When did you have the first feeling that you successfully conducted a team? For me, it was 10 years ago. It was a break-out group charged with planning out a complex scenario. There were about 30 experts in the room. I was the youngest by far, and I was intimidated. As the discussion started, things seemed on track. But very quickly, as engineers are want to do, they were diving down detailed paths and bickering over minutiae. It was painful because we weren't really meeting the intent. After 30 minutes of this, I had to speak up. I informed the group that we were well off track and that we needed to revisit our purpose there. After some stunned silence, the "team leader" agreed and brought the group back on track. While that moment may seem small to some, it was momentous to me. I experienced the directive clout that a facilitator brought to a room... Even a room of 20 to 30 year veterans! I've observed that good facilitative leaders: ✅ Sense the room ✅ Speak with conviction ✅ Hold people accountable When was your first facilitative moment?

I was leading an improvement event with a team of 2nd and 3rd level supervisors, customer representatives, and other experts. As a group, they were making decisions which impacted millions of dollars of assets and expenditures, and dozens of employees. Yet, in that room, for 5 days, they deferred to my leadership. - They did what I said - They answered my questions - Yet, I was the least vocal in the room - Yet, I only asked questions, reframed, or summarized I realized after the fact: - Even leaders beg to be facilitated - Facilitators are naturally viewed as leaders - Facilitation can be extremely simple and easy What's the point? 💎 If you'll adopt just a couple simple tools and principles, you'll have a skill set even senior leaders respect and are influenced by! Let's go! 💪