This type of leadership is not about the work group entering the meeting room and ordering them certain tasks, do you think about everything you do beforehand? Everything that cannot be decided through a meeting committee. The battlefront is not a place to “survey” the situation. When you're leading a group, there are times when a leader can and should bring people together to talk about how the business can be improved, but really ask everyone to participate at all levels of the business ladder. That is to exercise facilitative leadership.
For this process to work, the leader must successfully create an atmosphere where people not only feel comfortable to contribute ideas and suggestions, but also where the leader acts from the beginning of the activity.
Acting in the meetings from the beginning is not doing everything that the group says has to be done, but it means that the leader must make it clear to the group that their contribution as such has to be valued by its form to act and how their activity will be used.
Leaders often feel that if their team gives them an honest opinion of what to do, they take it as if they were giving it a "red card." For that reason, the leader must make it clear in advance how this type of personal performance will be used within the group, for example:
1-The group is only asked to contribute ideas and it is the leader who will make the final decision.
2-Ideas are requested and the leader will discuss the options with the group once they have analyzed them, before making a final decision.
3-The final decision will be made as a team.
4-The leader gives his directives, and the team makes the final decision, after they all review the ideas provided together.
5-The team is given participation and it is who will make the final decision.
These are some of the examples of how you can explain what your intentions are, when you are involved in the process of making final decisions. The advantage of having this type of clarity is that it is a critical step in the construction of certain values within the group such as respect, trust and sympathy towards you.
This model is a strategic result within the evolution of leadership.
I'm going to give you some examples so you can see what the difference is between the different positions within leadership.
One day, the leader walks into the office, stands in front of the group and tells everyone, “You have to do this…..”, it is a one-way communication. It is like the typical example that we have heard many times, the leader says “jump” and his followers only need to know how high they have to do it.
In this type of leadership, the leader is still at the center of the group's activities, he only leads.
If we follow the progression of this scheme, the other leader leaves this structure, and becomes part of the group. This type of communication improves the relationship between members, the leader is still responsible, but does not push them to do things, but rather "manages" people to follow him and motivate themselves to act.
To advance even further as a leader, you actually have to take one step every day in the work zone. This allows communication between the group to be more fluid. But this cannot be done until team members have been helped to interact with each other on "a playing field that is level." That is why you should familiarize yourself with the elements that can help build essential skills, and feel more free to work on the strategic elements of your work, rather than dealing with group tactics.
This skill is required for this process to develop normally, because the typical leader area, his rank and the control he can exercise does not have to be retractable, but rather it will have to be moved from one department to another, and a facilitative leadership if you are “stuck” in the center of the activity, trying to lead everything at the same time.
Now, keep this in mind, when you walk away you don't disconnect! This is because "you cannot expect what is not inspected." So as the skills of the team grow, you must be approachable and remain the coach, so that everyone feels responsible for the results of the assigned tasks.
Courage is an essential attitude for a leader to have the ability to overcome under a lot of emotional pressure. I'm going to give you an example, a senior manager sends a technical report to one of his leaders, it is a very important project for the company, but this project does not reach its destination. The boss yells at him: Why didn't the report reach its destination? What happened? In this type of situation, most people make a lot of excuses or ignore the subject, passing the question to someone else, and this is the wrong answer. A facilitator leader has to have the courage to say something like "I am the one responsible and I will make sure this does not happen again…." This attitude takes a lot of courage.The leader is ultimately responsible for the group functioning and working properly. This is directly up to him.
Now, in this type of situation, the leader should have some conversations with his team about what happened in that report that never came. It is clear that there were some mistakes in the communication process that needs to be reviewed. Keep in mind that during these conversations, a game of a two-way street is entered. It is the employee's responsibility to achieve that goal, and it is the leader's responsibility to make sure his people are meeting them.
Another essential skill of a facilitator leader is having the ability to "listen to advice." It is about seeing the different points of view on the same topic, including those in which you would not normally agree. This is a powerful trait for a leader, as it can lead to better decisions. For that, the leader must be able to capture all the main nuclei of information.
It has to be able to keep all bridges open with people, and create an atmosphere, where people want to share information with others, in large part this is due to the fact that it has earned respect, even from people they don't normally see things the same way they do.
When you learn to master these types of skills, you are embarking on the great path of excellent facilitative leadership. It's a big change from the traditional leadership view. It is a new way of interacting with employees.
