Leader as a Facilitator

I want to share one successful story of a school head of Uttarakhand. When he was appointed in the school he had no infrastructural facilities, had no resources, the condition of the school was very bad, He did not get any support from the school management. Then he gave his contribution at his own expenses in improving the condition of the school. His family members also joined him in this work. His wife prepared mid day meal for the students. He spent all his income and monthly pension for the improvement of the school. Then he started taking help from the community and now the school has all the required facilities and the condition of the school is very good. By investing his own resources in the pursuit of his vision of quality education for every child in the community, he has won the trust and support of his staff and parent community. By seeking out the primary cause of drop-outs and creating hostels to solve the problem, he has demonstrated concern for his students and has shown the way for finding creative and innovative solutions. This is a live example of a facilitative leader.

What are the qualities which makes a leader a facilitator?

In the module Leadership Effectiveness, Education Leadership Programme Courses by Center for Education Management and Development, (pp-1) the author defines the qualities of a facilitative leader that he is a visionary and is focuses on specific goals and objectives. Driven by values, he is humanitarian and has a balanced and serene temperament. He is centered and conscientious, a lifelong learner, a proactive, rational, liberal thinker, with vast experience, the leader is innovative, creative, empowering, impartial, supportive, flexible, open minded and transparent, with a polite bearing. He is able to accept criticism, act as counselor, deep thinker, problem solver, is able to accept his shortcomings and believes in others’ abilities and competence and has concern towards increasing others’ competence and welfare. “The facilitator is a person who helps a group free itself from internal obstacles and difficulties so that it may more efficiently pursue its goals.” (Thomas  Keyser, pp-26).

But I think somehow this model is too theoretical because it is not possible for an individual to have all these qualities. He may be efficient in one field and another one may be efficient in another field. So we should make this more practical so that it can be implemented in real life situations so that it can be helpful in making the process of education more effective.

Here I would like to conclude that the facilitative leaders might be the first to innovate, but the last to produce real-world results. But leaders cannot do this work individually. They need support from all the members of the school, students, community participation. All of them should work together in a collaborative manner with team spirit. Only then the institution can achieve its goal successfully. Thus a facilitative leader channelizes the energies and skills of his team to achieve the set targets.

Reference:

· Leadership Effectiveness, Education Leadership Programme Courses by Centre for Education Management and Development

·       www.doh.state.fl.us/family/mch/training/leadership/leadership.ppt