Serving As a Coach in Team Building for First-year Member
1. My roles
The team building activity was the first time that I got to closely interact with first year members. As a coach, my duty was to facilitate the discussion as most of the first year members did not know each other yet. As a facilitator, my role is to help to bring outcomes by indirect assistance or guidance. I should not tell them the exact solution, but instead, I should listen actively and ask questions to help them. As a coach, my role in team building activity can be summarized as following:
2. Smiling
As most junior members still did not know each other on the team building day, one of my most important goal was to make them fell comfortable and welcomed and willing to make friends with each other. So I smiled to them because I believe smiling makes people feel warm and they will thus be willing to open to me. When I smiled to others, they smiled too and it created a harmonious atmosphere.
3. Listen actively
We learnt from the training that the most important thing for a facilitator is not knowledge of the subject, rather it is knowledge of people dynamics. So listen actively is really important and by this, I could encourage participation from everyone. For example, when some active people were having discussion about the plan for building the marshmallow towel, I also asked those comparatively quite people to express their opinions about others' suggestions or if they had a better idea. I think I did quite well in this, I observed the discussion and got everyone involved in it. When someone talked about his/her opinion, I showed them that I had listened actively by expressing empathy, asking further questions summarizing what they had said etc.
4. Asking questions
Asking smart questions is the best way to encourage participation. Sometimes due to some reasons like shy or not interested in the topic, people were quiet in a discussion. By asking direct questions, it stimulated them to think. Also, when they gave very general answers, I can encourage them to talk more by asking them to give an example or further information.
5. My learning outcomes
After the team building activities, I got to know many of the junior members and I believed that I gained trust from them. This trust and relationship built can give me opportunities for coaching them later. As the first time trying out the facilitation skills that I learnt, I felt that I have a lot to improve. In many situations, I did not know how much I should participate in the activities. Also, I felt that facilitation among a large group was still difficult to manage for me. For example, when two individual groups combined to do an activity, I found it hard to get everyone involved and only some people are actively joining the discussion with the rest even playing with their phones sometimes. But I am sure I can do better next time, as practice makes perfect. I am also looking forward for the next training with junior members to build a stronger relationship with them as well as helping them to build relationship among themselves.
The team building activity was the first time that I got to closely interact with first year members. As a coach, my duty was to facilitate the discussion as most of the first year members did not know each other yet. As a facilitator, my role is to help to bring outcomes by indirect assistance or guidance. I should not tell them the exact solution, but instead, I should listen actively and ask questions to help them. As a coach, my role in team building activity can be summarized as following:
- Make the physical set up fits the task at hand
- Break the ice
- Listen actively
- Ask questions
- Model professionalism
2. Smiling
As most junior members still did not know each other on the team building day, one of my most important goal was to make them fell comfortable and welcomed and willing to make friends with each other. So I smiled to them because I believe smiling makes people feel warm and they will thus be willing to open to me. When I smiled to others, they smiled too and it created a harmonious atmosphere.
3. Listen actively
We learnt from the training that the most important thing for a facilitator is not knowledge of the subject, rather it is knowledge of people dynamics. So listen actively is really important and by this, I could encourage participation from everyone. For example, when some active people were having discussion about the plan for building the marshmallow towel, I also asked those comparatively quite people to express their opinions about others' suggestions or if they had a better idea. I think I did quite well in this, I observed the discussion and got everyone involved in it. When someone talked about his/her opinion, I showed them that I had listened actively by expressing empathy, asking further questions summarizing what they had said etc.
4. Asking questions
Asking smart questions is the best way to encourage participation. Sometimes due to some reasons like shy or not interested in the topic, people were quiet in a discussion. By asking direct questions, it stimulated them to think. Also, when they gave very general answers, I can encourage them to talk more by asking them to give an example or further information.
5. My learning outcomes
After the team building activities, I got to know many of the junior members and I believed that I gained trust from them. This trust and relationship built can give me opportunities for coaching them later. As the first time trying out the facilitation skills that I learnt, I felt that I have a lot to improve. In many situations, I did not know how much I should participate in the activities. Also, I felt that facilitation among a large group was still difficult to manage for me. For example, when two individual groups combined to do an activity, I found it hard to get everyone involved and only some people are actively joining the discussion with the rest even playing with their phones sometimes. But I am sure I can do better next time, as practice makes perfect. I am also looking forward for the next training with junior members to build a stronger relationship with them as well as helping them to build relationship among themselves.