Facilitating team leadership development is paramount to enable your management to handle challenges that come with leading a diverse team. And while you can recognize a good leader when you see one, it’s important to develop those leadership traits where you can. Consider these five essential attributes when facilitating leadership development.
- Unbiased perspective: It would be uncomfortable for a manager to steer a meeting towards a preplanned conclusion. The team may end up feeling uncomfortable and sometimes even threatened if the leader drives the discussion the only way they see fit. For instance, when handling inter-employee issues, the facilitating leader should be non-partial and listen to both parties before making any judgment. Leaders trained and armed with a relational transformative skillset have the ability to do this with ease. The relational transformative skillset allows all the opposing parties to make their case without feeling threatened or feel that they treated unfairly. In meetings, good team leaders make their team members feel comfortable to contribute because their opinions are welcome, encouraged, and valued.
- Intuitive thinking: An intuitive thinker is someone who has knowledge of self and other, looks at the whole picture, and uses the full potential of their entire brain when making evaluations and decisions. A workplace conflict, for example, is likely to bring forth a lot of emotions. An intuitive thinker, instead of taking sides or triangling, may look at the conflict and how it affects the company at large. This does not mean that everyone will walk away smiling, but it means that the company, and what is right for its employees will be put first.
- Tactful action: There will be instances when a leader will be expected to do and say something awkward for the good of the group. This requires tact and a relational mindset. For instance, one person may take over a meeting and give others no chance to contribute. When you’re looking for opportunities to facilitate team leadership development, look for someone who can diffuse these awkward moments while maintaining a productive environment and getting the best out of the session. A leader with a relational mindset will look for opportunities to empower members of the team and give them a chance to participate in the discussion. When trying to facilitate team leadership, create a space for quality dialogue. It allows the ideas to flow and your team to shine.
- Inspires action: A leader’s role is more than just settling employee disputes and keeping the company running. To effectively do this, potential leaders need to have the ability to paint a vision of the future that inspires the team to push forward. Taking time to reach out to other employees and discuss strategies to reach a bright future is essential in a leadership position.
Not all leaders are born, but by attending enneagram training and facilitating team leadership development, anyone can be transformed into an excellent leader. In fact, almost 95% of people who have gone through this type of training say that they navigate workplace conflicts more positively and are now prone to seeking mutually beneficial outcomes.