Group Dynamics and Leadership

A group is a collection of people with a sense of attachment. It could easily be differentiated with a category which is just a collection of people with something in common. Basically the idea of group is very vague and depends a lot upon the context and situation. A real life experience with me makes it clearer. I was required to catch a bus from Delhi to my native, Meerut. When I reached at bus stand, there was a huge crowd waiting for the bus from a long time. I started waiting with them when bad news just passed that buses have stopped plying for my city. Suddenly that collection of people who even did not know each other became together and went to talk to Bus Stand Manager about this unannounced decision. After long hours of altercations, the manager agreed to the “GROUP” of people and started the bus services. The example makes it so clear that when a mere collection of people become a GROUP of people. A group is a strong entity and has strong connection of belonging. However, we may have high sense of Group feeling or low sense of “groupiness” depending upon the situation, type of group, members and lot many factors. On very important quality of a group is that many a times the quality of the group could be very different than the members of the group. Also the outcomes of the group work could be outstanding many a times but could be worst of the entire world sometimes. This is what the Group, it could be miracle and could be a shackle. :)

Remembering another recent experience where Group created miracles was during Great Lakes-OBT where the difficult task were made just a game of tic-tac-toe by the various groups of Great Lakes.
(The tyre game during OBT )

(Our group celebrating after finding one card after a long time during Orienteering game at OBT which is just like a treasure hunt. From left to right, Varun - the member, Harsh - the counter, Tanya - the navigator, Venkat - the pacer, Swapnil - the reader, Jagadish - the runner. It was all great group work.)

Understanding groups’ dynamics is a complex task but it’s important to understand how a group behaves and works to become a successful leader. Sometimes, the members of the groups are highly varied in nature, quallities or what so ever but still they are required to be oriented towards a single goal. Orienting all the group members towards one goal requires team skills as well as great leadership powers. So anybody who is interested in honing leadership skills must know how group works, how they behave in a group and how to manage a group.