Leading a Group: Rewards

Wednesday, I posted about the frustrations that you will encounter in leading a group.  Today we are focusing on the rewards.

Finding friends – As your group grows you will eventually meet people that you get along with really well.  If you continue to foster those relationships, you will end up making some good friends that you will want to spend time with outside of the group.  Friends that will support you, be there for you and have your back! This does take time, so hang in there and be patient.

Watching others become friends – You won’t click with every person in your group, but most of the time there will be someone that will.  It’s nice to see other people become great friends. And you get to take credit for bringing them together.  

Getting out of the house – When you have a group you are forced to get out of the house.  You’ll have to start “scheduling” weekend Netflix binges as you’ll be too busy doing things!

Meeting new people – There are so many perks to constantly meeting new people.

• Exposes you to a variety of people – different ages, different ethnicities, different personalities, etc.  You’re always learning something new or seeing things from a different perspective.
• Everyone has different skills and occupations – Someone’s husband may be a mechanic, someone might be a nurse, someone else’s sister is a caterer, it opens up endless options to address needs that you might have at some point. 
• Bigger pool of people to ask for recommendations – for a great restaurant, place to get your shoes repaired, or which phone company has the best deals.

Build up leadership skills – The more you coordinate activities, the better your organizational skills become.  People skills definitely improve as well. Don’t worry if you don’t have the best set of skills now.  You will learn as you go. The people that are in your group will just appreciate that you are supplying them with opportunities, they won’t care if you do things perfectly.

Do things you haven’t done before. – Sometimes it will come from suggestions from people in your group, other times it will be something you come across planning activities on your own.  Either way, you will be more open to exploring new things knowing that you’ll have at least a few other people to do it with you.

Be in control of your life – Instead of sitting idly by wishing that you had more friends or that you were getting more out of life, you will actually be doing something about it.  Just knowing that you are trying, helps to make you feel more in control of your life.

If you have been thinking about starting a group of some kind, I’m always here to help get you started.  Feel free to contact me with any questions!

Just Do It!

Traci