As Gen-Xers come of age, we are moving into management and leadership positions in every industry. Most are determined to provide the kind of facilitative leadership we have craved from our own managers. Gen-X managers (like Gen-X "the managed") tend to side-step rules with no connection to mission, disdain authority for the sake of authority, focus on results, respect individual effort and reward individual excellence. Gen-X managers prefer to lead teams in which every player understands the goal and his/her connection to it, and everyone gets to be a star. This leadership style is in perfect sync with the new economy. It is also the only way to maximize the new "free agent" knowledge-workers who are in such demand these days.

I'll bet many of the more seasoned leaders out there are saying to themselves, "Easier said than done." Indeed, without sufficient training, facilitative managers can find exercising authority awkward: some will soft-pedal their authority to the point of being ineffective; others will soft-pedal their authority, but not really mean it, causing confusion; others will soft-pedal their authority until there's a problem and then over-react.

Let's face it, there are many people of all ages in organizations who are great at something, but not great at managing or leading, and nonetheless find themselves in supervisory roles. You owe it to these managers and those they manage to provide training in the essentials of facilitative management:
- Carve up big projects into bite-size chunks.
- Clarify individual roles, goals, and deadlines.
- Spell out parameters and guidelines up-front.
- Get people up to speed quickly.
- Provide adequate resources.
- Give FAST Feedback™ and coach people to success.
- Reward people based on their performance.