Leadership styles, co-leadership, member roles and problem behaviors
Last reviewed September 2026 by Dr. Andrew Wichterman · Aligned to the current NCE blueprint. Valid for exams through June 30, 2027.
AI-narrated overview made with Google NotebookLM. The written lesson below is by Dr. Andrew Wichterman.
Two competent leaders run the same group and get different groups. Style, skills and member roles explain why. This lesson covers Lewin's styles, the four leader functions research found to matter, the named group skills, co-leadership, Benne and Sheats's roles, and the protect-then-explore rule for problem members.
Try to answer each from memory first, even if you have to guess. Guessing before reading makes the answer stick; reveal only after you have tried.
Start here: two leaders, same group, different results
Imagine the same eight people in two versions of a grief group. In one, the leader sets the topic each week, calls on people, and keeps things moving; members feel safe but rarely talk to each other. In the other, the leader opens with a question and mostly listens, connecting one member's story to another's and stepping in only when someone is being hurt; by week five the members run much of the session themselves. Both leaders are competent. They have different styles, they are using different skills, and the members have taken on different roles. Those three words, style, skills and roles, organize this lesson.
Three leadership styles
Kurt Lewin, the social psychologist who founded group dynamics, described three ways of leading in the 1930s, and the labels stuck.
What effective leaders actually do: the four functions
In the early 1970s, Lieberman, Yalom and Miles studied 18 encounter groups run by leaders from different schools and measured what happened to members. The leader's theoretical orientation did not predict outcomes. What did predict them was how the leader behaved, which the researchers sorted into four functions.
The leader's toolkit
Group leaders use all the individual counseling skills (listening, reflecting, clarifying, summarizing) plus a set that only makes sense with more than one client in the room. The exam names these and asks you to pick the skill from a description.
| Skill | What it is | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Linking | Connecting one member's experience to another's to build interaction and cohesion | "Maria, what you're describing sounds a lot like what Tom said about his father. Tom?" |
| Blocking | Stopping a counterproductive behavior to protect a member or the group: gossip about absent people, interrogating, scapegoating, breaking confidentiality | "Let's pause. I don't want us to talk about Jen while she's not here." |
| Cutting off | Interrupting a member who is rambling, dominating or heading somewhere harmful, respectfully | "I'm going to stop you there so we can hear from others before time runs out." |
| Drawing out | Inviting a quiet member to participate, without pressure | "Sam, you've been listening closely. Anything you'd like to add?" |
| Modeling | Showing the behavior you want: honest disclosure, giving feedback well, staying calm under challenge | The leader shares a genuine reaction in the here-and-now |
| Summarizing | Pulling together themes, especially at the end of a session | "Three of you talked about guilt tonight, in different forms." |
| Process observation / illumination | Commenting on how members are relating rather than on the content | "I notice the group goes quiet whenever anger comes up." |
| Rounds | Each member responds in turn to a prompt; guarantees everyone speaks | "One word for how you're arriving tonight." |
| Dyads / triads | Breaking into pairs or threes to increase participation and safety | Especially useful early or with large groups |
| Tone setting | Establishing norms of safety, honesty and respect from the first session | Clear ground rules, modeled consistently |
Feedback that helps
Feedback is one of the things a group can do that individual counseling cannot, and the leader teaches members how to give it. Good feedback is specific (not "you're defensive" but "when Ana disagreed, you crossed your arms and changed the subject"), descriptive rather than judgmental, timely (close to the behavior), about behavior rather than the person, owned by the giver ("I felt shut out" rather than "you shut people out"), and checked for understanding. The receiver is asked to listen without defending, then respond.
Co-leadership
Many groups have two leaders. Done well, co-leadership gives the group two sets of eyes, a model of two adults working through disagreement respectfully, continuity if one leader is out, and someone for each leader to process the session with afterward. Done badly, the leaders compete, disagree in front of the group without resolving it, or let members split them into the "good" leader and the "bad" one, a dynamic that replays some members' family histories.
Member roles: Benne and Sheats
In 1948 Kenneth Benne and Paul Sheats catalogued the roles people take in groups. Most members play several, and the roles shift over time. The exam asks you to sort a role into one of three families.
Problem behaviors: protect, then explore
The previous lesson listed the common problem behaviors. Here the emphasis is on the leader's stance toward them, which the exam tests as a principle: protect the group first, then explore what the behavior means. A leader who explores before protecting lets a member be hurt. A leader who protects without exploring misses the material.
| Behavior | Protect (first) | Explore (second) |
|---|---|---|
| Monopolizing | Cut off gently; link to others so they get airtime | "What happens for you when there's silence?" |
| Scapegoating | Block immediately; no member is the group's target | Later: what did focusing on one person spare the rest of us? |
| Hostility | Set a limit on attacks; keep the target safe | What is underneath the anger, and who is it really for? |
| Gossip about absent members | Block; confidentiality and respect apply to those not present | Why is it easier to talk about someone than to them? |
| Silence | Do not force disclosure; that is protecting the silent member | Draw out with invitation; ask, privately if needed, what the silence means. In some cultures silence is respect, not resistance |
| Dependency on the leader | Nothing to protect from; return the question to the group | What makes it hard to trust each other rather than me? |
| Storytelling / intellectualizing | Nothing to protect from | Redirect to present feeling: "Right now, telling us, what do you feel?" |
Fifteen minutes into session three, one member has been describing his divorce in detail for ten minutes. A second member interrupts to say the group should "get back to what we're here for." A third jumps in: "Let him finish, he obviously needs this." Two others look at the clock.
- Roles: the first member is monopolizing (self-centered); the second is acting as an evaluator/standard setter (task); the third is a harmonizer (maintenance).
- Skills: the leader cuts off respectfully ("I'm going to pause you, and I want to come back to this"), links ("Two people had reactions to that; let's hear them"), and then illuminates process ("What just happened between the three of you?").
- Style: this is democratic leadership. An authoritarian leader would have redirected earlier and closed the exchange; a laissez-faire leader would have let it run.
- Function: the moment calls for moderate executive function (managing time) and high meaning attribution (helping the group see the pattern).
How the exam asks about this
During a session, one member begins criticizing another member who is absent that evening. The leader says, "Let's hold that until Dana is here to be part of the conversation." The leader is using which skill?
Pick the style. "Which style is generally associated with the highest member satisfaction?" Democratic. "Which is most appropriate for a psychoeducational group on medication adherence in a crisis unit?" Authoritarian (structured, directive). "A leader who lets the group set its own direction with minimal intervention" is laissez-faire, and the item will usually describe it failing.
Pick the function. "Research by Lieberman, Yalom and Miles found the most effective leaders were high in ___ and ___." Caring and meaning attribution. "A leader who confronts intensely and self-discloses constantly is high in…" emotional stimulation, and the item will note the casualties.
Sort the role. Encourager, harmonizer, gatekeeper: maintenance. Initiator, clarifier, summarizer: task. Aggressor, blocker, dominator, recognition seeker: self-centered.
Co-leadership. "The most important practice for co-leaders" is meeting before and after each session. "Members praise one leader and dismiss the other" is splitting, and the response is to name it in the group.
Without scrolling up, write everything you remember from this lesson. Then check yourself against the key terms. Recalling the whole lesson once, right after reading it, does more than reading it twice.
Ten questions from this domain, with an explanation after each answer.
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