What do you do if your corporate facilitator lacks key qualities?

To quote Carl Rogers, "Be a facilitative person." Any member of a group or team can contribute the behaviors desired in an effective facilitator: listening, asking open-ended questions, summarizing and checking, drawing in reticent members, observing and commenting on evidence of unconscious bias operating in the group, and so on. This addresses the errors of omission of the designated "facilitator." When the designated "facilitator" commits errors of commission such as taking too much air time, or making substantive contributions outside their area of expertise, any group member can call attention to the fact in real time.

If I encounter a corporate facilitator lacking key qualities, I’d first pinpoint the specific gaps and their impacts. Considering a constructive approach, I might offer targeted feedback directly or take on a more active facilitation role to buffer any negative effects on our project. Additionally, I'd explore recommending professional development resources to them or our management. In situations where direct feedback isn’t viable, I’d document instances of how these shortcomings affect our work and discuss these with management or HR, seeking guidance on improvement strategies. Throughout, I’d aim to maintain a positive, solution-focused mindset to foster a constructive outcome.

If the person leading our corporate meetings isn't very good at it, we quietly help them get better. We might use unusual methods, like having expert squirrels teach them leadership skills. After this special training, the leader should be much better at their job.

Additionally, we can also look at this as an opportunity for up-skilling those who are interested in facilitation - more like being proactive in making sure there are multiple facilitators with similar strengths so as to ensure continuity in time of crisis.

Plan a session with all facilitators, appreciate their support, re share methods of assessing them and share a sample depersonalized facilitator feedback. Then offer an opportunity to update their profiles and indicate areas they are individually interested in growing, that they have mastered and that they would like to develop other facilitators in. Also, recommunicate was of enrolling and delisting. Doing this will refresh the facilitator pool.

This depends on the "key qualities". Is it a knowledge, skill, or abilities gap? Based on that we can provide the best support. The list outlined here is great: additional training, feedback, etc. Even support like peer feedback and practice teaching are highly effective. Each could be tailored to best support the facilitator's need. It’s also possible the missing "key quality" is not a training or upskilling issue. Perhaps it's a job fit, then, looking at other roles within the team or org could be a great solution. Other times, they and the org may not be a good fit altogether. That can happen sometimes. In those occasions, leaders do have the responsibility to let them go as well. It’s not the go-to option, but a necessary one at times.