Exercises: Communication, motivation, negotiation and leadership

Explain the basic elements of communication (sender, message, channel, receiver, and feedback) using a school example: the school magazine team announces that the deadline for article submissions has been brought forward by one week.

Identify the leadership style in each case — autocratic, democratic, or laissez-faire — and state which you think is most suitable for a term project and why.

1. a) The coordinator decides everything: tasks, deadlines, and even the colour of the poster.
2. b) The coordinator makes suggestions, but important decisions are voted on as a team.
3. c) The coordinator gives no opinion: 'do whatever you want, let me know later'.

The diagram shows a conversation between two project partners, but the final piece is covered with a question mark.

1. a) State which element is missing from the box and explain why communication is incomplete without it.
2. b) Give a school example where the lack of this element causes a task to fail.

Explain what active listening is and how it differs from 'hearing while you think about your reply'. Write three concrete active-listening behaviours you could practise at your team's next meeting (looking, paraphrasing, asking before giving your opinion…).

Classify these messages from a project group as assertive, aggressive or passive, and rewrite the last two to make them assertive: (a) 'I won't make Friday's deadline, I need someone to stay with me on Thursday'; (b) 'you're all useless, I have to do everything myself'; (c) 'well, whatever, do what you want'.

Explain what non-verbal communication is and give three examples of messages your body sends during an oral presentation (posture, eye contact, hands). For each one, state which version conveys confidence and which conveys insecurity.

One team decides by chat and another in a face-to-face meeting. Name two advantages and two drawbacks of each channel for making team decisions, and say which channel you would choose to resolve a delicate conflict between two classmates. Justify your answer.

Define what motivating a team means and distinguish two ways of doing it: with external rewards (prizes, grades) and with inner purpose (the project mattering). Give an example of each applied to the team preparing the school magazine.

Your team and another team want to use the media room on the same day to record. Explain the difference between a win-lose negotiation and a win-win negotiation, and propose two specific win-win agreements for this conflict.

Distinguish intrinsic motivation (doing something because you want to) from extrinsic motivation (doing it for a reward or a grade). For the charity market team, write two actions that foster each type of motivation and explain which holds up better when difficulties arise.

Rewrite these two messages from a team member to make them assertive (clear, respectful, and constructive): (a) "You never do anything, you're a mess"; (b) "well, if possible, whenever you can, maybe you could look at the poster, although it doesn't matter". Explain what changes in each version.

Your team has to present the project in $5$ minutes in front of three other classes. Design the structure of the presentation: what is said in the first minute to hook the audience, which three core ideas go in the middle, and how it ends. Split the time among the four members and explain why rehearsing with a stopwatch changes the result.

Two clubs share the rehearsal room: the drama club wants it on Tuesdays and the music club wants it too. Propose a step-by-step negotiation: what interests lie behind each position (it's not really about Tuesday, it's about having two uninterrupted hours in silence), which win-win options are possible, and what you would do if none of them works.

The school market coordinator hands out tasks like this: 'Jana, the posters; Marc, the till; and don't anyone bother me until Friday.' On Friday, the posters were missing the date and the till had no change. Analyse what failed in the communication (instructions without detail, no confirmation, no follow-up) and rewrite how each task should have been assigned so it wouldn't fail.

Your classmate Aitana has made a poster for the fair and, honestly, the timetable is impossible to understand. Write three versions of your comment: an aggressive one, a passive one and an assertive one with the structure 'fact → effect → proposal'. Explain why the assertive one is the only one likely to get a better poster without souring the atmosphere.

The school podcast team is getting demotivated: they have made $6$ episodes and $15$ people listen to them. Design three realistic motivation actions for next week (celebrating what has been achieved, making progress visible, giving everyone a voice, setting a nearby goal) and explain what kind of motivation each one feeds and why 'come on, guys' alone is not enough.

In the short film team for the cultural week, three people feel they are doing twice as much work as the other two and threaten to leave. As coordinator, design a mini-negotiation: what would you say in your opening sentence, what facts would you bring to the table, and what win-win agreement would you propose to share out the remaining work?

Your team needs the PTA to lend them $200\ \text{€}$ for the school vegetable garden project. Prepare a one-minute persuasive message: decide which three specific facts you would give, in what order, and what you offer them in return (visibility, repayment, involvement). Justify each decision.

In a school entrepreneurship project without a formal leader, Lucía naturally takes on technical organisation (setting deadlines, distributing tasks, and supervising submissions), while Marcos takes on group cohesion (motivating, seeking consensus, and resolving friction). Faced with a serious delay three days before the final deadline, Lucía demands imposing a strict allocation of extra hours without consulting anyone, while Marcos insists on convening an open assembly to discuss what to do without putting pressure on anyone.

1. a) Predict the impact on performance and team climate if Lucía's strategy is adopted exclusively versus if only Marcos's is adopted.
2. b) As a third member of the team, design an integrative proposal that takes advantage of the strengths of both leadership styles to resolve the emergency without breaking group trust.

At the project assembly, three people dominate the conversation and two never speak. Decisions get made, but half the team experiences them as someone else's and carries them out reluctantly.

1. a) Diagnose what is happening with the team's communication and what the project loses when two voices disappear.
2. b) Design two concrete dynamics for the next meeting that share out the floor (round of turns, writing before speaking, rotating spokespeople) and explain how you would measure whether they work.

The short-film team has a conflict: the screenwriter wants a dramatic ending and the director wants a comic one. They have been deadlocked for two meetings and the shoot is getting close.

1. a) Propose a negotiation process with concrete steps (separate the people from the problem, look for interests, generate options, decision criterion) and apply it to the case, showing how it could end.
2. b) Explain when it makes sense to vote, when to give in and when to look for a third option, illustrating it with this conflict.

Your team needs to convince the head teacher to let you use the gym on a Saturday morning for the entrepreneurship fair. The head teacher is worried about cleaning, damage and who is responsible if something happens.

1. a) Prepare the persuasive message: which three arguments you would use and how you answer each of the concerns in advance.
2. b) Explain what concessions you could offer (guaranteed cleaning, a teacher present, a prior inventory) and why offering something before being asked strengthens your position.

During the development of a school cooperative, the coordinator detects that the financial feasibility report prepared by two classmates contains serious errors in the projected costs. If he redoes it alone that night, he guarantees a good grade for the whole group; if he demands that the two authors redo it the next day, the team will miss the early submission deadline and immediate tension will be generated.

1. a) Refute the statement: "A good leader is one who silently takes on the poorly done work of their team to avoid friction and ensure the project's success." Justify your answer from the perspective of servant leadership and team development.
2. b) Design the assertive message that the coordinator should convey to the two classmates involved: define what objective facts he must present, what organisational impact he should point out, and what commitment to support (without impersonating or taking over) he must offer.

After the fair, your team has to give feedback to each member on their work. One of them, Marc, has handed everything in late and poorly, but he is very sensitive to criticism.

1. a) Write the feedback you would give him using concrete facts, effects and proposals, avoiding labels ('you're a disaster').
2. b) Design the rules for the team's feedback session (everyone receives some, facts are discussed rather than people, every criticism comes with a proposal) and explain what can happen if it is done without rules.