A glance at - Roles in GD, Traits and Remedies

Group discussion is not new to us. That`s how we interact with other or many people. But, when it comes to professional life, GD is also a tool to examine a candidate on various terms such as clarity of thoughts, structure, presentation, ability to handle situations, calmness in case of GD is turning into fish market, and many.

In short - Subject knowledge, Oral communication skills, Leadership skills and Team management

Now, members in group discussion (GD) assume various roles as they participate in GD. Let us discuss the possible roles that GD members assume as they engage in GD.

Roles in a Structured GD:

1.    Initiator: The one who initiates the discussion, briefing about the topic and giving a structure to the GD so that a group can follow it and have a fruitful discussion. You will notice that in the group, there will be some member who likes to initiate. One who is confident enough to start the discussion and set the tone right at the very first beginning is called the initiator. This position is a bit risky. If you are the one who is starting the discussion you have to be extra conscious.

 

2.   Clear Facts: Few members of the group will be data driven. They provide precise data and facts and support their statement with statistics. They provide all the data in a logical manner and make their point stronger with facts. But it is also true that with only data you cannot win a discussion, its interpretation is very important. All your facts should be clear and truthful.

 

3.   Controller: Some members in the group like to control the discussion. They think whatever they are saying should be approved by others as well which may or may not be the case. Others in the group can very well disagree to the point you are putting forth.

4.  Moderator: This category of the people acts as a coordinator. They ensure that each member gets sufficient time and chance to speak. When an argument gets heated up, they try to keep them calm and bring to a normal discussion by helping others putting across their words. This person is generally a good listener but might not be taken very favourably by others lest he should take all the leadership.

 

5.  Born Leaders: They are born to lead. They do not have to put in much effort to lead a team. Their voice, their calm head, their gestures say it all. They do not fall in the trap of arguing rather support their points by strong logic, facts, and adequate examples. They have the ability to manage the flow of discussion and give it a right direction. Towards the end, a leader summarizes the entire discussion and squeeze out the conclusion.

 

6.  Provocative: This person considers himself All in All. They give orders to others in the group and want everyone to act according to them. Sometimes they are annoying and provoke others with a high pitch or irritating voice. They eat up time of others by saying something which is not so relevant to the topic. They are poor listener and cannot comprehend what other’s points are.

 

7.  Fault Finder: There are some group members who intentionally find fault in everything that the other person is saying. They have objection on anything and everything about other’s pint of view. They criticize almost every other point.

 

8.  Followers: This is just contrary to the above-mentioned category – fault finder or criticizer. This category of people generally agrees and supports other’s point. They show their agreement by nodding their head or with some other gesture which normally means that they cannot agree more to the point. This kind of people generally do not score well as they do not show their own significant points and logics and merely depend on other’s views

 

9.    Question Mark: This kind of people, always question others. He/she sometimes irritate other group members by questioning even for a simple understood fact. Rather than putting their own opinions, they tend to interrogate and raise a question in other’s points.

 

10. Stopwatch: These kinds of people are quite interesting to observe. During the discussion, they just do not get swayed by the flow of topic, rather keep a check on every other aspect, such as how much time has passed, how much time is still left, who all have had the chance to give their opinions and who have not, etc. They are keen to maintain the order and dignity. But it is better for these category people to come up with their own impactful views.

 

11. Aggressive: These members easily get annoyed and get antagonistic at times. They care less about other’s points, sentiments, feelings, and values. They attack verbally in their counterparts and harsh in their tone.

 

12. Audience/Viewer: They do not have their own substantial views and opinions. They hardly speak up and hardly make any difference. They just see and listen what others are speaking and never put their own views forward.

 

13. Indecisive: This category of people are unlikely to get selected as they are very much indecisive and having a fickle mind. They sometimes contradict their own words and statements. They are unable to express their ideas in an organized manner. They also get too emotional during the conversation and unnecessarily divert the topic from the main point. They agree or disagree with anyone and everyone.

 

14. Capturer: This kind of people record every point what others are saying. They take down notes and facts, details, etc. They can be referred later on when someone in the group has forgotten any point.

 

15. The Settler: They can be referred as Harmonizer and can find a mid-way of any problem. They avoid extremes and contribute in releasing tension within the group when an argument heats up.

 

16. Gist Maker: This defines the position as someone who summarized the entire discussion and draws some valid conclusion through the topic of group discussion.

 

17. Blockhead: This kind of group members does not take any initiative to present their views. They are lacing innovative or rather any ideas, opinions and logical views. They do not contribute any positively to the group.

Expectations of the Panel:

You should have the following qualities:

• Team player
• Reasoning
• Leadership
• Flexible
• Assertiveness
• Initiative
• Creativity (out of the box thinking)
• Inspiring ability
• Listening
• Awareness

Based on this, we can identify three negative roles members assume as follows:

1] Controller
2] Provocative
3] Fault Finder

Now, even if there are other traits which can be considered as not well suited for the companies, but above 3 roles are more of negative roles as they can make GD go imbalanced, wasting time and energy of people and but is also unfair to other members.

Reasons why such negative roles emerge:

There are many reasons -

• The environment of upbringing, peers, personal experiences, habits, lack of exposure to the broad views of life, lack of communication with different kinds of people.
• When GD is a part of evaluation process, the competitive attitude, the urge to make a point, fear of failure and situational pressure.

 Some remedies to overcome such ineffective roles:

1] Controller: They should accept the fact that in a group everyone has the freedom to speak and hence should allow others to put their point. Also, there are always multiple ways to do anything and so, there are multiple views from different people. Hence, they must control themselves from being constraint to a group and open up.

2] Provocative – These candidates need to understand that putting their view is good, but they should keep calm. High pitch for long can irritate the whole group who then can go against such candidates as their way of communication is not good.

3] Fault Finder – At times it is ok to point out the flaws if any, but consistently criticizing each and everyone, is going to make group have negative feeling about them. Every team wants to have a positive environment to work productively. So, unless these candidates work on their perspective, it is going to be a negative trait for them as well.

From above, we understand that there are many reasons, some controllable and some uncontrollable, but, ultimately, one need to introspect and make the necessary changes to be a favorable candidate and stand out in GD. Practice makes man perfect.