Namaste!
I started contributing to Mozilla in 2014 as a SuMo volunteer. I started learning new things about Firefox and that was when I started teaching the things I learnt to my friends and colleagues. I almost tried most of the contribution areas just to understand how Open Source works and what all things does Mozilla offer for its volunteers to learn, contribute and grow. In this entire process, I struggled to adopt to new challenges and then felt that there could be others who might face the same notions. I then turned to coaching and started helping all the enthusiastic volunteers in my local community.
In my journey so far, I have seen people contributing to Open Source to grow themselves and help grow others. It is kind of a give and take relationship. Every contributor sets up a short time goal where he/she looks to achieve something which can help him/her on a longer term. This is the time when he/she starts looking out for someone who could act as a coach and help him/her with the next steps. So far, I was able to help such contributors to achieve what they plan and its an amazing journey so far.
The communication between the coach and the coachee is always an important part. The three levels of listening (Internal listening, Focused listening and Global listening) and the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Wrap up ) plays a key role between the coach and the coachee and it is this which heps to set a path for the coachee to make a choice with the coach’s help.
Kind regards,
Prathamesh