Facilitative Leadership

I've been thinking a lot about the style of leadership that's needed with self-organizing teams, and how it's different from traditional top-down models. I think this captures the contrast:

	Hierarchical Leadership	Facilitative Leadership
Assumes	Top down authority	Many diverse perspectives
Knows	What to do	How to do -- methods, tools
Seeks	The "right" decisions	A decision the group will own
Relies on	Individual ability	Group ability

(I first came across this via the ICA.)

This is how the two styles play out on a team:

A hierarchical leader...

manages conflict

makes decisions

coordinates work and communication

establishes implicit norms for the group.

A facilitative leader...
supports the group to

manage their own conflicts, solve their own problems and make decisions

coordinate their own work and communication

define team values, ground rules and norms

Facilitative leaders help the group be more effective by improving the group's process and participation.