Who was the leader of the group?
Can you this short answer ?
A small work team consisting of Eddie, Cyndi, Gina, Jennifer, and Ralph was asked to meet after work to come up with a theme for the company picnic, to be held the third of July at a park on the outskirts of town. No one had a great deal of enthusiasm for this project-or the idea of staying after work.
All were silent for the first few minutes, each probably hoping someone else would come up with an idea that would make this chore go away. When it was apparent that no one was going to take the lead, Gina said, "None of us wants to be here. Let's just make it a Fourth of July party and be done with it."
A couple of heads nodded, but Ralph responded, "I'd love to get out of here, too, but couldn't we come up with something a little more inventive than that? You know, the boss will be paying attention to this."
"Well, Mr. Brown-nose," Cyndi laughed, "still after that raise you didn't get last quarter?" Several members of the group smiled, although they could sense an underlying tension between Ralph and Cyndi.
Eddie came to the rescue: "We'd all like that raise, wouldn't we? What about giving this just a few more minutes and see if we can come up with something?"Jennifer stood up, opened her cell phone, and walked out of the room. Gina mumbled, "Fourth of July."
"Let me try once again," Ralph said. "What about a Fourth of July party?" "That was Gina's idea," Cyndi reminded the group, unnecessarily.
"And it was a good idea, too," said Eddie. "But what about building on
that idea by thinking about a different kind of celebration-maybe some- thing like a circus?"
"That's not bad," said Gina. "We could do costumes and have a parade. . . " "I like clowns," said Ralph.
"You are a clown," said Cyndi.
"No, really," Ralph said. "We could have a parade with clowns, and ani-
mals, and all that stuff."
"Sure," said Eddie, "circus in July!"
Suddenly energized, the group started making plans in earnest and even
assigned responsibilities for carrying the idea forward.
Analysis. Think through the pattern of leadership exhibited in this case. There was no formal leader, but several people exercised leadership-some effec- tively, some not so effectively. Who was the leader of the group? What made this person the leader? What behaviors were most helpful to the group? Which were least helpful? In the context of "leadership energizes,· what happened to energize this group? How much involved rational intelligence? How much involved emotional intelligence? What does your experience tell you about leadership in groups when no one is in charge?
Trending now
This is a popular solution!
Step by step
Solved in 2 steps
