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Developing
Industry Leaders
... One employee at a time
by John
Bourke
There is an
emerging view of leadership within our industry that
challenges the hierarchical view that places the leader at the
top of the pyramid as a final authority. This shift in mindset
is, in part, attributable to the realization that, while it is
easier for a leader to simply tell employees what to do to
solve any given problem, the greater victory is won by
collaborating with employees to unfold how they will solve the
problem. This emergent style of leadership has been coined
"grass-roots", "participative" or "facilitative leadership".
Each one of us has, at some point in our career, witnessed the
"command and control" side of hierarchical leadership. Can you
recall an occasion when you were ordered to perform a task
without being offered a chance to influence the outcome? Did
the order elicit a sense of ownership for the solution? Were
your intellectual and emotional talents fully leveraged? Was
your creativity stimulated?
Truth is,
employees either cope or adapt to this style of leadership -
both of which rob the individual of valuable energy that could
be effectively refocused through participation.
Non-participative delegation produces employees that become
wizened in the art of office politics but eventually lose
their resiliency and responsiveness to the escalating demands
imposed by the environment.
Why Develop Facilitative Leadership Skills?
The facilitative approach to leadership recognizes the innate
drive in people to participate and draws it forth by conscious
invitation, eliciting a keen sense of engagement and ownership
for the challenge at hand.
The benefits of facilitative leadership are clear. Employees
who work in a more collaborative work environment tend to feel
better about their contributions to the organization, are more
productive, and report a greater sense of
personal/professional balance. Individuals in these settings
tend to develop project management skills, group
problem-solving skills, conflict management skills, and
overall business acumen more quickly than do their
counterparts in "command and control" environments.
Developing Employees as Stakeholders
Through the conscious development of facilitative leadership
skills, specifically in the areas of: the art of effective
dialogue, group-consensus building and participative
action-planning, leaders begin to treat employees as
stakeholders in the organization's ongoing success. They
realize that in order for stakeholders to make good decisions,
generate new and innovative opportunities and deliver on
actionable plans certain pre-requisites must be in place.
Employees (stakeholders) must be provided:
-
access to
adequate information
-
exposure to a
cross-section of other key players
-
forums for the
open sharing of ideas
-
effective
processes for synthesizing diverse viewpoints
-
a nurtured
bias for action
An effective
team leader, coach or mentor has no hidden agendas, has little
use for judging or controlling and has a tendency to give
people back their own ideas without meddling or manipulation.
FAQ
The three most frequently asked questions regarding the
journey to a more facilitative approach to leadership are:
Does the need for hierarchy go away?
A facilitative approach to leadership works best when the
requisite hierarchy is clearly in place providing boundaries
related to policy and authority.
Is participation easier?
Participation opens up complex new energies in a group that
require clear structures, guidelines and methods. Unguided
participation results in deep frustration just as unguided
hierarchy does.
How do facilitative leaders manage the risks associated
with eliciting the participation of chronic complainers and
adversarial stakeholders?
The facilitative leader recognizes that the greatest risk to
organizational success is not to be found in the heated
exchanges that often surface around particular issues but
instead in the unexpressed viewpoints that are forced
underground and often surface in less predictable ways to
derail the group's plans, hopes and aspirations.
Developing Facilitative Leaders
To manage the inherent risks associated with participation,
the organization must commit to learning and promoting three
key competencies:
-
Effective
Dialogue Methodology: The dialogue method teaches employees
to engage the active participation of all members early in
the dialogue. An effective dialogue focuses attention on a
particular issue and guides individuals to articulate the
relevant facts and details. The dialogue continues by
inviting participants to reflect on their personal
connection with the issue, and ultimately, to consider
implications and significance to self and others so that a
collaborative decision can be made.
-
Group-Consensus Method: Group-consensus building is a
multi-stage process that generates new creativity,
incorporates left and right brain thinking, builds team
cohesiveness through consensus-driven dialogue and
culminates in a "group-owned" decision or commitment.
-
Action-Planning Method: Employees are most productive and
make available their greatest contributions when they become
proficient at clarifying direction, assessing the
environment, aligning resources, determining appropriate
actions and implementing collectively-owned plans.
Closing
The facilitative approach to leadership is certainly not the
easiest path to creating an empowered workforce. However,
whatever inefficiencies arise out of participation are usually
overshadowed by the effectiveness of collaborative
employee-owned solutions.
For more information on related employee training and
development opportunities through Bourke & Associates please
contact us by phone at (214) 443-4258 or my email at
jbourke1@ix.netcom.com
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