Introduction
Self-help groups specialize in putting people together for a common interest so that they can use their collective energy to achieve a goal. Most of the self-help groups are community-based and their prime reason is to ensure that they empower each individual member to achieve better social or economic living standards. This means that that the groups provide empowerment either through material or social encouragement. Meeting these goals requires a group to have a collective mindset and have good leadership.
Women of Virtue
Women of virtue self-help group is a group of ten (10) women. The group is under a democratic kind of leadership and the women base their undertakings on empowering each other through economic oriented projects and lessons on improving the community around them. The group also specializes in giving loans to other women outside the group and it tends to fulfil its prime reason for existence. There are a lot of positive outputs for the group and what is more amazing is the fact that the group has been in existence for only six months.
The democratic kind of leadership allows the group members to vote for a chairlady, a secretary and a treasurer for the group. It allows the elected people to sign and correspond for the group on any documents and communication required either internally or externally. The absence of any the leaders prompts the taking of the position by a subordinate or even an interim representation by a group member. The importance of this kind of leadership is that the activities of the group cannot stall in the absence of any of the leaders.
The group members respect the leaders but are happy to represent them on any obligation. Decision making is open in that consultations especially during group meetings is taken up by majority representation. Most of the work of the leaders is to delegate and moderate discussions so that the group does not wonder off from the topic. The environment in the group is cheerful as each member is happy with the position they hold. The carrying out of duties is collaborative as the leaders tend to assign duties or let the members pick their most appropriate duties.
There is a potential in each member for this group. This is because of the environment in the group which gives the members the liberty to suggest on any progress, communicate their concerns and even make corrections when a leader tends to go astray. This is the most important aspect of the group. It means that the members can easily resolve a problem since each party listens to the others. Decision making in the group is done collectively. The problem with this model is that there are moments when decision making cannot be effective due to the varied beliefs of the group members. This can lead to time wasting or even a complete lack of decision making.
The initial feelings about the group is that I felt out of place in the first place, not knowing the leadership model. Then after observing and experiencing the group environment, I realized that the group leadership structure is important to empowering the group vision and each member to achieve their collective and individual goals. I learnt that the leadership model is important in determining the achievements of a group to stay together as well as to prosper the group vision and goals. The experience has empowered me to run a group in future by adopting the leadership norms of Women of Virtue group.
References
Bartle, P. (2012, 7 15). Leadership: Identifying and Training Community Leaders. Retrieved from Community Empowerment Collective: http://cec.vcn.bc.ca/cmp/modules/lea-tse.htm
