Bert Swope
A good group discussion leader leads by being careful to encourage an open process in which no one dominates. Also, taking care of the personal problems and needs of individuals and group members when they affect the group, identifying and clarifying when appropriate, and asking questions that advance the discussion rather than putting one’s own agenda or ego or bias first.
Ask the group members to spend some time writing down their own ideas about what the group needs to decide before starting the discussion. Group members are asked to make rational decisions about which positions and views they want to agree on, what ideas the group most agrees with, and whether these ideas agree or not with you.
As with decision-making directives, Heads of State or Government must analyze the information at their disposal before deciding on a course of action. While it can be beneficial to assemble a team of industry experts to support analytical decisions, executives must also consider conflicting advice and ideas. At the same time, they must carefully weigh the views of non-experts to make the most of the analytical decision-making process.
Successful executives have changed their approach to decision-making to accommodate the needs of different business situations. Nowadays, managers can choose many different styles to manage teams and people.
In most group discussions, leaders make a series of issues and ideas without directives to provide a satisfactory experience for all participants. If the goal is to be achieved quickly, an instruction from the leader helps keep the group focused.
Group decisions can be influenced by group polarization in which the attitudes of individual group members become more extreme than they were before group discussion began. Group thinking is more likely to occur when group members feel a strong social identity. For example, and strong instructions from the group leader can evoke positive group emotions, especially in times of stress or crisis, when the group needs to take the opportunity and make important decisions. If group members are afraid to express ideas that might contradict the leader or bring in outsiders or other information, the group is prevented from making informed decisions.
leadership is a complex of beliefs, communication patterns, and behaviors that influence the group’s functioning and motivate the group to fulfill its tasks. The Leader’s directive is based on the Way-to-Goal theory developed in the 1970s by Martin G. Evans and is one of the four leadership behaviors that sets clear goals and rules for team members.
In this article, we explain the leadership style of directives, how to become a directive leader and how to apply directive leader practices. In this section, we will discuss approaches to studying leadership, leadership styles and group dynamics. Features and approaches to studying leaders provide useful information about people’s views on the ideal leader. Still, they do not provide much insight into how people become successful leaders for others.
Nevertheless, managers must understand that personality does not have to stand in the way of critical company decisions. The most important question is whether we have the right to trust the group more than the individual to make sensible decisions.
The primary consideration here is the nature of open questions, which make the interviewee think before revealing what he thinks. Unanswered questions asked calmly and neutrally without suggesting the right answer, can help managers gather important information to report on the challenges and opportunities they face. Just as closed questions elicit answers, open questions foster dialogue and interpersonal engagement.
Direct reports that require directives and statements such as “I need you to master this skill by the end of the month” are likely to experience fear, frustration, resentment, passive aggression, and failure to meet the imposed benchmark. A directive is a decision taken without the necessary information.
Third, student questions, including those that are asked at school, indicate what students are interested in and want to know more about the world around them. Given that the student’s “questions depend on contextual factors such as their prior knowledge, the question of basic information is important in this case.
Questions are often asked under naturalistic conditions, in the context of an oral speech in the classroom, embedded in group discussions, or within an entire class context. These questions are superior in their potential contribution to knowledge. They focus less on explanations of causes and facts and require greater integration of complex and divergent information from multiple sources.
In another study, Phillips and Duke compared questions at the cognitive level posed by full-time clinical faculty members and volunteer faculty members with questions at the nursing level, with faculty asking questions of lower and higher-order. Researchers observed that 91% of lecturers asked 3,407 questions that could be categorized by the type and level of questions. The majority of questions asked were low-level questions (68.9%). Full-time teachers also asked higher-order cognitive questions than teachers. The teachers who asked lower-level cognitive questions did not stimulate critical thought.
Students who were asked basic information questions on familiar topics focused on questions on less familiar topics. When asked by factual questions to recall certain elements or reference sources, students turned to higher-level thinking.
