Over a two day period I joint led a group of four in the Snowdonia nation park, Wales. I gained valuable leadership experience and also developed my navigational skills in different weather conditions. On the first day myself and another leader led a group and completed a route up to the highest peak in Wales, mount Snowdon. It is important when leading a group that the person in charge tailors their leadership style for the needs of the group. For example sometimes it is best for the groups dynamics to let them make their own decisions, and sometimes the group simply need to be told what to do. There is not an exact science on ‘how’ to lead a group but, there are identifiable traits of different leading styles that can be used for different situations. A psychologist called Kurt Lewin (1939), researched and discovered that there are three different types of leadership styles, democratic, Laissez-fair and autocratic leadership. On the first day of leading the other leader and I adopted the autocratic model of leadership which had a positive effect on the group as a whole. Due to our style of leadership and clear view on what we were going to achieve, the group appeared to have full confidence in us as leaders. However, it could have been very detrimental to the group’s confidence if we as leaders made navigational mistakes. Fortunately the route chosen was well known to both leaders and relatively ‘easy’ in the weather conditions that we experienced on the day. An interesting effect our leadership had on the group was, a short way from the summit, at 1050 meters, the wind speed increased and within the distance of 10 meters it had gone from relatively calm 15 mph to strong 35 mph winds. This could have been quite daunting for the group, but because their confidence levels had been built up from the beginning of the day they were able to cope with the change to their environment, and they we’re all operating well within their comfort levels. I feel it is important for people to stay within their comfort zone whilst experiencing a completely new activity, this is because if they do not they will associate the experience with ‘fear’, and they will not want to experience it again.
http://social-pedagogy.co.uk/concepts_lzm.htm
The group in this situation seemed to be excited by the change in weather, and for some members of the group they were enjoying a completely new experience. The group completed the walk with no problems and I think that due to having such a successful first day, they all looked forward to the rest of the week. Over the course of the second day we moved from autocratic leadership to a more relaxed democratic style of leading. The group carried their confidence over from the first day which helped them to adjust to new mountain terrain, in this instance a scree slope. Due to the group being relatively familiar with being on a mountain they were mow able to move into their learning zone and focus on learning the technique for walking on scree, they showed confidence with this new skill. This allowed them to focus more on their navigational skills, and they were able to be more involved a navigational aspect. They seemed to enjoy working out where we were on the map and relatively confident in making decisions for themselves.
The Learning zone model by Senninger, 2000, is a good way to understand how to teach people, and combined with the right style of leadership can produce effective results
The group in this situation seemed to be excited by the change in weather, and for some members of the group they were enjoying a completely new experience. The group completed the walk with no problems and I think that due to having such a successful first day, they all looked forward to the rest of the week. Over the course of the second day we moved from autocratic leadership to a more relaxed democratic style of leading. The group carried their confidence over from the first day which helped them to adjust to new mountain terrain, in this instance a scree slope. Due to the group being relatively familiar with being on a mountain they were mow able to move into their learning zone and focus on learning the technique for walking on scree, they showed confidence with this new skill. This allowed them to focus more on their navigational skills, and they were able to be more involved a navigational aspect. They seemed to enjoy working out where we were on the map and relatively confident in making decisions for themselves.
