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…
A facilitative leader…
supports the group to
Facilitative leaders help the group be more effective by improving the group’s process and participation.
