alents, skills, and experience of the individuals who posses it. Charismatic power leaders posses both a blessing and a curse. Information power focuses on new electronic technology and allows the management of vast amounts of information. Styles of leadership include democratic, autocratic, and permissive. All three styles have benefits and frustrations. Paul Hershey and Ken Blanchard suggest a four-stage model in the development of every group. It also helps determine which leadership style is best for the group. Four stages of the delegation process are defining the task, showing why it is important, explaining expectations, and evaluating and discussing the results. Chapter 4 is called Communication. The essential components of effective communication are listening and speaking, social skills, and creating understanding. Listening requires a leader to be aware of three essential features: bias, visual signals, and vocal sounds. Speaking involves an ordered and logical presentation of thoughts. Socially skilled communication is goal directed, coherent, appropriate to the situation, controlled, and able to be learned. Understanding enhances a group’s sense of purpose and contributes to their sense of unity. Discussion skills include coaching, paraphrasing, and intervention. Chapter 5 is called Decision-Making. Decision making skills are improved by focusing on these issues: identifying priorities, setting clear goals, and using a systematic approach. Leaders need to prioritize decisions by separating the issues into “future important” and “current urgent”. Making list helps to organize and assess decision making for the sub-tasks as well. Identification of priorities allows leaders to focus on the urgent and important decisions first. The successful outcome of these decisions depends upon setting the right goals. When formulating goals, decision-makers should make explicit what they w...
