User:Balloonman/Coaching Philosophy

When I coach somebody, I want to help them grow as a Wikipedian, thus I ask them to do four things:

1) To follow the old addage, do the job you want, not the job you have. If you want to be an admin, act like an admin. This is perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle when going for RfA. Many people call it Cluefulness or even being humane, but I go a step further. If you already act as an admin, then giving you the keys becomes no big deal. Also, by acting as an admin you show you can be trusted, that you do have a clue, and that you have all the credentials to be an admin.

2) Build the encyclopedia. Wikipedia is here because it is an encyclopedia. Many people want you to help build it before they will support you for adminship. The most common (and expected) way is to write articles or to add content to the articles. But these are not the only way. You can help build it by adding photos, providing links, providing copy-edit assistance, participating at Good Ariticle, Featured Article, and/or Peer Review type activities.

3) Establish footprints in adminly areas. It doesn't matter where you participate, but participate in some behind the scenes areas. Some of the more common one's are ANI, Help Desk, and XfD's. These are not the only places to work though. Any place that discusses policies, procedures, guidelines, etc that you enjoy working in participate in the discussion surrounding that area. I want you to find places that you might make an ongoing contribution after the coaching is through. I also don't believe is the Drive By coach... Eg, "Go make a contribution here" or "Go make 20 contributions here." I want coachees to establish strong footprints in one or two areas. The reason for this is because by making those footprints, you are there long enough to develop a reputation and to get feedback from others. *I* as your coach shouldn't be the only one providing feedback.

4) The standard coaching questions. The questions are helpful, but they are actually the least important aspect of coaching. I ask them to help others evaluate you in the future and so that we can discuss them. You may not agree with everything I say, and I encourage discussion. I also try not to give you the answers---which is why I don't provide links in my coaching. If you are going to be an admin, then you need to know how to find policies and procedures and other places on wikipedia.