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What is Facilitative Leadership?

February 19, 2008

"Facilitative leadership is a skilled approach to leading that's based on the core beliefs and practices of group facilitation. It makes extensive use of process tools in order to provide structure and casts the leader in the role of helper and enabler.

Facilitative Leaders share the core beliefs of facilitation:

• People are intelligent and capable, and they want to do the right thing.
• Everyone's opinion has value, regardless of an individual's rank or position.
• Groups can make better decisions than individuals acting alone.
• People are more committed to the ideas and plans that they create.
• People will take responsibility and assume accountability for their actions and can become partners in the enterprise.
• The role of the leader is to evoke the best possible performance from each member of their team.

The ultimate goal of the facilitative leader is to develop the leadership talents of others by instilling confidence, authority, and responsibility in each person (Bens, 2006, p. 8-9)."

Reference: Bens, I. (2006). Facilitating to lead: leadership strategies for a networked world. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Created: 2008-02-26, Updated: 2009-01-08