The document discusses how to effectively lead a development group that has an imbalance in experience levels among its members. Specifically, it addresses: 1) The challenges that arise from having both experienced developers and young university graduates on the team, such as differences in communication, progress, cooperation and goals. 2) How to motivate team members with different experience levels using Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory by providing appropriate salaries, work assignments, goals and a comfortable work environment. 3) How situational leadership involves identifying members' maturity levels and using different leadership styles to address imbalances, starting with more directive styles and progressing to more participative styles. 4) Strategies for building a high performance team despite

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Effective Leadership
Imbalance in Experience
Bohui Jiang
Blekinge Institute of Technology
Karlskrona, Sweden
william1990514@gmail.com
Abstract – this paper focuses on how to make an effective
development group based on the situation that there are eight
people in one group, four of them are experienced and mature, the
others are young university graduates. This paper describes four
parts: Description of the effects of imbalance in the experience on
the dynamics of team behavior, How to motivate group mates with
Maslow`s hierarchy of Needs theory, How to be a leader in this
situation, and How to build a high performance development team
in this challenge.
Keywords: Needs, Motivation; Leadership, Teamwork, Team
Building; Imbalance;
I. INTRODUCTION
《The Mythical Man-Month》 points out that there is “no
silver bullet” in solving the software project management
because of the complexity, consistency, variability and
unpredictability of software project. [1] So an effective
development group is important for a software project. There is
a big issue, imbalance in experience, in my group. So as the
role of leader, I will describe the effect of this imbalance,
analyze the imbalance on Needs level and Maturity level, and
solve the challenge in order to make a high performance team.
In conclusion, the core point of leaders is to create values.
II. EFFECTS OF IMBALANCE
 The imbalance will influence the communication
among the team. Because the developers are not on the
same level of knowledge, so the young graduates may
be afraid of communicating with experienced ones,
while the experienced developers may not want to talk
with the young ones either.
 The imbalance will influence development progress.
Because the young graduates don’t have too much
experience, before working with others, there will be a
training progress for them. So we will spend much time
on that. In another way, it also takes time to endear the
young graduates to the group.
 The imbalance will influence the cooperation of team
members. The different experience levels will cause
many uncomfortable time when developers work
together.
 The imbalance will influence the goal of group. It is
hard to set a unified goal for a group which has an
imbalance in experience at beginning.
 The imbalance will influence the morale of a group.
Because the imbalance in experience may cause the
imbalance in thoughts, then it will have an impact on
the morale of a group.
 The imbalance will influence the analysis,
understanding, and application of new knowledge.
Because the imbalance in experience, developers may
have different points about new knowledge, thus it will
affect the application of new knowledge.
Because of the effect of imbalance in the experience, there
are big challenges for leading my group, namely,
 It is a challenge for making a unified goal for my
group. The imbalance in experience will cause the
imbalance in thoughts, it will make it hard to make a
unified goal.
 It is a challenge for create a strong cohesion in the
group. Because the imbalance in experience,
developers may be a little unfamiliar with each other.
And it will influence the cohesion of the group.
 It is a challenge for creating a comfortable
communication environment. Because the imbalance in
experience, developers may not want to speak up at the
beginning, the communication environment need be
recreated.
 It is a challenge for adopting a reasonable development
process. For the young graduates and the experienced
developers, they may suit different development
process, so at the beginning, it is hard for choosing a
unified development process.
 It is a challenge that the developers work together in a
comfortable way. Because the imbalance in experience,
there is an imbalance in the thought and working style,
so it is hard for making the group work together.
 It is a challenge for assigning work to developers.
Because the imbalance in experience, they have
different abilities for working, so leaders must analyze
everyone deeply, and assign the appropriate work to
everyone.
III. MOTIVE
Maslow`s hierarchy of Needs theory [3]
In Maslow`s hierarchy of needs theory, he analyzed
people`s characters and divided them into five levels describing

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in Fig.1. When people satisfy the most fundamental needs, they
will pursue the need at the topper levels. [4]
Fig.1. Maslow`s hierarchy of Needs theory
According to the Maslow`s hierarchy of Needs theory, I
can identify my group mates` needs. About the four young
university graduates, I assume they will pursue the
physiological, safety and love/belonging levels one by one.
About the experienced experts, I assume will pursue the esteem
and self-actualization levels one by one.
So in my view, the following aspects will be done for a
leader to motive my group members:
 Provide a satisfying salary. The members need money
to support their life, especially the young university
graduates.
 Assign appropriate work for different members.
Because there is an imbalance in experience, so each
one should have their own work according to their
ability.
 Set appropriate goals for each member. This aspect
will make members create higher performances. For
the young university graduates, I can`t set a higher
goals for them, because it will reduce their interests in
work, while for the experienced experts, I will set a
higher and more complex goal for them, because I
believe that a little pressure on their will help them
develop potential powers.
 Provide a comfortable work environment, both
communication and hardware. Workers care more
about working conditions. [5] Any member needs a
good hardware environment. I assumed the young
university graduates will pursue the love/belong level
because of they are new in the group, so a good
communication mechanism is a core point in the
group.
 Examine my reward and recognition practice [9]. In
order to motive my group, I should always ask myself
that who should get praised or promoted—and for
what? And I will always remind myself to be a
resourceful leader, not an arbitrary leader. [9]
IV. SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP
As we know, many leaders can`s choose his employees. So
in order to build an effective development group, the
situational leadership will be the core point.
A. Leadership Styles
Hersey and Blanch identify leadership styles into four
behaviors types, showing in the Fig.2, based on the amount of
Task Behaviors and Relationship Behaviors, Namely,
 S1: Telling - is a one-way communication in which
the leader defines the roles of the individual or group
and provides the what, how, why, when and where to
do the task; [8]
 S2: Selling - while the leader is still providing the
direction, he is now applying two-way
communication and providing the socio-emotional
support that will allow the individual or group being
influenced to buy into the process; [8]
 S3: Participating - this is how shared decision-
making about aspects of how the task is accomplished
and the leader is providing less task behaviors while
maintaining high relationship behavior; [8]
 S4: Delegating - the leader is still involved in
decisions; however, the process and responsibility has
been passed to the individual or group. The leader
stays involved to monitor progress. [8]
Fig.2. Situational Leadership
B. Maturity Levels of Employees
The right leadership style will depend on the person or
group being led. The Hersey-Blanchard Situational
Leadership Theory identified four levels of Maturity M1
through M4: [8]
 M1 - They still lack the specific skills required for the
job in hand and are unable and unwilling to do or to
take responsibility for this job or task. [8]
 M2 - They are unable to take on responsibility for the
task being done; however, they are willing to work
at the task. They are novice but enthusiastic. [8]

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 M3 - They are experienced and able to do the task but
lack the confidence or the willingness to take on
responsibility. [8]
 M4 - They are experienced at the task, and
comfortable with their own ability to do it well.
They are able and willing to not only do the task,
but to take responsibility for the task. [8]
C. Leadership in imbalance situation
According to the Maturity levels of members, as a leader,
I must identify the maturity levels of my team members. In our
group, the four young university graduates are M1, and the four
experienced developers are M4.
As a leader of this group, after analyzing my employees`
maturity levels, there is an imbalance in the maturity level. So I
come to a conclusion that I will use the four leadership styles
one by one to lead my group. Because the young university are
new in the group, so their aims maybe deviate from the group
at first, so I prefer to adopt the S1 leadership style to define the
roles of them, and provide much information about their works.
After that, I will turn my leadership style into S2 in order to
make the aim of group clearly and consistent. Then I will turn
the leadership style into S3 for keeping the group`s aim
consistent, sharing the ideas about project and trying to reduce
the impact of the imbalance in experience because I maintain
the high relationship behavior. Finally, I will be the S4,
because there is already a good communication and
comfortable work environment, everyone can speak up in the
group.
V. HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM
Because there is an imbalance in experience in my group,
so I must solve this challenge in order to build an effective
team.
Here are some aspects for building a high performance
team facing this challenge:
 Train, Train, Train [9]. Because I have four young
graduates in my group, so there must be a train
progress for them in order to have the ability to do the
work.
 Trust, Respect, and support are three core characters
for being a good leader [10]. I think if employees are
trusted, respected, supported, they will do their best to
achieve the goals, especially the young university
graduates.
 Clarify each person’s role in achieving the common
purpose [11]. Because there is an imbalance in
experience in my group, so when the group works, I
must identify the role of them clearly in order to
assign the appropriate work to them.
 Pay attention to conflict when there is. It is a common
thing that conflicts happen when people work
together, especially in my group. And conflicts can
create new ideas and make team members closer, if
the leader handles the conflicts in a right way.
 Make sure team members interact at meetings [11].
Group mate will be shy at first when new developers
join the group, so I should encourage all members to
ask for help from their group mates and to offer the
help to each other, not just channel them all through
me.
 Communicate the team successes. During the
meeting, I will mention the recent successes, talk
about why the successes are important for company,
what challenges had to be overcome, and the people
who made contributions. In this way, the young
graduates will have much courage to do work, have
much confidence to achieve next goals and will try to
communicate with experienced developer for learning
more things.
 Try to be a hope giver. Because I have four young
university graduates in my group, there must be some
serious conflictions in my group, and the experienced
developers will not go well with the young people.
They are easy to lose hope because they don’t have a
comfortable time when they are working together. So
I will use some aspirational languages to inspire my
employees all the time in order to keep the group
close.
 Appraise and reward each member individually.
Because there is imbalance in experience, so maybe
everyone has different contribution to the project, so I
should appraise and reward member individually
Except these methods, build an effective group, because the
four experienced developer may be a little dominated at first.
So for making my group closer, I decide to do something else
when we are in a discussion or a meeting. Namely,
 Make sure every employees has a chance to explain
the problems which he finds
 Establish a ground rules in order to make sure people
can have their say without being interpreted, mocked,
and rushed
 Encourage employees to solve problems themselves
so that I am not always in the middle of every conflict
between team members [11]
 Use discuss cards when we have a discussion,
everyone writes their ideas on the card, then discuss
each card together
REFERENCES
[1] FrederickP.Brooks.Jr (August 12, 1995), "The mythical man-
month: essays on software engineering" (2nd
Edition).
[2]http://www.pdpenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=
article&id=97:professional-dynametric-programs-celebrates-20th-
anniversary&catid=45:general&Itemid=69
[3] Paul Hersey, Kenneth H. Blanchard and Dewey E. Johnson,
"Management of organizational behavior: leading human resources".
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
[5] Lawrence Lindahl (1949), “What Makes a Good Job?” Personnel.
[6] Ken Blanchard (September 1, 1982), "The one minute manager",
unpublished.
[7] Paul Hersey (March 5th
, 1985), "Situational leader", in press.
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory

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[9]Sheila Murray Bethel(2011), "Effective leadership three strategies
for tough times", in press.
[10] http://highperformanceteams.org/hpt_bldg.htm
[11]"Twelveways to build an effective team", unpublished.
http://people.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/People/TEAMS/Twelve%20Way
s%20to%20Build%20an%20Effective%20Team.pdf
[12] Esenje Bonga , Founder & Marketing Director, Kynk Enterprises,
"Effective group influence", Global Cosmetic Industry, in press.