Facilitative Leadership

J.T. Taylor, M.A.

John Maxwell, author of 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, declares that "Leadership is Influence." If that is true, then the skill sets involved in leading others center upon influencing skills.

Most people have been under authoritarian type leaders who declare their goals, bark orders and expect everyone to jump immediately to action. These types of leaders are not facilitative leaders, and they tend to use their position as the basis of their leadership. The strengths of this type of leadership are they tend to get things done. The weaknesses are they often alienate those they are leading and the results are not near as powerful or long lasting as they could be.

The Approach of the Facilitative Leader

Facilitative leaders take a different approach. They seek to connect the direction they want to lead to the goals, values and needs of those they are leading. Instead of telling their direct reports their decisions, they listen first, ask open ended questions about the direction they are want to go and allow the input of those they are leading to shape how the path is defined. Listen first, incorporate ideas second and then set the vision.

This facilitative leadership style works because it is empowering. One of the keys to accomplishing a vision is to make sure that those who are implementing it are actually excited about it. They must feel empowered, valued, appreciated and important. If those implementing the vision do not feel this way, then they will do the minimum to get by and the results will be far less powerful. If they are fully invested in the vision, then they will work harder and longer and be more committed to making sure the vision is a success.

The Place to Begin

The place to begin in becoming a facilitative leader is with asking open ended questions and then listening. In coaching executives over the past twenty years as President of Team Building USA, one of the most common themes I've dealt with is helping managers become more effective in leading. And an extremely common problem is they tell, rather than ask. A very quick, very easy change is to switch from making statements, to asking questions. Even if you make the mistake of making a declarative statement, just toss on a phrase on the end to turn it into a statement. For example, "I believe we need to do XYZ."…"what do you guys think about that?" With practice turning statements into questions gets easier.

Once the input has been gathered, and the plan has been shaped, then the next skill is to give credit away for those ideas to those who gave them. For instance, in communicating the vision to others/the team you could say something like, "Jill says we need to perform a customer satisfaction survey before we move forward on this project. I think that is a great idea. Thanks for that input Jill." This greatly empowers those who will be implementing the vision and gives them ownership of the results. In this way, the facilitative leader brings the vision to fruition through facilitating the process of getting others to make the vision happen. In short, facilitative leaders influence others by asking questions, listening and giving credit for the input given by others.

Facilitative Leadership Tips

   * Ask open ended questions, don't make statements - ask questions.
   * Listen to your team and incorporate their ideas into the vision.
   * Create ownership by publically validating those who contributed ideas.
   * Give credit and recognition to others as the vision becomes successful.

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