Facilitation is one of those words that can be judged as soft/ fluffy/ intangible and passive. In reality, it isn’t. It is a vital skill for leaders.
Everyone talks about putting active words on your CV rather than passive or those relating to soft skills. This is an outdated perspective as the soft skills are what makes a great leader stand our and enables them to develop their EQ.
Have you ever run a meeting before? The best leader of a meeting is someone that listens, generates a dialogue with a purpose, encourages questions and enabled a common outcome. This is true leadership.
Imagine a meeting where a manager stands at the front and tells people what to do. This doesn’t generate excitement or encourage engagement. This is poor people leadership and will end up getting the bare minimum required output. This is micro-management ; meaning that facilitation hasn’t been learned as a skill.
It’s important to consider learning how to facilitate a meeting on your leadership journey. For me, this was taking the leap into Kaizen facilitation training and these skills have been used in my people leadership roles. Facilitation enables the team to truly own the outcome together and find the best ideas and methods to achieve success. It’s not, because the boss says so. Everyone shares ideas and we all win.
Skills Repeat 