Feedback And It’s Affect On Motivation

When leading any group it’s important to remember to think about the affect feedback can have on individuals and their motivation. Harackiewicz (1979) stated that positive feedback can enhance intrinsic motivation.

Basset's Cover - The start location

 

Recently I was helping to lead a group of Scouts on a two day expedition around Cornwall. During the two days a couple of the group members were particularly struggling. For those members it was important to keep them motivated and moving, which was done through giving them feedback as to how they were doing. It was also important to keep the other members who weren’t struggling motivated as they were getting annoyed at the people who were struggling.

All the members of the group will have experienced different types of feedback during the walk including intrinsic, extrinsic, positive, negative, terminal and concurrent (BrianMac, 2012). Intrinsic feedback will have come from what the individuals body was telling them to do through balance, joints and muscles (BrianMac, 2012). The Scout members may have had intrinsic feedback telling them that their legs ached. Extrinsic feedback comes from sources outside of the body (BrainMac, 2012) such as us leaders telling them that how they were doing. Positive and negative feedback is fairly self explanatory with the feedback either being to inform the individual how well they were doing or how they could improve (BrianMac, 2012) such as telling the ones who were struggling that they were doing a good job, or that the ones who weren’t struggling needed to be more considerate to other team members. Terminal feedback is given before and after the individual performs (BrianMac, 2012) so during the two days it was giving feedback at the end of the day and then in the morning, before starting to walk again. Then concurrent feedback is given whilst the individual is performing (BrianMac, 2012), so during the weekend it would have been during the day whilst walking.

During the weekend all the previous mentioned types of feedback were used, all of the time combining the different types of feedback. For instance on the second day about half the way through, one of the guys was really struggling even with one of the other leaders carrying his bag and having gained two walking poles to help him. At this point the rest of the group needed more feedback than the guy struggling, because they were getting annoyed and being impatience, by showing their aggravation and not waiting. The feedback given was mixing concurrent, extrinsic and negative; as the feedback provided was during the activity, not from within their body and negative, to say what they needed to improve, to increase their team work and the group’s overall motivation.

To keep the group motivated throughout the two days, a mixture of the different types of feedback, needed to be given to keep the group together and moving, whilst also motivating each other. This factor is important when leading any group as from experience, group members are more motivated by their peers than their leaders.

Maenporth Beach - The end location (Helpful Holidays, 2012)

References

BrianMac (2012) Information Feedback. [online] Available: http://www.brianmac.co.uk/infofb.htm [date accessed: 9 May 2012]

Harackiewicz, J M. (1979) ‘The Effect of Reward Contingency and Performance Feedback on Intrinsic Motivation’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37 (8), 1352-1363.

Helpful Holidays (2012) Maenporth 2012. [online] Available: http://www.helpfulholidays.com/property.asp?ref=S39&year=2012#MAENPORTH BEACH_1_DSC04716(with text) [date accessed: 9 May 2012]

Leadership Styles – Hersey and Blanchard

              There are a number of different leadership styles that can be effectively used, when leading groups in the mountains. Hersey and Blanchard (no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied) state that there are four main styles of leadership called telling, selling, participating and delegating. A leader should change between the styles, depending on the group’s maturity, experience and the task. The different styles place different emphasis on the task or the relationship with the leader, depending on what the situation requires (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied).

Recently I was leading a group on Bodmin Moor; during the day I used most of the leadership styles stated. At the beginning of the day I gave a brief as to what was going to happen, by using a telling method of leadership, where I told the students exactly what to do and how to do it (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied). However before we started walking I used a delegation style, where I handed responsibility to the group and monitored there progress (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied), by asking them to locate and plan the next leg. I then asked a group member to lead the leg, with them having the responsibility of getting to our first location.

The style of setting out a clear objective then delegating the responsibility to an individual on each leg worked well with the group, as it was easy to assess who needed help, and stopped a certain amount of following the rest of the group.

Certain aspects of navigation needed to be taught or refreshed. I tried to use a selling style of teaching, where I gave them the information needed but allowed for the group’s input. The aim of the selling style is to ‘sell’ the message to the group and get them on the side of the leader (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied). As the day went on this style worked better as the group started to know what I was teaching and could input more answers themselves.

The participating style of leadership means that the leader focuses on the relationship with the group and less on the direction of the task. In this style the leader works with the team and shares the responsibility of decision making (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied). This style wasn’t needed with the group on Bodmin Moor, as the aim was for the group to learn more navigation skills not to be friends with the leader, or their peers who they already knew.

On reflection if I was with a group for a longer period of time, more emphasis needs to be placed on the participation style, to allow for better understanding of the group members.

References

Cap Members (2000) Fundamentals of Leadership [online]. Available: http://www.capmembers.com/prof_dev_modules/cap_lesson_01/lesson1_html/lesson1.htm [date accessed: 14 March 2012]

Mind Tools (no date supplied) The Hersey – Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory [online]. Available: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_44.htm [date accessed: 14 March 2012]

Ordnance Survey (2012) Bodmin Moor - Bing Maps [online]. Available: http://www.bing.com/maps/?FORM=Z9LH4 [date accessed: 18 March 2012]