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Facilitation Spirit

25/09/2021 by Alberto Pezeiro
In one of my recent travels to give training to a client in Philadelphia - USA, I asked this client’s office address to a friend. He had visited it recently, so he could easily give it to me. And that was exactly what he did. However, in addition to the address, he also gave me the numbers of round-trip flights of his suggestion, the best train routes to take, and suggestions of three or four hotels next to this client’s office. He just made my trip a lot easier than it would be if he had just given me the address.

This story describes a person who has what I call “facilitation spirit,” something most desired in the current and future Leaders of a company and one of the recurrent subjects in Leadership and Transformation (or change) Management trainings.
You could describe a facilitator as someone who is very skillful in removing barriers that prevent something from being properly executed or implemented.
 
The Leadership profile
Nowadays, many people know that the predominant Leadership profile of the companies is changing, which is reflected in the performance measurements, promotions and corporative training.
Simply put, you can say that, ten or twenty years ago, the managerial position had the “boss” as its predominant figure. His main job was to facilitate your life so he could dedicate himself to think on the best strategies and tactics to be adopted by the company. The employees worked for the boss.
Nowadays, in trainings and promotions, the predominant profile is the one of people I like to call “Collaborative Leaders.” Their main job is to connect people, increase their awareness through constant feedback, and remove barriers that hinder the delivery of the expected results. In other words, he is a facilitator for his employees.
The organizations already noticed that a great way to know if an employee has a leadership profile is getting the answer to the following question:
“Is he/she a good facilitator?”
 
Developing Facilitation Skills
- Emotional Intelligence: a good facilitator should never let his emotions get in the way of decision making, teamwork conduction, or project leadership processes. Despite the belief of the main scholars that the cognitive intelligence quotient is something that does not change much after adulthood, it does not apply to the emotional quotient, which can be constantly improved;
- Team projects: Operational Excellence programs, for example, are great to develop facilitation skills, because their success depends on getting knowledge from a group of people that usually do not see the impact of their actions on the work of others and on the desired final result. Making the team members get along and work towards a greater common goal is a great way to develop their facilitation skills;
- Teaching: one of the most effective ways to develop your facilitation skills is teaching. Spend some time teaching and developing people;
- Leadership styles: adopt different Leadership styles, according to your employees’ maturity level. There are moments in which you will have to “take someone by the hand” and, for example, lead an employee whose maturity level is still low. As his maturity level increases, you will be able to employ other techniques, such as coaching, mentoring, and delegation;
- Feedback: increase the perception and awareness of other employees through constant feedback.
- Be available: good facilitators are available to help, even if they do not have a lot of time. Sometimes, a hint or a contact is all an employee needs to help him when he is stuck. For example, in the opening story of this article, even if my friend had not given me all the information I needed, it would suffice giving me the contact information of the person who helped him get ready in his last travel. This would already be of great value to me;
- Multitasking: another essential characteristic of the best facilitators is their capacity of doing many things at the same time, making them evolve and asking for help whenever necessary.


Boost your career by improving your facilitation skills

Practice the facilitation spirit in your life, incorporating it in your habits.
A great indicator to know if you have a potential leader in your hands is checking if he is already seen as a good facilitator—they tend to become great leaders.
Think on how you are seen by your organization and ask yourself:

“Am I seen by my subordinates, peers, and superiors as someone who makes the organization more agile and efficient?”

Images by: Freepik