Bales' work in the area of small group leadership is classic. He studied means of measuring leadership in face to face groups. A short summary of his findings is useful to this day. There are four separate categories of leadership:

• Task-Oriented Leadership Measures
  • Summarizing and offering direction
  • Asking questions

• Socio-Emotional Leadership Measures
  • Positive feedback to group members
  • Negative feedback to group members

  Bales actually expanded this list with subcategories to about 12 measures. But these 4 give you an adequate idea of how he measured leadership. Note that leadership need not always entail positive comments or leading the group in a specific direction.

  Fun Experiment:

  Keep a record of your own communication. How would what you say measure up as leadership? Note that the psychoanalytic and teaching perspectives would suggest that a pattern in communication can be brought to awareness and changed, if you so choose.

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