How to facilitate leadership
Leadership is a choice that we make, not a position that we take. It is about choosing to help others find and pursue a direction. This may be for a moment in time, or for the duration. And we make this choice as an individual: As a manager, a coach, mentor, friend, colleague or bystander. It is a choice that is open to anyone, all the time.
The role of meetings
Leadership is about relationships. Not just our own relationships, but the relationships between others also. And meetings (large, small and 1-1) are the means by which that leadership is delivered. Knowing how to facilitate within those meetings is key to effectively creating and sustaining those relationships. And to helping those relationships reach their potential.
A good meeting has the potential to inspire, challenge, motivate, confront, engage. … It can lead people to change, give them a sense of belonging, of identity, of value. And it can foster teamwork and help people to see themselves through the eyes of others.
Learning how to facilitate
We can learn the basics fairly quickly. And it can take a lifetime of learning to develop mastery of these things. Simple tools and techniques can provide us success over the basics. They can also provide a platform for beginning a journey that will transform your understanding of meetings, relationships, leadership, potential and how to facilitate these things. While they only scratch the surface of the insight and learning that has been developed, they provide a very practical first step.
The ToolChest has been a project to curate a small fraction of these ideas (there are many more, and they are developing all the time). We wanted to create a resource which people can use to begin their learning on how to facilitate. And to improve their meeting effectiveness beyond what has been described in this section.
Next steps on how to facilitate
If you want to continue your learning, the links below will take you into the main body of the site to access a wider range of resources which amplify and build on the learning and ideas from this quick start section (you can also access these through the site navigation menu in the top left hand corner)
Meeting ToolChest is a free resource for people to make practical and sustainable progress on each of these. It is a collection of proven ideas which people can adopt bit-by-bit. Step-by-step improving the effectiveness of their meetings (both physical and online) and improving the culture around them.
The longest journey begins with but a single step
Though there are masses of ideas and a wealth of resources on this site, you will only apply them one at a time. You don’t need to know it all. You just need to find one thing which will make a difference and make it your own. And then pick another thing …
And you do not need a title. Leadership arises whenever someone chooses to help others find and pursue a direction. Knowing these tools, and what they do, will better enable you to make that choice.
Start by clicking one of the options above, and then follow your nose. Keep what you choose to do manageable, and have fun doing it.
The reality is meetings are poor because we don’t really think enough about them. So each time you return to this resource is an improvement in its own right. Please follow us on Linkedin