LEADER EFFECTIVENESS TRAINING – THOMAS GORDON
CHAPTER 4 – SKILLS THAT HELP GROUP MEMBERS SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS
When group members encounter problems, the effectiveness of the group must suffer. People don’t
share problems with other freely and openly. Admitting to other that we are experiencing a problem
may not be easy because of the fear we’ll be judged and evaluated negatively or subjected to
irritation or anger. This is strong when the other person is boss.
When they share problems with their leaders, they give certain cues and clues. This “signalling
behaviour” alert you to the existence of a problem. While the signals let you know there is a
problem, they seldom tell you the nature of the problem. This is more difficult. People don’t get
down to the real problem until after they first ventilated a feeling or sent some opening message.
All you can do is guess what is going on inside another, relying on interpretation of the messages you
hear. This starts with the sender experiencing a feeling.
The receiver doesn’t know what is in the sender’s head, but if the sender wants to share it she must
first select an appropriate code that will represent or symbolize the inner feeling.
The sender transmits the code.
CHAPTER 4 – SKILLS THAT HELP GROUP MEMBERS SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS
When group members encounter problems, the effectiveness of the group must suffer. People don’t
share problems with other freely and openly. Admitting to other that we are experiencing a problem
may not be easy because of the fear we’ll be judged and evaluated negatively or subjected to
irritation or anger. This is strong when the other person is boss.
When they share problems with their leaders, they give certain cues and clues. This “signalling
behaviour” alert you to the existence of a problem. While the signals let you know there is a
problem, they seldom tell you the nature of the problem. This is more difficult. People don’t get
down to the real problem until after they first ventilated a feeling or sent some opening message.
All you can do is guess what is going on inside another, relying on interpretation of the messages you
hear. This starts with the sender experiencing a feeling.
The receiver doesn’t know what is in the sender’s head, but if the sender wants to share it she must
first select an appropriate code that will represent or symbolize the inner feeling.
The sender transmits the code.
