is also linked to equality and the recognition that as equals we can all teach and learn from one another. 

With these ideas in mind, democratic leadership is a two way street and requires leadership qualities that combine an idealistic attitude with discipline and commitment.  A good example of this is being assertive.  To be truly democratic a leader needs to be able to communicate clearly and effectively, but also in a non-threatening way maintaining a calm and positive attitude.  This sounds simple, but in highly stressful situation, with people arguing or getting emotional and demanding different things of you, it can be quite a challenge.  It requires a very good awareness of yourself combined with considerable discipline.

Qualities of an effective participative leader

Assertion	Being able to state and ask for something in a calm, non threatening way
Empathy	Able to identify and understand another person’s feelings or difficulties
Responsibility	Accountable for his/her actions and completes all duties to the satisfaction of others
Self-control	Able to control his/her own behavior and thing before they react impulsively to a challenging group situation
Cooperation	Having a positive attitude when a colleague or participant has a request or a question

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Using participative leadership qualities to lead a group

• Give group members the chance to get to know you. 
• Find ways to learn about what group members aim to give and receive from their group participation.  Identify common values. 
• Put energy into observing group members and the way they do things collectively. 
• Set common objectives, and encourage group members to remember already agreed group goals 
• Encourage all members to participate in group activities and keep this encouragement happening at all times throughout the life of the group.

Power to the People - Getting the best out of groups, part 2

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This article is the second in a four-part series exploring the underlying dynamics that affect these groups and providing insight into how we can be better group leaders. 

 

In a magical dream world people wouldn’t be difficult, they would be easy to work with.  But would this really be so great?  Somebody famous once said that two heads are better than one and somebody else once said that nothing great was ever achieved by one man alone.   It is true because a single person will only ever see their own perspective; a one-dimensional view, of sorts, which will always limit what they can achieve.  Even if they are talented enough to see different perspectives, by paying all their attention to what they are looking at, they might accidently ignore the noise going on around them or the fragrant aromas.   

A group of people, by contrast, is able to by bringing different perspectives and levels of awareness to any situation.  Any performance group will know how useful this is in constructing and performing a great piece of work.  To this end, a range of different personalities can actually be advantageous if they all have the same hopes and aims.  People might appear to be difficult, but two contrasting viewpoints might actually work together to help a project succeed.  To explore this topic further lets consider the different ways that people learn and experience the world.

Honey and Mumford are two academics who developed a four-quadrant model of personality based on the different way people learn.  I have not identified their particular model because it is better or worse than other models, simply that it provides a useful example.  What is interesting and valuable about these types of models is that they help to identify why and how people’s different personality traits can be useful in an organisation or group setting where people want to achieve collective goals.

To form their model, Honey and Mumford characterise any learning or life experience within a four-stage cycle.  They describe how with any experience we will:

• Plan to do it
• Do it
• Review what we have done
• Draw conclusions about it 

According to their model, whilst we go through the whole cycle with any experience, individuals have a preferred part of the process of which they are more conscious. 

As a result people tend to pay more attention to one of two  stages in the cycle.   Or if they were to get stuck, they are likely to follow the same type of pattern again and again.  For example a somebody might enjoy making plans, but procrastinate and find it difficult to actually get started and put one into action.

To provide a very brief and general introduction they identified the four different groups of people as Activists, Pragmatists, Theorists and Reflectors.  Put simply, activists like to act, reflectors like to reflect, theorists like to draw conclusions and pragmatists like to make plans. 

It’s important to note that people with any personality type are capable of having the whole experience, and indeed must, to get anything done.  But each group of people have different preferences in terms of what they pay most attention to.  As a result each group will tend act in different ways and start the cycle at their most preferred point. 

ACTIVISTS	Like to jump in at the deep end, enthusiastic, looks for new experiences, likes to be centre of attention, enjoy talking about experiences
PRAGMATIST	Experiments with new ideas, looks for practical application, down-to-earth, problem-solver, will make plans before acting
THEORIST	Logical and objective, systematic and analytical, thinks things through, perfectionist, likes to understand why they should act before acting
REFLECTOR	Chews things over, thoughtful and analytical, good listener, adopts low profile, can be seen to be procrastinating as they reflect in ideas

What would be your preferred learning style?  How about those around you?

An activist by nature will like to jump straight in to a project and might feel as though their reflector colleague is procrastinating if they stop to reflect after each step along the way, even though the reflector might consider this an important part of the process.    Their more pragmatic colleague might not even notice the reflectors pauses but they may be irritated by the activists’ incessant non-stop talking and fool-hardy actions that are not that well thought through.

When we have any discussion about different personalities and difficult people, we always need to be aware of different perspectives and opinions.  Because the very notion of personality traits is something that has created by people, different people will always see and describe situations in different ways.  Any situation in life is ‘subject’ to our interpretation and even the most extreme personality traits can be interpreted in a variety of ways.     

 In summary, whether we are aware of it or not, the way we like to learn influences our perceptive of other people around us and how we judge other people actions.  It is not the only influence, but it can play an important role and you need to be aware of it in your day-to-day life to be able to effectively work and live with others.

Power to the People - Getting the best out of groups, part 1

This article is the first of a four-part series exploring the underlying dynamics that affect organisational and community groups to provide insight into how we can be better group leaders. 

 

Wouldn’t the world be boring if we all had the same thoughts, aims, dreams and aspirations?  We would have nothing to talk about!  Whether you agree with that idea or not, the reality is that people have differences and within any group there is generally a wide range of personalities that results in a variety of interactions.  This article is the first of a three-part series exploring the underlying dynamics that affect these groups and providing insight into how we can be better group leaders.

As we go about our normal day-to-day activities and weekly business, we all merge into and out of a wide range of formal and informal group situations.  Each group of people seems to have a unique dynamic and this is partly because within each group there is unique mix of personalities.  For example, in my basketball team alone there is the joker who likes to be the centre of attention, the debater who has strong opinions about things, the tireless worker, the convincer, the old-hand, the know-it-all, the all-around nice guy.  This influences how we play together as a team. 

This is just one example.  In addition there are our family groups, our social groups, the groups we encounter at work or via associations that we are involved in and the groups that come and go at events we attend and trips we go on. 

Sometimes leading groups is fun and easy and rewarding, but sometimes leading groups of people can be hard work!  Have you ever had to facilitate a difficult group of people in a class or workshop setting?  Or have you ever had to lead a group of people through a difficult and stressful situation?

If you can answer yes to either of these questions its perfectly normal.  If your answer is no, you will most likely do so in the future.  The modern working world requires many of us to lead groups but what causes groups of people to become hard work?  Sometimes it occurs because of difficult and stressful situations.  Other times people in the group can simply have mood swings or clash with each other.  Sometimes as the leader we might even be setting a group culture that is causing people to become stressed.  But before we explore this idea too far, lets consider the different ways that people can be difficult.

Because people have a wide range of different personalities, within any group of people there are many ways that different people be difficult?  For example there is the Know It All, the Talkative person, the Suspicious person, the Angry person, the Silent person, the Curious person, the Indecisive person, the Fussy person and the Rude Person...just to name a few.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

The Know It All	Is never wrong, likes to show off about who and what they know.  Can be well informed
The Talkative person	Often proud of what they know, enjoys chatting a lot and likes having an audience
The Suspicious person	Might not trust people easily and may need time before they let down their guard and are friendly towards you
The Angry person	Very emotional and is not easily satisfied with explanations or your side of the situation
The Silent person	Prefers to be let alone and does not easily information about themselves or their needs
The Curious person	Loves information and likes to ask lots of question
The Indecisive person	Usually finds it hard to make a decision
The Fussy person	Can focus on small details and at times seems unreasonable in their demands
The Rude Person	Often insensitive to the feelings of others and they can be very impatient

Can you think of anybody you know who fits into one of these categories?  To understanding how to manage difficult personalities it can be helpful to appreciate why people can be difficult.  There is great value in this for any group leader or facilitator, whether that group is a small committee or a large community group.  By taking the time to learn about what makes people act the way they do, we can learn how to work together more effectively.  This in turn can help us achieve greater goals and make our lives and work a lot easier.  So why do people think and act so strangely some times. 

Our experiences in life have a powerful influence over the way we think and act.  Whilst we are not robots that act without thought, we don’t always think about why we do things the way we do.  Many of our day-to-day habits occur outside of our conscious awareness.  If we are ever asked to explain the reasons for our actions, we might remember experiences in life that explain the reasons that we think are important.  Our understanding of the world or what we ‘believe’ is often influenced by our experiences throughout our life, often in our formative years…this is particularly true in how we relate to other people.

In his autobiography ‘The Elephant to Hollywood’, the actor Michael Caine talks about an experience while growing up in London during World War II.  He described a fire drill one day when for some reason the mouthpiece in his gasmask blocked.  He couldn't breathe and keeled over in a dead faint through lack of oxygen.  He explained how he was sent home in disgrace, as though he had let the British down, and this one experience left him with a burning sense of injustice and a lifelong loathing of the smell of rubber. 

Before we are even born our personality has already been influenced by our parents who pass on certain genetic predispositions.  Once we are born, from our earliest recollection we are filled with different ideas and expectations from those around us including our parents and siblings and friends.  We learn to find our place in the world and how thrive or survive in our family group, then as we grow by other people and groups we become involved in.  We are influenced by our experiences at school thanks to our teachers and groups of class mates and at play by our groups of friends, but our perception of the world is also influenced by the way we walk and the way we talk and how it all compares to those around us. 

As we grow, we are constantly learning and are further influenced by people in our wider community and the culture we experience in the society we are born into.  All these experiences give us certain opinions of what is good or bad or right or wrong.  We learn particular perspectives about what is easy and what is difficult.  We form friendships with people we get along with and maybe not those that we find annoying or difficult to deal with.  Over time these learning’s become established in our thoughts as beliefs and habits.

Eventually these opinions and perspectives might seem to become ‘the reality’, but the real reality is that they are actually learnt beliefs.  To put it another way they are learnt judgments.  In fact, the very concept of ‘judgment’, deciding if something is good or bad, or right or wrong is actually a human construction.  The idea would cease to exist if an asteroid hit earth and we died out.  Somebody wise once said that a glass is neither half full or half empty, its just a glass with water in it.   

Once we truly understand this idea, we start to appreciate that believing certain people to be difficult, is actually just our opinion.  It might be your opinion or another person’s opinion, or it might be an entire groups opinion at one point in time.  Either way it is a judgement that you or others have made based on your perspective of the situation.  As a Greek philosopher Epictetus once said ‘People are not disturbed by events, but by the view they take of them’. 

Somebody else involved in a situation with us might have a completely different opinion or judgement of a person’s actions and reactions.  In another time or place their actions might have different meaning.  When considered in the context of the world they live in, their actions might be quite reasonable.  If we want to change the way that people act, we first have to change our perception of how they are currently behaving. 

This idea can be a valuable one for group leaders to take on board, because it give a leader the flexibility to change their relationship with people that are supposedly ‘being difficult’.  Anybody wanting to change or improve the dynamics of a group will benefit from this.  In this regard it can be useful to reflect on the power of communication in dealing with ‘difficult people’.  If we can change our perception of a person, we can change the way we communicate with them.  Then it simply becomes an experiment or a game!  Try a different approach and see how they respond. 

Whether you are leading a community group or an organisational team it is important to appreciate the qualities of leadership that people respond well to.  Great leaders are always very good communicators and this is partly because they have good self-awareness.  Great leaders understand that communication is defined by the response they get and that great communication is a two way process and a partnership.  Applying this to our own situation, it is important to understand how our perspectives can influence how difficult people actually are.  In this respect leadership actually starts from the inside out.  By learning to ask ourselves the hard questions and work to change our perspective of difficult people we are working with, we put ourselves in a better position to work more effectively with them or assist them to become less difficult.