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What Leaders, Facilitators and Coaches Have In Common

Written by: Dianne Crampton

Article Overview: A facilitative or coaching leadership style is handy for the small business owner as well as a team leader. This article discusses facilitative leadership and how it serves both the leader and the organization.

What Leaders, Facilitators and Coaches Have In Common

The flattening of organizations leaves many managers wondering where they fit in. Work teams make decisions and control resources once considered a management role.

Yet, change brought about by flattening creates a greater need for accurate and timely information. Therefore, people practiced in communication, confrontation, and system thinking find new opportunities and challenges in team-based organizations.

Known as “facilitative” leaders, the people who fill team leadership roles must also be grounded in core values consistent with concepts of empowerment, collaboration, accountability, learning and partnership. For one reason, facilitative leaders are part of the work group and are deeply involved in what the group has set out to accomplish.

Therefore, they must also be experts in content and group process as they facilitate the flow of information among executive leaders, work team members, and the ultimate consumer.

Team leaders hold the team accountable for measuring and monitoring goals. Consultative and coaching in nature, facilitative leaders help teams produce high quality work that is on target and on time.

For this reason facilitative leaders must have access to all relevant company information in order to guide the team and help team members understand how their accomplishments contribute to meeting company goals. This could include organizational strategy, budget information, financial information, and all data necessary for the team’s optimum success.

Likewise, the facilitative leader must be knowledgeable and practiced in group process in order to confront group problems head on with the highest level of integrity. Failure to do so often results in group think and cavalier solutions to company problems that can literally bring an organization to its knees.

Simply put, a lack of group process skills might result in a team that accomplishes nothing of value, wasting company resources.

The following team attributes help identify what a facilitative leader should be prepared for.

1. Shared Power
Facilitative leaders work from the paradigm that shared power is necessary in order to instill the highest quality team member commitment.

2. Internal Accountability
Based on valid information and freedom to choose a course of action, team members must assume responsibility for their decisions. The facilitative leader ensures that the team’s decisions are on target and work.

3. Learning
Groups grow through people who grow and groups learn through people who learn. The ability to stop and reflect on what worked or didn’t work is essential to a group’s ongoing effectiveness.

Facilitative leadership skills are easy to learn and can be practiced over time. One way to insure success is to enlist the services of a TIGERS Success Series coach to help your company sort through competitive and collaborative practices so that you both optimize your time and effort.

Responsible for both content and process, the facilitative leader guides the group to be on time, on target, and on budget.

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Article Tags: coaching leadership, facilitators, leadership style, small business owner, team leader



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