5 Do’s and Don’ts of a Leader-Facilitator

• July 30, 2018

The purpose of any leadership development program must be to improve outcomes.  Two ideal outcomes are employee engagement and customer experience.  If these two outcomes improve we can predict profitability will improve.  Costs are higher to attract and train new employees and/or new customers.  Keeping those we already have is less costly.

What is a leader-facilitator?

“The quality of the interactions between parts is more important than the quality of the parts.”

Facilitators are leaders but not all leaders are facilitators.  A leader-facilitator understands and utilizes the most useful theory of improvement and makes learning easier for teams.  A leader-facilitator priority is to create a safe (trusting) learning context.  This trusting context allows team members to manage the quality of interactions.  Quality interactions enables teams to make efficient, effective, and high-quality decisions.  Leader-facilitators rely on trust and influence instead of authority or control.  Creating a safe and trusting learning environment attracts employees who attract customers and keeps everyone loyal.

“What makes companies profitable? Based on their research – and my own experience – the core driver of long-term profitability is customer retention. While new sales are critical for growth, it requires far fewer resources to put mechanisms in place to retain current business than hunt down new customers.” (James L. HeskettThomas O. JonesGary W. LovemanW. Earl Sasser, 1997)

Organizations with effective leader-facilitators provide the best chance to achieve trust and self-organization. This new environment requires certain skills and behaviors. Here are five do’s and five 5 don’ts.

5 Don’ts and Do’s

Don’t motivate, do create a motivating environment

Stop trying to motivate people because it can often seem as manipulation and/or control. People want freedom to act.  Do clarify the mission (the purpose of the team).  Do clarify and communicate the vision (what you want to see).  Do clarify the strategy (how you want to get there).  Do clarify the values (how you want everyone to behave).  Then, turn people loose and watch them excel.

Don’t control, do promote trust

Don’t control behavior with ineffective performance management policies.  Do create an environment that naturally appreciates integrity, respect, and accomplishment of shared goals.

Don’t blame, do ask system questions.

Don’t blame individuals when mistakes are made.  Do ask system questions to use the mistakes to learn what works and what doesn’t.

Don’t micro-manage, do create autonomy

Don’t tell people what to do.  Do use coaching questions to help them decide for themselves new options for achieving goals.  Do provide system improvement tools to help them uncover those options on their own.

Don’t take credit, do give appreciation

Don’t take credit for improvements.  Do give credit to others.  Show appreciation for their efforts.  If you create the trusting and motivating environment, they have done it anyway.  It’s not you.  They could not have done it without you and you could not have done it without them.  It is a complex system of numerous interactions.  Say thank you!

Leader-facilitators are experts in creating a trusting and learning culture enabling everyone to contribute to improving employee engagement and customer experience. Leader-facilitators help teams make faster and higher quality decisions by deploying a set of useful do’s and don’ts.

Check out the interview on C-Suite Best Seller TV to learn more about how to stop leadership malpractice and replace the typical performance review: https://www.c-suitetv.com/video/best-seller-tv-wally-hauck-stop-the-leadership-malpractice/

Wally Hauck, PhD has a cure for the “deadly disease” known as the typical performance appraisal.  Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.   Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.  Wally has a passion for helping leaders let go of the old and embrace new thinking to improve leadership skills, employee engagement, and performance.

James L. Heskett, Thomas O. Jones, Gary W. Loveman, W. Earl Sasser, J. A. (1997). The Service Profit Chain. New York, NY: The Free Press a Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.

For more, read on: https://csuiteold.c-suitenetwork.com/advisors/advisor/wally-hauck/