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The Global Flipchart is IAF's quarterly magazine about the power of facilitation – made by members, for members. Contact the editorial team by email: globalflipchart@iaf-world.org

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September 2016
| Issue #5

Want to lead facilitatively? Think like a host!

By Mark McKergow PhD MBA

Facilitation and leadership can seem like very different and even opposite endeavours.  The leader, so common wisdom supposes, is supposed to stand up strongly, have an inspiring vision and rally the people to follow them.  A facilitator, at least by the IAF’s excellent definition, is there to ensure that collaborative relationships are built, useful processes are in place within a participatory environment, and so on.  These look like very different roles – the leader stands apart while the facilitator tries to stand with everyone else.  The leader sets the agenda, while the facilitator supports people in finding and then focusing on what’s important. 

I have good news.  The old ‘heroic’ model of leadership described above is on the wane.  More and more people are realising that in the fast-moving modern world it’s impossible for leaders to have all the answers, let alone be able respond to changing situations and to communicate the next steps.  The leader-as-hero model developed in military situations centuries ago (Fig 1), where only one person had all the information and was therefore best equipped to make sense of it all (even though this model still appears the norm on TV shows like The Apprentice!).   Nowadays everyone is connected, everyone is communicating all the time, and information is shared in ways which were science fiction only a couple of decades ago. 

So what, then, is the leader’s role in this new environment?  One answer is in shifting our image of the leader from hero to host (Fig 2).  A host, by the dictionary definition, is someone who receives or entertains guests.  We have all been hosts – invited people to dinner, thrown parties, organised celebrations, maybe even opened our house to strangers in some crisis situation.  We have certainly all been guests.  This is a familiar metaphor – it seems odd that it might shine a light on new ways to lead.

Let’s look more closely at what hosts do.  When you have a party, you think carefully about what kind of event you want to have.  Who will be good guests? Who will mix together well?  Will there be a theme?  Where will the party be held, and how will that space support (rather than hinder) the interactions you seek? How can we invite the guests so that they will come with a good heart, and work together with good grace?  How can we welcome people, create new connections, and keep things moving constructively?

In all this preparation, the host leader is not imposing their desired outcome – they are setting the conditions for a successful gathering, one which will allow the wisdom of this particular group to emerge.  While host leaders will not be inviting the others to rubber-stamp their views, they may well have ideas and directions in mind about what to do and how to proceed – and be willing to engage, modify and even junk those ideas when better ones come along.  The leadership focus moves from defining outcome to supporting the process of engagement and moving forward together.

I think that ‘host leadership’ is an excellent fit, both for those who want to lead facilitatively and to facilitate leadership in others.  The role of host combines accountability with flexibility, a desire to lead with a desire to serve, and a willingness to embrace uncertainty along with a sure-fire knowledge of the importance of planning and preparation.  Try starting to put it into practice by imagining a leadership challenge you are facing and answering these three simple questions:

  1. Who are your ‘guests’? (The other people involved)
  2. What are you hoping they will be doing in the next few days?
  3. Think like a host – how can you support them to do that, with resources, connections, support and engagement?

Dr Mark McKergow is an international facilitator, speaker and leadership development consultant, widely known for his work on solution-focused coaching and faciltation.  He is co-author of Host: Six new rules roles of engagement for teams, organisations, communities and movements (Solutions Books, 2014).  Find out more at http://hostleadership.com.