What is Facilitative Leadership?

Janisha was promoted to a manager role about 10 months ago. It's her first time managing people, and she got the promotion because she is a high performer who is smart and figures things out. The transition has been harder than Janisha anticipated, though. She's often tempted to just jump in and do things herself so that she's sure they're done correctly. And, if she's honest with herself, it feels more satisfying because she feels like she got something done, compared to just being in meetings all day supporting other people in getting their work done.

One of the main hurdles when you transition from a contributor to a manger is learning how to delegate.

There are many challenges as one transitions from individual contributor to manager. One of the main hurdles is the need to get work done through others; it's no longer sustainable to do everything yourself. This is a longer game that doesn't give you the same immediate feelings of satisfaction, so there is a 'rewiring' of your assessment of what a productive day looks like. Your focus switches from the “work” to the people and the process.

Thinking of yourself as a facilitative leader can help ease this transition. Here are three ways to start flexing your facilitative leadership muscles today.

Make work easier for others

Facilitative leadership is similar to servant leadership, but it's less about serving your people as much as clearing obstacles from the path toward the shared goal. They'll never know about some of the work you do to help them reach the finish line.

spend time facilitating

You can facilitate thinking through coach-like behaviors where you ask questions instead of telling your perspective. You can facilitate relationships through helpful introductions, translating misinterpreted intentions, and mediating conversations. And of course, you can facilitate the meetings that you're running, bringing in helpful structure and eliciting diverse perspectives.

focus on process

There is an administrative component to facilitative leadership because you are literally pulling all the people, ideas, and context together. Seeing the path forward and the process at a higher level is a paradigm shift for some leaders who are completely focused on the work. But, if your people are not aligned around the process, that could undermine the quality of the results.

Janisha is learning to value the time she spends building relationships with her people, even though it doesn't yield immediate results. She is starting to notice that the ways she smooths out the bumps in the road does, in fact, bring value to her team and the organization. She still gets to use her technical skills to provide feedback and input when needed, but she's enjoying rounding out her skillset with the "softer" stuff, which, surprisingly, has been “harder” than she thought!