Why facilitate?

- [Instructor] High performance and collaboration. When I talk to leaders and ask what they want most from their teams, these are the terms that I usually hear. We all know that collaboration and high performance are good things, but we don't really know what that looks like, right? Often when I dig deeper with leaders what they really want is for everyone on their team to work towards a shared goal and to achieve it effectively and efficiently. Most leaders are looking for their teams to, one, deliver on what they commit to, two, get things done in surface problems as soon as they become aware of them, and three, share information across a team freely. The question is, why doesn't this happen consistently right now? We live in a world of constant change. Teams are becoming more global, more transient, with less hierarchical definitions than ever before. This change requires a leader to respond by evolving to meet the team's needs so that each member of the team feels empowered to collaborate effectively. Leveraging the tools of a great facilitator can help leaders unlock the behaviors we want from our teams, creating a high-performance team who exhibits amazing collaboration. You may be asking, aren't facilitators people we hire to help our team building trust or learn something? And you're not wrong at all. But let's think for a second about what facilitators actually do. Ultimately great facilitators do three things. One, they create a safe environment for people to share freely. Two, they enable a team to recognize the unique strengths of each of its members. And three, they help the team to come together and move towards one goal. As a leader, isn't that exactly what you want to manifest for your team? In addition to enabling a higher performing and more collaborative team, there are massive benefits for you in being a facilitative leader. Let's talk about three of them here. First, you leverage the power of the collective. Have you ever felt that as a leader the team's success relies heavily on you? Being a facilitative leader allows you to distribute the hard challenges you have to the others in the room who may be either better suited to solve the problem or provide a fresh perspective to address it. After all, two heads are better than one, especially if those two heads are focused on the same goal. Second, you empower ownership. Have you ever noticed that when you feel like an idea is yours you're more likely to engage with it? Similarly, have you ever noticed how great you feel when you're part of something bigger than you? This is how your team feels when they're integral to coming up with ideas and feel like they're part of something bigger. As a facilitative leader, you will empower commitment versus compliance. Last, but certainly not least, you save massive amounts of time. I mean, do you ever look at your calendar and bask in how much free time you have? I bet not. Wouldn't it be great to have more time back in your day? As a facilitative leader you're leveraging the key strengths of your team to collectively solve challenges and reach your goals. In doing so, you're focusing on the highest value challenges and doing away with the low value, time consuming activities. Try adding facilitation to your leadership toolkit, and you'll find that you'll be able to empower and get the best out of your team.