What Makes a Great Meeting Facilitator?

Mostly a lot of patience, continual learning, and confidence!

Like everything, there are lots of types of meeting facilitators (Scrum Master, Agile coach, etc.). The skills associated to each type varies and they type of facilitator you need will differ dependent on your meeting needs. Most meetings cannot run smoothly without a meeting facilitator. They are the ones who plan, organize, and execute the meeting so that the rest of the team can focus on important tasks and getting work accomplished.

With that in mind, these are ten skills that a meeting facilitator needs to have to be as successful as possible at their job.

1) A planning guru

The best meeting facilitator has an innate planning skills. Without it, they will be walking blindly into a meeting, which doesn’t help anyone involved. Running a meeting is not improv. Facilitators need to plan for who will be at the meeting, where it will be, the talking points they want to focus on, and what they want the outcomes to be. This can include things like sending out documents or notes ahead of time to everyone who will be in attendance.

Planning doesn’t have to be stressful either. There are so many digital transformation tools (like Stormboard!) that make it easier than ever to plan from anywhere at any time, using templates and guides to get you going.

2) Positive, Upbeat, and Respectful

Managers and team leaders can have the tendency to come across as intimidating, but that does little to make team members feel at ease during a meeting — especially those that are introverted or quiet to begin with. It’s best for meeting facilitators to help be confident and respectful, in order to remain in control and guide the discussion over the course of a meeting without making anyone in the room feel uncomfortable.

At the end of the day, a meeting facilitator needs to have control over what goes on in a meeting. You need to keep all participants on-task and make sure no one person is monopolizing the conversation.

Keep it positive! The meeting facilitator should be welcoming, open-minded, upbeat, and energetic to hold the attention and respect of everyone in the room. This will keep the energy of the meeting high and will encourage a collaborative environment.

3) Listen with intent

Positivity and organization go a long way, but one of the most important skills a meeting facilitator can have is the ability to listen. It’s integral to listen to every single person in the meeting and to know the signs when someone wants to speak up, but might be feeling unsure of themselves. If there is someone in the meeting who is dominating the conversation and talking over others, the meeting facilitator should know when to step in and guide the discussion in a more inclusive direction.

4) Time Tracker

Keeping track of the time during a meeting is important to everyone involved. Meeting attendees do not want to stay longer than they need to, especially if the meeting is running after work hours. On the other hand, if a meeting is too short, it might not have been long enough to get anything done. The meeting facilitator has to have a time in mind when planning the agenda, keep track of time as the meeting is occurring, and they need to know when to start wrapping things up so that the meeting ends on time.

5) Adaptability

Anyone who’s been part of a meeting knows that even when there is a plan, things can go wrong, or unexpected ideas can emerge. Anyone who takes on the role of meeting facilitator should have the ability to adapt to any new situation at a moment’s notice.

For example, maybe a team member brings up a completely new topic that wasn’t on the agenda, but everyone likes it and wants to discuss it further. The meeting facilitator needs to know how to integrate that new idea into the meeting as time permits, or they need to incorporate it into a future meeting by making a note about it and thanking the team member for their input.

6) Unbiased

Whether you are the facilitator or not, you may have a strong opinion about a topic and want it to be heard. Being excited about a topic or wanting to share your ideas is great, but meeting facilitators need to maintain neutrality during a meeting and keep their bias to themselves.

Having input here-and-there is fine, however, the conversation should be held by the people attending the meeting. The facilitator is the guide to getting results, so having bias may steer the team towards ideas they aren’t fully on board with.

7) Envision the end game

A great meeting facilitator knows what you want to get out of this meeting. That is the main goal a meeting facilitator should have in mind when going into any meeting. If there is no objective, then a meeting will have no focus.

Know what topics need to be discussed, and why these topics are being brought up at this particular meeting. Is there a roadblock that needs to be solved? If yes, that should be the focus of your meeting to make sure you get the desired outcome from the discussion that is about to occur.

8) Speak with confidence

Speaking publicly is a daunting thing for many people. For meeting facilitators, this should be a skill they are reasonably comfortable with — after all, they will be up in front of a group for an extended period of time. Outgoing, well-spoken team members make the best meeting facilitators.

Public speaking does get better with practice, so if a facilitator isn’t one hundred percent sure of themselves, they may be able to gain confidence by continually speaking in front of the group over time. Another great way to improve public speaking is having a co-facilitator to divide up the presentation duties and ease the nerves of being in front of a room of people.

9) Ask strategic questions

Facilitators who ask strategic questions move the discussion along. When new ideas get brought up, the facilitator will be able to ask a smart follow-up question that then leads to more ideas and further conversation.

If ideas and topics aren’t followed up with, this can lead to a standstill or a lull in the meeting. This is why having a meeting facilitator who is excellent at asking questions and keeping the momentum going will be successful.