Facilitative Leadership^®

Facilitative Leadership® focuses on maximizing contributions through collaborative behaviors. Here are seven practices that a Facilitative Leader requires:

Focus on Results Process and Relationship - Produce results, sustain productivity and quality, and build a supportive work environment.

Coach for Performance - Coach team members to think more clearly, critically, and creatively when solving problems and pursuing opportunities.

Design Pathways to Action - Design actionable strategies, so individuals understand how and when to contribute.

Seek Maximum Appropriate Involvement - Involve the right people at the right time and in the most effective way to help make decisions.

Facilitate Agreements - Facilitate agreements among team members and key stakeholders.

Share an Inspiring Vision - Create and communicate an inspiring vision of the future and enroll others in its pursuit.

Celebrate Accomplishments - Celebrate success and accomplishments to create a satisfying and engaging work environment.

Yes, it is possible to be a Facilitative Leader who is neutral and fair, even if you have a specific role within a team and aren't the boss. To do this, you must:

Neutrality doesn't mean passiveness or inaction. Neutral Facilitative Leaders bring solutions so the team is stronger, shares an open line of communication, and can reach its organizational goals.

Most roles require some sort of facilitation mindset. For example, if your role entails being a change leader, business analyst, process improvement specialist, or a project manager, you are required to facilitate action and change. When you work with us, you move from being a facilitator to being a Facilitative Leader.

Generally, Facilitative Leaders:

Today's challenges and opportunities call for an expanded model of leadership. Beyond coping with change, leaders must design and manage change by tapping into the power of participation. Facilitative Leaders empower individuals to work together to achieve a common goal. They make it easier for individuals to:

Facilitative Leaders often organize their strategies using these principles:

An effective facilitator is still an individual with their own characteristics and qualities. However, they often share traits that help them succeed as a Facilitative Leader. These include being:

• Organized - Facilitative Leaders should be organized and keep track of the processes and projects.
• Observational - Excellent Facilitative Leaders are observers who use the information gathered to take action.
• Supportive - A Facilitative Leader must support their employees, offering reassurance, feedback, resources, and tools.
• Decisive - The entire group should be making the decisions together, but a Facilitative Leader understands decision-making methods and how to involve others. When the decision calls for it, they know how to be decisive using their knowledge of the situation and the impact of those involved.
• Fair - The Facilitative Leader must listen to ideas and input objectively.
• Transparent - The best Facilitative Leader is transparent. This means sharing good and bad information as necessary.
• Moderated - Facilitative Leaders need to have control over their emotions to keep the responses respectable and constructive.
• Creative - These professionals must demonstrate creativity to foster innovation for the team or organization.
• Communicative - They must know how to share the information clearly (in writing and verbally).
• Attentive - A Facilitative Leader should listen to gather input to shape decisions for the team or organization.

Facilitative Leadership provides a valuable and crucial leadership strategy because it empowers the employees throughout the organization. People feel when they are brought into the vision of the team or organization. It also offers these benefits:

• Sparks Innovation - The Facilitative Leader can encourage and nurture problem-solving and creative thinking.
• Improves Alignment - Employees must understand the big picture and their role. When that happens, they might adjust their procedures and processes to benefit the company. They have more commitment to the team.
• Increases Commitment - When employees feel valued and respected, they're likely to stay with that company. This reduces turnover.
• Educates Employees - Facilitative Leaders focus on employees of all kinds in the decision-making process. That means these people are more aware of the goals and challenges the team or organization faces.
• Supports Autonomy - A leader starts the work or process for the employees. The end goal here is to empower others to perform work autonomously.

Facilitative Leaders should:

• Help shape strategic and powerful questions for exploration
• Help individuals and groups reflect on their experiences to capture relevant learning opportunities
• Support teams in different stages of group development
• Draw out opinions from others objectively and without judgment
• Design meeting processes to tackle various objectives and goals
• Intervene with groups and individuals without taking control
• Manage differing opinions and perspectives that could result in conflict between group members
• Stimulate consideration of different alternatives
• Stimulate creative thinking using brainstorming and other processes
• Generate and encourage participative discussions
• Use active listening skills

We help leaders learn valuable skills that can assist with facilitation to get teams of professionals to recognize and achieve their vision of success.

The facilitator guides, plans, and manages groups to meet appropriate goals. They have the objective and focus on working together to solve problems.

1. Maintain Neutrality - Facilitators should be intentional about the outcome and purpose of the meetings. Frame the topic, bring forth questions, and let others take the lead. In a sense, they own the process during the meeting, but the team owns the content (conversation).
2. Stand in the Storm - The group requires new thinking to gain insight. A facilitator welcomes that, even if it feels rough at first. Always include various perspectives and viewpoints without taking sides. Then, find ways to bring opinion differences into play. The group doesn't want to be in conflict in meetings, but that's often where new ideas are formed.
3. Honor the Wisdom of Your Group - A facilitator must trust that their team has the wisdom and tools to solve problems themselves. However, facilitators must know when to step in. Sometimes, conversations should happen. It's crucial to keep the group on track to achieve the intended outcome while promoting inclusiveness.
4. Hold the Group to the Agenda - When facilitating meetings, a facilitator must be mindful of the agenda. It's only a roadmap for the meeting, so it can deviate in strategic ways. While important to stick to the purpose and stay on track, there might be times when it's crucial to move away from the point for a moment. It's the facilitator's job to build agreements with the group on how to handle those situations.
5. Be Future-Focused - Facilitators have a plan for most meetings that include questions focused on making the team think about the future. While there's a problem at hand, they should be contemplating what they want for the company to succeed.

The facilitator is there to use the group's existing knowledge to prepare meaningful training materials and steer discussions in the right direction.

Live | In-Classroom

IA Learning Leaders deliver a training program at your site. IA can also certify your internal trainers to teach our programs to people managers and project leaders within your organization.

Live Online | Virtual Instructor-Led

This highly interactive, instructor-led virtual training experience is particularly useful for individuals who facilitate virtual or distributed meetings. The framework is eight two-hour sessions that fit into any work schedule and allow for on-the-job practice between sessions via practical interim assignments.

Open Enrollment | Virtual Instructor-led or In-Classroom

We offer training opportunities in a public workshop setting, both in-person and online. You can find a full list of our upcoming open-enrollment options here.

The goal is to give a group of individuals the opportunity and resources necessary to help them succeed or make progress in meetings. Therefore, you should know how to be prepared and flexible, manage time efficiently, set guidelines, and focus on active listening.

They require:

• Intuitive Thinking - They can leverage their full brain to make decisions and assessments. In a sense, they assume things to piece together different outcomes before using logical reasoning to find the best one.
• Empathy - Being empathetic means maintaining a welcoming and healthy atmosphere. They respect others while engaging with them and showing appreciation for their views.
• Enthusiastic - It's crucial to be passionate about what they do and vibrant in their demeanor to maintain a great working atmosphere.

Facilitative Leadership is considered a good thing. Being a Facilitative Leader is not a small feat and takes work to achieve and maintain. The process to get to being comfortable as a Facilitative Leader can take time and practice. However, in the long run, the individual will feel more confident and capable in their role. Likewise, the team and organization will see the benefits beyond the individual.