My experience guiding others in Mozilla began since I was at the university, I helped to start with the community in my country (Nicaragua). I remember trying to help or guide others through the “Mozilla road” in different circunstances. There was ups and downs in the process and I think that with everything I learned in the training course i can improve several things.
In the past I had the bad practice of telling the answers and try to solve all the problem myself for the people who ask me for help. now I think it is very important to lead by example, show the way, and teach how to discover the best results for the apprentice to discover its own way.
The most important lesson that i learned is the difference between being a mentor and being a coach. A coach not only compares stated objectives with a list of accomplishments to be met, a coach is also someone who must help people to understand what are the consequences of their actions, guide them in the process but without giving the direct answer, this makes the coachee part of the learning process through their own experience.
As a Mozilla Reps I have had very good mentors, one of them Guillermo ( @Deimidis ) taught me a lot about how to guide a community, organize better activities, grow as people and as a Mozillian. My current mentor Monica ( @mpbonillap ) has also supported me a lot and constantly asks me about the progress I have made, the work in the community and i learned a lot about how to discover the answers for myself providing good feedback.
Something that both mentors have in common and that I had not noticed so far, is the ability to make me see the answers that I seek for the community without telling me exactly what to do.
Summarizing a coach in Mozilla works several aspects such as:
- Guide others through the example and discovery of the coachee.
- Listen: internally, to the coachee and the environment.
- Set goals and have clear objectives
- Demonstrate solutions with experiences or situations of reality
- Analyze the different options
- a coach use more ‘ask’ than ‘tell’
- Think creatively
- Ask constructive questions
- Provide feedback that can be positive, constructive or to solve a negative situation
- Document the process and the results to improve.
- And learn a lot in the process
Thanks for reading,
David