NEWSLETTER: May 2011

In This Issue:

1. Featured Article: Facilitative Leadership

2. Process Tip of the Month: Virtual Meetings

Facilitative Leadership - Rethinnking and Reshaping the Role of Leaders in a Collaborative Environment

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead -

Do you hold a position of leadership? If so, you probably already know that leadership encompasses far more than merely the position itself. Leadership spans a spectrum of skills and qualities. Leaders are people who help us to change. They sometimes are those who occupy positions of power, but often they are not.

Facilitative leadership invites and empowers others as opposed to commanding and directing. While there are situations where facilitative leadership may not work, in most instances, it's the best way to lead, especially when you want to build leadership within your team. As a relational form of leadership, it also lends itself to being practiced by unofficial leaders.

The following list will help you identify some of the behaviours, attitudes, and characteristics of a facilitative leader...

1. They are Facilitative as opposed to being Directive. Facilitative leaders know that they don't always need to have all the answers. A facilitative leader helps his/her team members to reach their full potential.

2. Facilitative leaders do not "know-it-all." The amount of brilliance unleashed in your team depends on how well you let go of your need to know more than anyone else.

3. Facilitative leaders embrace the perspective that the combined wisdom of the group is greater than the brilliance of one individual, in this way they see their people more engaged, having more fun, and achieving greater results.

4. They believe in their people and empower them. Facilitative Leaders identify the latent abilities within their teams, and challenge them.

5. Facilitative leaders are transparent.

6. Facilitative leaders model functional behaviour. They win the trust of their teams by telling the truth and doing what they say they will do. They gracefully accept constructive feedback from your members, they own their mistakes, correct them, and move on.

If this topic entrigues you, as much as it has me, a good book I can recommend is Facilitating to Lead: Leadership Strategies for a Networked World, by Ingrid Bens.

Making Virtual Meetings More Productive

In today's fast pace business environment where we are often required to be involved in multiple projects, attending face-to-face meetings in support of these projects, is not always possible. To address this dilemma the use of virtual meetings (or teleconferences) has become a viable solution.

However, those that I've attended seem to echoed one major concern - "How do you make these virtual meetings more productive?" It seems that the use of teleconferences is increasing but that increased use hasn't come with the needed skills to make them productive. I think the problem may stem from the fact that people seem to treat teleconferences like any other ordinary telephone call. They ignore basic meeting concepts, which is further complicated by the fact that teleconferences bring their own unique challenges to the meeting management mix.

In addition to the two issues above, the “liaise fare” attitude about teleconferences causes meeting leaders to put aside effective meeting skills. Such as preparing for the teleconference just as you would for a usual face-to-face meeting, developing and issuing an agenda with a clear purpose, set of items for discussion, the anticipated outcomes, and ensuring that the right participants are invited to attend.

So, what is a workable solution to follow? Well, firstly, as mentioned, treat teleconferences like face-to- face meetings. Have the participants follow the same basic rules that they would follow in face-to-face meetings, such as no multi-tasking. Don’t give participants permission to mute their phones for example when they are answering emails or talking to someone who is not part of the teleconference. This only serves to encourage poor behaviour.

At the start of the teleconference, follow this simple procedure:

1. Welcome everyone and introduce yourself
2. Identify what the teleconference is about
3. Define the time constraints
4. Explain the agenda
5. Describe the norms (ground rules). Note there are two that are critical “Always precede what you say by stating your name” and “One person speaks at a time”
6. Then, ask the participants to introduce themselves.

During the meeting continuously remind participants to state their names at the start of their statement. Frequently summarize what was said and check with the group for consensus. Active listening is critical as this keeps the participants on track. Since participants cannot see what is being said, audio reinforcement helps a lot here. Restate questions and answers. Frequently remind participants of the time as it is easy for participants to lose track of time when discussing ideas. Frequently summarize the decisions taken, as it can be difficult for the group to know when a decision has been made (don’t forget to summarize all previous decisions along with the new decision). Don’t be shy to frequently reinforce the norms. If a participant becomes difficult and for example wants to dominate the conversation or talk over others, take the lead and step in to re-enforce the norms (either just speak up, or wait for a pause period). Lastly, don’t forget to take a 10-minute break every 90 minutes, any longer and you may lose participants. This serves to give the participants a break and allows you to take this time to talk to difficult participants (call them if they are remote or in person if they are local) to determine the cause.

At the end of the meeting proceed with a structured closeout and follow-up. Such as summarising the outcomes (decisions taken, next steps, action items, etc.), to reinforce what the participants accomplished. Never skip “Next Steps”. This is one step that helps ensure that the results get implemented.

In conclusion, for sure, teleconferences are a way of the future. However, don’t be fooled, they require effective facilitation skills. When properly facilitated, teleconferences can be very productive!

Thanks for Reading!

We hope you have enjoyed this newsletter and found it useful. Please forward it to any friends or colleagues who might be interested. If you have any feedback, or if you have a tip you would like to share in a future issue, please email us.

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