Meet Michael Wilkinson

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael Wilkinson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I believe each of us has been endowed by our Creator with a set of raw skills and an internal passion which would allow us to be highly successful as we discover the area where He created us to be of greatest benefit to this world. That area may be serving in a hospital, running a multi-billion dollar corporation, raising children, being a store owner, or what have you.

For me, our Creator blessed me with the ability to look at soft concepts, such as building trust, creating consensus, and inspiring action, and being able to break these activities down into smaller steps and repeatable processes so that just about anyone with the desire could use them and make a difference.

Applying this skill to the world of group facilitation has allowed me to be very successful. For example, how do you get 120 government and corporate leaders in two days to agree on a broad vision, key goals, specific measurable targets, and key initiatives that would make up the strategic plan for the country of Jamaica? Simple, there are just nine steps. Or, how do you get leaders of a national church conference to reach consensus on a sticky issue? That’s much easier when you know that there are only three reasons people disagree, and you have effective tools to address each.

Our company, whose world headquarters 30 years ago was my second bedroom, is today the largest provider of professional facilitators and facilitation training in the country. I think this is because we understand how to take soft concepts and produce the repeatable process that people can use every day to make a difference. We are indeed blessed by using what we have been given to help others do what they do even better.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our company, Leadership Strategies – The Facilitation Company, has emerged as the U.S. leader in professional facilitation and facilitation training. With over 600 facilitators under contract, we lead executive teams to help them through strategic planning, issue resolution, team building, after action reviews, focus groups, etc.

Along with doing facilitating, we also train people to do what we do. We have trained over 35,000 through our four-day master course, The Effective Facilitator, which teaches leaders and managers how to get amazing results through guiding groups.

Since our start in 1992, we have provided facilitators for sessions throughout the U.S. and in over 25 international locations around the globe, including Beijing, Geneva, Hamburg, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Milan, Moscow, Riyadh, Stockholm, Sydney, Vienna, and Warsaw.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live with my wife in Midtown, the heart of Atlanta. It’s amazing to be able to walk most places and to be surrounded by 25+ excellent restaurants. So visiting for a week, eh?

Let’s be sure to visit an eclectic collection of places: CNN Center, the Human Rights Museum, the Aquarium, the College Football Hall of Fame.

Let’s eat at some of my favorite in-town eateries: Barcelona, Saint’s and Council, Marcel’s, the Consulate, and Rumi’s.

And let’s have a little entertainment and night life at The Painted Duck, The Third Place, Jo Jo’s, and Damsel.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I was a member of Vistage, the premier CEO roundtable group, for about 12 years. The chair of my group, Larry Hart, was instrumental in working with me and others in our group to navigate through those early growth years. In fact, on my ten year anniversary in the group, I wrote an article for the organization, “10 Years – 10 Lessons: The 10 Greatest Lessons in My First 10 Years with Vistage.” Those lessons, when totaled collectively, came to over $5 million in value gained from the association. I am very thankful for those lessons!

Website: www.MichaeltheFacilitator.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-wilkinson-06609411

Youtube: @mwilkfacilitator