LC Extension

When you think of “leadership skills,” attributes like emotional intelligence, problem solving and the ability to motivate others probably come to mind. But there’s another skill that’s equally important yet underrated — facilitation. In fact, it’s closely related to these other, better-known leadership skills.  

Leaders who excel as facilitators know how to direct conversations, meetings and negotiations. They can help make sure everyone’s voice is heard and listened to. In a complex professional environment that’s changing more quickly than ever, those skills are incredibly important. Today, businesses need to leverage everyone’s skills, ideas and expertise to function optimally.  

What is facilitation in a leadership context? 

But what exactly do facilitation skills look like for a leader? At its core, facilitation is about making group interactions more efficient, equitable and productive. Leaders might use facilitation skills to help groups and teams:   

• Resolve challenging behaviours or dynamics 
• Reach a decision or agreement 
• Decide how to work towards a shared goal  
• Ideate new strategies or solutions 
• Ensure everyone’s voice is heard  

A facilitative leadership style is inclusive and promotes a high degree of collaboration. Facilitation means leaders have the skills to make the most of meetings, decisions and negotiations, where crucial plans and decisions are made. 

Facilitation skills for better meetings  

Because so much collaboration, planning and decision-making happen in meetings, efficiency and productivity are incredibly important.  

But poorly run, time-wasting meetings are epidemic in today’s workforce. A staggering 90 per cent of people report daydreaming during meetings. Even worse, 73 per cent sneak in other work instead of engaging with those in the room with them.  

Facilitation skills lay the path leaders can take toward running better meetings, helping them reach business goals. These skills could include: 

• Active listening  
• Engaging meeting attendees 
• Using critical thinking to ask valuable questions 
• Holding space for and helping participants voice their concerns 
• Managing and resolving in-meeting conflicts  

Without facilitation, there’s no one truly leading meetings and discussions, and making sure the time is well used.  

Putting facilitation into practice 

Leaders can leverage myriad facilitation techniques to run better meetings. Here are a few shared by Steven G. Rogelberg of Harvard Business Review:  

1. Start the meeting off right. Before you dive into the agenda, make sure everyone in the meeting feels focused, present and engaged. Greet everyone one by one, thank them for taking the time to show up and request that they turn off their devices.  
2. Give the meeting a sense of purpose. Start with a short statement recapping why everyone is gathered. Also consider restating any meeting rules, such as speaking one at a time.  
3. Assign predefined time blocks to every agenda item. This will help attendees know what to expect and enable you to stay on track. 
4. Draw out people’s unique, individual ideas through techniques like brainwriting and silent reading. Both make it easier for less vocal or outgoing attendees to share their thoughts. (Brainwriting is an alternative to brainstorming where all individuals write down their ideas before sharing them; and silent reading involves asking everyone to read over a piece of material together before discussing it).  

The evolution of leadership skills 

What makes a great leader is evolving along with our workforce. But one thing’s not changing—great work is all about people collaborating together. Facilitation helps make that happen, whether teams are in-person, hybrid or fully remote.  

LC Extension has plenty of resources to help your organization develop the leadership skills you’ll need to thrive. Learn more about our offerings today.