Leadership Competency #2
Understanding Group Needs and Characteristics
Leadership Mastery for Professional & Personal Development
March 2003
ALD’s philosophy of leadership is that leaders can transform organizations, but leadership is not a role belonging solely to the high-ranking people within the organization.
Leadership is manifested in the characteristics and behaviors of people throughout the organization – at all levels. ALD’s purpose is to assist organizations with the mastery of leadership behaviors.
With that in mind, each month we are examining a competency associated with leadership. Whether the leadership is required in an “at work” function, or a community or sports program, basic skills apply. The competencies are in no ranked order; they are merely a set of skills “leaders” at all levels of organizations should master.
Some of the competency narrative is adapted from the work of Bela Banathy, a former chairman of the Leadership Training Committee of the Monterey Bay Area Council, BSA. His theory was based on “leadership development by design”.
At the end of this article we have included a recommendation for an ideal ALD resource to further develop the competency. This month we feature the DiSC® Classic 2.0 , a profile of the behaviors we all uniquely tend to display – it links directly to understanding the characteristics and needs of self and others. DiSC® Classic 2.0 is also one of our all time favorite tools – reliable, revealing and useful.
Leadership Competency #2
Understanding Group Needs and Characteristics
This competency enables a leader to:
- Recognize understanding the needs and characteristics of group members as a major technique for building group unity and identity.
- Recognize and differentiate between values, norms, needs, and characteristics.
- Gain knowledge of the relationship between planning activities, group performance, and individual needs and characteristics.
It is essential that we first understand ourselves and our own needs and characteristics. Only then can we know and understand other people's needs and behaviors. This understanding hopefully comes naturally as we mature. By directly exploring and encouraging discovery of these personality traits, we can accelerate the maturing of a leader, adding growth and vitality to the group.
NOTE: In this newsletter, we are not distinguishing between a group and a team, though differences do exist. Reliable references abound on this topic, but we would refer you to our colleague “across the pond”, Tony Reid, and The Selfish Team - stimulating reading on groups and teams. For this newsletter, “group” is a collection of people whose success depends on the combined and interdependent efforts of all members.
About Understanding Group Needs and Characteristics
Knowledge of individual needs and characteristics is important for every member of a group. As any group forms, an informal assessment of members' characteristics and needs always takes place. This competency brings the process into the open and uses it to everyone's advantage. Members learn to volunteer their own needs and characteristics in an open, trusting environment via specific learning activities and exercises. Everyone is accepted and their individual differences are valued, for those differences contribute to an environment calculated to encourage growth.
The competency Understanding Group Needs and Characteristics has five major parts:
1. Understanding Motives
2. Assessing Values
3. Evaluating Norms
4. Meeting Individual Needs
5. Learning Personal Characteristics
1. Understanding Motives
We should differentiate between needs and wants. A need can be strictly interpreted as those elements essential for human survival: shelter, food, warmth, and love. A want is a desire, something that we believe will make us happier or our circumstances easier.
The psychologist Abraham Maslow conceived of our needs and wants as a pyramid, the top of the pyramid representing our ability to realize our own potential or our capacity to help others - altruistic behavior - as illustrated below. This is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs.
As leaders, we must be able to evaluate an individual's relative position within this hierarchy of needs. For example, if someone’s personal life is insecure, their motive in accomplishing daily responsibilities may be very different from someone whose personal life is relatively stable. The insecure person may simply be escaping a bad environment or seeking affirmation of their self-worth, while the other individual is seeking to exercise skills they already know they possess or to develop greater skills. According to Maslow, fulfilled needs are no longer motivators.
We must not assume, based on a few external facts or characteristics, that we understand a person's true motives. We should use our intuition and discernment, but it is our obligation as a leader to build trust and help the person reveal their needs and motives. They may not yet even understand what their own needs and motives are, so as a leader one must be sensitive to this.
Trust is built through the demonstration of behaviors that Ralph Colby describes as:
1. I accept you – who you are is OK with me
2. I am open – I’m willing to give and receive feedback
3. I am straightforward and congruent – I say what I mean and mean what I say
4. I am reliable – I do what I say I’ll do
2. Assessing Values
Values are those closely held beliefs we have developed over many years – our code of conduct. They do not change readily or quickly. They are the standards by which attitudes are formed, but they are not attitudes. Values are not behavioral traits; they are not needs. Values are the markers by which we choose between one behavior and another. How an individual’s values combine in a group creates the dynamics of group interaction.
Everyone's set of values is personal and unique. Though individual values are not necessarily talked about, they are nonetheless operative – we carry them with us every day. Values cannot be ignored if we are to know others and ourselves. Successful groups and teams share a set of values that guide daily operations and the achievement of results.
Leaders can create a workplace that endorses and supports a particular set of values. This may be done by establishing shared values for working together or it may be that our values are brought to light in the course of other activities, as part of the group leadership development process.
By example, leaders set certain values as our standards. Leaders value the group as a whole, though not at the expense of an individual. Leaders value all group members, and tell them so in many ways. Leaders may value creativity, autonomy, maturity, and encourage and reward these qualities.
3. Evaluating Norms
These are the common rules and customs followed by group members. They may or may not be overtly defined. Norms specify acceptable and appropriate behavior – a commonly accepted way of behaving within the group.
Norms develop from the values, expectations and acquired habits that members bring with them to the group.
Norms are for the most part unquestionably followed. They may be established and examined by the group itself, especially for their vast influence on communication within and between groups. Norms create the group’s culture and uniqueness.
4. Meeting Individual Needs
These include the physical, everyday needs of eating, breathing and sleeping. These are our survival needs. We also have certain psychological needs not as easily recognizable, but critical to our physical and emotional well being nonetheless. A newborn infant, left alone and never touched, although it may eat, breath and sleep well, will wither. Needs might include, for instance, "doing something challenging or new," "receiving recognition," "fun," "respect from others," and "time alone."
Given knowledge of a member's needs, the group can have a powerful impact as it assists individuals in fulfilling their needs. A group leader who strives to respond to individual needs will subsequently earn considerable loyalty and commitment from group members. Members can continue to contribute under very stressful and trying circumstances, beyond their own estimation of their capacity, if they are given specific, positive feedback.
5. Learning Personal Characteristics
These are individual signs of who we are. Someone may value competition, need challenges and be characterized as a go-getter. Characteristics are the obvious landmarks others judge us by (sometimes accurately, sometimes not). "He's shallow--he never talks about anything but sports." "She's an idealist--always working for one cause or another, never giving up."
Knowing individual characteristics, a group can tailor its efforts and activities to take advantage of members’ given talents and interests.
A team sporting event might be held after the work to satisfy a socializing need.
More but shorter breaks might be scheduled for someone who gets restless sitting for long periods.
More time spent on the details of a project might be helpful to someone who craves in-depth information.
More responsibility may be given to someone who needs the challenge.
Though the signals are there to learn personal characteristics, it can be extremely helpful to an individual and a group to become more “self-aware” of their own behaviors and tendencies.
He who knows others is learned.
He who knows himself is wise.
Lao Tse
Knowing and understanding one’s self and others can increase a group’s successful performance, reduce conflict, and build stronger teamwork and mutual respect.
The development tool for knowing self and understanding others that we prefer above all others is DiSC® Classic 2.0.
This is the foundation of personal and professional success: understanding yourself, understanding others, and realizing the impact of personal behavior on others. DiSC® Classic 2.0 has unlocked the door to productive communication and relationships for over 30 million people through its DiSC® Dimensions of Behavior learning approach. We have used it extensively in training programs, always with positive results – people learn about themselves and have information they can apply at work and at home to improve communications and relationships.
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You have options…
Respond to DiSC Classic 2.0 online & receive a full color report or receive &
respond to the paper version of this development tool
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ALD, Inc.
208-762-1322
info@ald-inc.com
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