1- summarize the given data and highlight the important points.

If you are in the A quadrant, you have low concern for the task but high concern for the people in the team. Probably this is a good place to be at the start of a project such as group coursework. You need to get to know the people in your team before you start working on the assignment. And do take time to do this so you know what makes everyone tick. What are everyones interests, motivations, strengths, weaknesses? Once you have established this, you can get to work. The B quadrant is where the task is very important and also the team is as well. This might be when you are at the planning stage of the project where you are still discovering what it is like to work with your team but you now need to do some serious planning about what you are going to do. Quadrant C is where neither the team nor the task are important. We cant really see when this might be the case perhaps it is when the group isnt really assigned to any task in particular so you can get on with your own work. And quadrant D is where the task is important but the people less so. We think of this as being the sort of time when perhaps the deadline approaches and you still have last minute work to do. In this situation, only the task matters and how people are getting on with each other in the team, for example, isnt all that important you can deal with disagreements later. There are times when all you need to do is work on the task in hand.

However, a word of caution about using this matrix: in Pats experience, leaders tend to focus too much on the task and not enough on the team. So, make sure you are working in the right area and giving more attention to your team than you would naturally think is necessary. Hersey and Blanchard (1977) also have some useful ideas on leadership style and situation which are related to this matrix. They identified four different leadership styles that could be adopted depending on the situation: Telling(high task/low relationship behaviour). This means providing a lot of instructions to people and giving a lot of attention to defining jobs and goals. Sometimes this is recommended for leading new staff, when the work is repetitive or when under time pressure. Selling(high task/high relationship behaviour). The leader still gives quite a lot of direction but also tries to get people to buy into the task. Sometimes called a coaching approach, it works best when people are motivated but still need some guidance. Participating(high relationship/low task behaviour). In this style, decision making is shared between leaders and the team. In fact this is most likely what you will experience in most coursework groups at university. Perhaps you or someone else takes on the role of communicating and coordinating things. Delegating(low relationship/low task behaviour). The leader identifies the tasks that need to be done but then delegates the completion to the team. It is useful when people know what they have to do and are motivated to do it.