How can you balance the roles of mentor and facilitator when working with a team?

Initial contracting is vital for any coaching/mentoring role, whether team facilitation or individually. Only through robust contracting can the group build trust, be clear on it's aims and purpose and stay on track.

This very much depends on what you are facilitating. I am am facilitating a group or team through a process, I won't be putting my mentor hat on. However, if I am facilitating a training program, and teaching content over a period of time, I will switch hats, clearly stating why, and provide mentoring where appropriate.

Having clear roles and expectations from the onset creates a clear framework for the session and empowers all participants. When people need clarification and clarity of their positions, they tend to feel anxious, often leading to poor decision-making and friction amongst team members.

The most important starting point is working on self by exploring personal motivations, source of emotional triggers and having clarity on personal definition of success. This helps any leader create a transformational approach that is assertive, empathetic and human centric.

Being clear on your availability to the team, leaders and other stakeholders. Many coaches like me offer a variety of opportunities for individuals to connect, so the medium needs to be mutual and have ease of use for everyone using.

I agree - they are two very different hats. The key is to have this conversation up front so you can clearly understand what the client is asking /needing from you. Coming to agreement on roles and expectations before you start will help you know the place where you can best serve them during your session.

Avoid the temptation to be the expert, even when you are. Remember what your contractual obligations to the team are, and apply curious questioning with a bit of challenge and kindness thrown in.

Firstly, know the difference! Secondly, work with your team to define what it is they want and need from you. Help them to understand what it will look like. Form a contract of being between you all so that everyone is clear. Thirdly, hold each other to account for that agreement keeping goals in mind!

The most critical takeaways for facilitation participants will be on the experience rather than the material presented. People will remember the new insights they created through reflection, the meaningful conversation they had with a colleague, or how they worked through a challenging situation. As a facilitator, there's a huge opportunity to support their experiences through open-ended questioning, staying curious, and maintaining an empathetic and compassionate presence.

Open-ended questioning is key. Sometimes it can be more appropriate to raise any 'mentoring' or advising issues in real-time during the session. Handled well, this can be an excellent learning opportunity for the entire team.

Another example of how to empower your team is to encourage them to write down 1-3 things they learned from their colleagues during the facilitation and 1-3 things they are proud of by the end of the session, and then share these insights with others.

As a facilitator, you're able to empower team members by: 1. Knowing that each member has the answers inside of them. 2. Listening intently and without a hidden agenda. 3. Providing a safe space through non-judgment and neutral observation. 4. Asking thought-provoking, powerful, open-ended questions. 5. Supporting them through their process with empathy and compassion. When members feel empowered, you foster a learning, collaboration, and innovation culture.

Coaching is a fantastic tool to build empowerment and leaders can foster this at a more fundamental level in organisations by upskilling team members in coaching skills, so they can begin to coach each other and build a coaching culture.

as a lifelong learner I look for opportunities to build and grow the expectations of team members, I find lack of confidence or over confidence can interfere with looking for better solutions to trusting the ones they have brought up for consideration. Until individuals see clear leadership development or career pathways for themselves you may need to continue to support. It is important to keno when to step out of mentoring as well - when your mentoring job is done.

To avoid micro management should be a main goal for al mentors and coaches. Not always is easy to suceed in such a important matter. A leader could use tools to empower the team as stablishment of clear goals and expectations throug leveling discussions, individual and colective. To reach there is essential to generate secure enviroments which allows the team to speak openly without fear.

People need to see openness *& vulnerability by leaders. A willing need to act on received feedback may need to be shown before team members are ready to give it.

Currently, feedback is a powerful tool that is still undervalued. A good leader should create the appropriate environment so that team members can ask their collaborators for feedback. Feedback must always be received with humility and with an open mind since only in this way it can provide an effective improvment.

Find a trusted group of professionals that stimulate and challenge you to grow more. They need not be similar top your profession, in fact diversity is a growth strategy of mine.

Supervision for coaches, mentors and facilitators is essential to avoid building your own echo chamber. That way, reflective practice is used to challenge and build awareness, knowledge and importantly, ethical practice.

Selfmotivation for improvement can be hard to find at some point of the way. Facilitating the tools and access for specific mentoring and courses can help the individuals to keep looking for learning. This is something that not only companies and coaches can work on, sometimes the own individual can try to find by himself that learning he needs outside their work enviroment, it shouldn′t be a tabú to do that.