Facilitative Leadership

Facilitative Leadership as opposed to the old fashioned authoritative leadership of "It's my way, or the high way approach", seems to break gentle ground into the management of many organizations these days. Facilitative leadership style is indeed in a new era of piloting a project, team or an organization. If you need to motivate your team members or your employees toward a common purpose, objective or goal instead of giving them strict and detailed instructions to abide by, although in some cases it may be absolutely necessary.

Facilitative leadership requires the leader, you, to be compassionate in your communication and that includes listening openly to the verbal and non-verbal expressions of your team members, subordinates or clients without judgment or condemnation of any sort. This kind of leadership is non-authoritative and invites open suggestions and constructive feedback from the floor so that everyone involved gets to share their thoughts and opinions.

In this kind of set up, suggestions or opinions are discussed, debated and contemplated openly in a healthy environment. Everyone including stakeholders, management, team members, employees or any related parties get to share ownership of ideas when there is collective agreement and clarity in the direction of where the project or organization is heading. There is a sense of joint responsibility for the progress of a project or growth of an organization.

This leadership approach will, without any doubt, create powerful fundamental positive emotions that will give them a strong sense of respect and appreciation for themselves as well as toward and the organization. This inevitably empowers related parties and naturally motivates them to improve themselves in supportive areas of their skills which results in a more productive and united team aiding the growth, creativity and expansion of an organization or simply to the successful completion of your project, on time and under-budget! A great read on the subject is Facilitative Leadership by Steve Reilly.

It is encouraging to note that facilitative leadership permits understanding and appreciation to arise between team members, management and employees. This openness and allowance to sift through valuable ideas provides a clearer vision of the path where a project or organization is heading towards without taking the reins. More importantly, your employees will not be afraid to let you know when your project is going off of the rails. You're not wasting your time if you are trying to work out a strategy that will ensure that your team members are committed to your project. From a different perspective, being an effective facilitative leader is a risk mitigation strategy as you are virtually making your project theirs!

And just like you, they won't accept failure.

This style is different as opposed to other leadership styles in which the leader is perceived to always be right and in control along with making sure no one openly resists their instructions. The old autocratic leader runs the show with fear, restricting team members or employees freedom of speech and actions thus limiting their creativity and growth. This style does not empower team members, management or employees although the leaders appear to be in power. Since collaboration is indeed important and beneficial for any form of team or organization to achieve its visions; why not inspire and allow ideas, opinions and creativity to flow as a form of support? It promotes harmony and well-being not only for the project and organization, but also reduces the stress for the human factors involved!

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