Leadership and Group Management Report: Industry Consulting Project

This report details a student's experience with group management during an industry consulting project focused on the Fab Five food app. The group comprised five members, each with assigned roles based on their strengths, including marketing, accounting, idea formulation, and coordination. The report highlights the initial positive dynamics, effective communication, and punctual assignment submissions. However, it also addresses the challenges posed by absenteeism from two group members, which hindered teamwork and assignment completion. The author reflects on their leadership role, discussing the importance of communication, conflict resolution, and motivation. Drawing on leadership theories, the report identifies areas for improvement and emphasizes the need for proactive leadership to foster team cohesion and address individual member challenges. Despite these challenges, the group successfully completed the project, and the author gained valuable insights into effective team management and leadership styles.

Group Management 1
Group Management
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Group Management 2
From the beginning of this semester, I was allocated in a group of five, James Lokos,
Julie Rabin, Henry Winter, Stephanie Entwisle and I, for the Industry consulting project. This
was to help us tackle the coursework and presentations associated with the Fab five food app. As
required for every team in reference to the SWOT analysis, each of us had certain strengths and
weaknesses. These helped us to properly complete any course work assigned.
The five of us identified individual duties and responsibilities that governed our inputs
and conduct in the group. The subtopics we were to handle were marketing, accounting,
formulation of ideas, coordination and motivation whereby; Henry and Julie were well skilled in
marketing, James easily understood and was good at accounting. As good assistants, Stephanie
and I, formulated ideas and acted as group coordinators. Moreover, being an organizer too, I
arranged group meetings and stirred them to always doing the assignments.
The group members cooperated so well and they were quite commendable at the start of
the semester. Their cooperation, discipline and commitment improved our team work and group-
relationship thus no issues arose among us. The communication flow was also effective since
there were no language barriers. When it came to handing in our assignments, we were very
punctual. However, despite being a praiseworthy group, two of our members, Julie and
Stephanie, partially attended the group discussions. They never even bothered communicating
prior on whether they would be attending or not. This behaviour hindered the growth of the
whole team and even made it difficult in completing of the assignments since most of the times,
it was only James, Henry and I who were present especially on weekly basis.
As we approached the mid of the semester, Julie and Stephanie had adopted the spirit of
abseentism. It became their habit to miss out on the discussions and group meetings. They made
it look like having those group discussions was meaningless. They also never saw the need or

Group Management 3
importance of team work as they never bothered joining us for any of the assigned task
concerning the project. As groups allocations were being done, our group’s main objective was
to enhance team work amongst ourselves and be consistent in keeping in touch with each other.
With their negative trend we were failing to meet those objectives and it became so substandard
and exasperating.
At the beginning of the Industry consulting project, I had laid down objectives for
individual growth. This included growing to being a successful anchor, presenting without
referencing and also generating and executing conceived ideas for advancements in
communication sector. During my final presentation, which was like a self-evaluation test, I
realised that whatever I had targeted on achieving, I had accomplished it.
However, as a group leader, I believe that I delivered to my best throughout my
leadership period. by being a good master of communication, updating members in case of any
issuance of an assignment on Facebook, going through the completed assignments before
handing in, advising and helping my team members that couldn’t cooperate. According to
Heathfield, even with a specific role in your job and are of a certain department, to achieve
general objectives, you require an extra hand from members of other departments or
organizations (Heathfield, 2014). In this statement, she depicts the need and importance of being
a team player. It shows that one has to be accountable of the other person and this brings about
achievements and growth. During my season of leadership, I would have upgraded additionally
in becoming a greater leader to direct my team members through. This is for the reason that
sometimes I could preoccupy myself with different things that we shared with Henry and James.
According to Bakken, the 12 steps to be followed to being an effective leader are; setting
descriptive common goals and drives, assigning each person a duty towards accomplishing those

Group Management 4
common objectives, attending to conflicts once they arise, suggesting and trying out solutions to
cub the conflicts, conducting interactive sessions during meetings, Paying closer attention to
conflicts once they arise, working out ways to resolve conflicts, identifying and granting chances
to the minority members to suggest their incentives on innovation and finally review and
appreciate each individual for a job well done (Bakken, 2007). If I had surveyed these steps, the
group would have achieved more
Nonetheless, we temperately played in the circle of agreed behaviours and did well in
accomplishing our team set goals. Sometimes during a lecture or a group meeting, we would find
all the group members present and this was an advantage for the group. We would freely open up
on the ideas, criticisms, and opinions we had and also update all of them on the response given
on their work. For instance, from James and Henry, on the peripheral analysis on Fab five app,
they always commended me for my good work. Among our objectives, we accomplished being
able to hand in the assignment in time and being consistent in communication, that is, via
Facebook.
Tackling the Industry consulting project throughout the semester, the knowledge and
skills acquired have widened my thoughts on the urge to manage and lead individuals for
effective results after an assigned task such as a group assignment. It has also made me
understand different kind of members that are found in a group. Some members tend to be
unethical sometimes, but to handle that variety of people, as a leader, one has to persevere them.
The leader should not give up on them but instead be their hoping motivator and keep up with
the communication with all the members. This will help them stay focused towards meeting their
formulated objectives. Despite the continued habit of absenteeism by some members such as
Julie and Stephanie, we maintained online contact and this encouraged us to completing the

Group Management 5
assignments given in time. We were also able to cheer each other up in handling it to our level
best.