My experience in coaching started as Mozillian when I joined the FSA Program. My very first initiative to coach the existing Mozillians in the community and I have been recognized as FSA Of the Month to start this initiative, from here my journey started as coach and still going on. To be honest I have never read any books, saw any videos for public speaking training to improve my skills, one the reason may be because from my school only I was always up to speak with anybody and asking them a question whichever comes in my mind and that way I got a very good experience that what exactly people look for, what kind of word I can use while helping them or to answer their questions, ultimately that was the “Power Of Question”. One of the key quality in me is “Observation” which always helps me to identify the problems but I will not stop there, once I know the problem I will start towards solutions. Most pleasant experience I got when we build the Mozilla Gujarat community from the scratch and now the community recognised as a one of the biggest & strongest regional community in Indian subcontinent, I am proud to be part of the team who contributed equally to initiated the community and leading it from remotely and onsite from where it is today.
I am much related to 3 levels of listening levels because when I look back most of the noises, issues could be solved for instance by the practice of the exercise of the 3 levels to listening to that is internally, focused and globally.
E.g. When I was alone, instead of thinking that I was alone, I invested in self-development, what I would learn, and same I shared with people who joined us slowly. Whenever we went to any universities/summit for talks/sessions, I was more curious to listen to enthusiastic attendees, moreover, I always look forward to hearing their plans, feedbacks, suggestions and much more. I believe these things always helped us to bring more energetic contributors in the community. We always tried to be innovative and adaptive ad much as possible because one thing I learned that you can’t to talk with the same pitch with everyone, you should be sometimes funny, interactive by the way you can engage your audience. We always tried to get encourage younger generation by sharing our learning & experiences.
Generally, when we sat and discuss(online/offline) about the next idea, I would always ask them to draw a flowchart or stages of their action plan, their planning, follow-ups for the event. Then I review the complete plan and added/modified if something was needed from my side, also other take the input from the other people who part of the discussion as well. This way, we had a clear plan for the event and a proper team came out who going to lead this event. Once the event has been I will always follow up the team via email, message or sometime over call to ask them about feedback of event, how it went and ask them to write a small summary or blog of your experience with the event(It may be good/bad or sometimes may be learning/inspiring). I believe these kinds of follow-up/feedback with the team is very important because this way we can learn new things from their positives and appreciate their efforts and give them ideas how to overcome their negatives.
We already followed something similar to GROW model in our small meetups online/offline. After every event or meetups (Online/Offline) we develop the flowcharts or strategy or what should be done next. We have precise focused on the world called ”NEXT”
What’s NEXT? We always ask and discuss this questions with the team because we believe people always curious to know what next would be? And it’s good to keep them curious about your next plan.
Cheers,
Mehul Patel