As leaders, it’s safe to say we are used to and comfortable with the teaching aspect of our role. Whether it’s a one-on-one session with an employee, a group meeting in a lecture hall, a classroom setting, or a Zoom meeting with colleagues, we recognize that it’s our job to take the reins, be the subject matter experts (SMEs) at the front of the room and use our strong communication skills to pass our knowledge forward and walk others through their challenges. It’s when we’re asked to be a facilitator that things get a little tricky.
Don’t get me wrong. Teachers and facilitators play an invaluable role in communication and leadership development. But all too often, leaders mistakenly use these titles interchangeably, ultimately muddying the waters.
What Does It Mean to Be an Effective Facilitator?
A facilitator is still the “leader” and “organizer” of the group, and their job is definitely to help people learn. But rather than stand at the proverbial pulpit and espouse all your knowledge while everyone else listens, your goal is to create a back-and-forth dialogue throughout the room that leads to a collective learning experience. Sure, you’re still standing at the front of the room. And in a manner of speaking, you’re in a position of power and leadership. But you’re trying to be as neutral as possible.
Your role is to guide participants through an intentional process of idea generation. And if you’re doing it right, everyone in the room will be engaged and committed to sharing ideas and solutions that address complex challenges, meet goals and improve productivity.
Being an effective facilitator in leadership development requires you to do the following:
- Leave status at the door.
- Create an even playing field for collective learning.
- Encourage open dialogue.
- Foster individual contributions.
- Actively listen more than you speak.
- Provide group goals.
- Promote inclusivity, trust and fairness.
- Reinforce positive behaviors.
- Keep everyone engaged.
- Enlist help.
- Ask good questions and confirm understanding.
- Encourage healthy disagreements.
The Importance of Expression and Perception in Facilitation
An effective facilitator is proficient in many communication skills, including empathy, sentiment, persuasiveness and emotional intelligence (EQ). I urge you also to remember the skills of expression and perception as you dive into this new leadership role. The bottom line is that you must align your nonverbal communication (e.g., posture, body language, facial expressions, gestures, etc.), word choices, and tone (e.g., optimism, motivation, conversational, humor) perfectly. Otherwise, you risk confusing everyone in the room.
Think about it: We’ve all heard a teacher or facilitator say, “All ideas are good ideas” and “There are no stupid questions.” But occasionally, they follow that up with nonverbal cues that slash that notion to pieces. Perhaps they look perturbed or give off the vibe that you just asked a stupid question. Maybe their body language suggests you’re wasting their time — as if they’ve heard this argument before and know precisely what you will say next.
How did you feel in these situations? Did you want to continue participating, or did you disengage from the discussion?
An effective facilitator is skilled at keeping everyone engaged, enthused and committed to achieving a satisfactory result.
As leaders, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you have all the answers. But a true leader — and an even stronger facilitator — is comfortable with solutions proposed by others. They bring out the best in others through optimal collaboration.
The Business World Demands Improved Communication
Your organization’s success is paramount to how well you communicate as leaders. And a big piece of that is effective facilitation. This is where experiential learning tools can help. These tools can eliminate traditional scenarios that are too predictable or emulate the old way of doing things and can address the needs and related communication shortcomings by leveraging AI for instant measurement, analysis, reporting, tracking, scaling and more.
Some tools also allow learners to have a communications coach on speed dial, giving you the feedback you need to understand how you communicate — all in real-time.
As you practice developing your leadership skills and learn to do things differently, this practice becomes who you are. To me, that’s the best feature of an experiential learning tool. You can practice repeatedly with them and track your progress. As you begin to see changes in how you communicate, and the tool can back those thoughts up with accurate data, others will see you as a leader who emphasizes effective communication.
