MENTORING
Today, I will be talking briefly about the Mentoring Program at Toastmasters. Mentoring has many benefits for our club and our members, both experienced and new. If anyone has any questions or concerns, please feel free to bring them up while we talk.
To start off, how many members know their mentors? If you are a new member and you don’t know your mentor, take some time to meet one another, either before or after club meetings. You can even make it a lunch or coffee, but I’m not paying for it.
WHAT IS A MENTOR?
A mentor is a more experienced member who takes a personal interest in and helps another member, who may be a new member or existing member (mentee). Mentors serve as role models and coaches, offering their experience, insight, perspective or wisdom that is useful to the mentee. A mentor can help a new member become familiar with our club or can assist a more experienced member in learning special skills. Mentoring enables the mentee to learn and advance more quickly.
Mentors are found every where. At your job, was there someone who helped you in your career or spoke with you, offering advice and guidance? In your family or neighborhood, did someone show you how things worked and how to get things done? How about in school? Was there a teacher who took a special interest in you and who had an especially positive influence on your life? Such people were mentors. We have all had mentors or have been mentors at some time.
[Insert Club Name] MENTOR ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM
Remember that new members are not familiar with our club and the Toastmasters system as a whole. They don’t know, for example, what a Toastmaster is or what an “ah” counter does. Everything that happens in our club is new to them. They don’t even know most of us. In unfamiliar situations, people need support, personal contact and reassurance. That is why at [insert club name], we assign every new member a mentor to explain the program to them and show them how to prepare for various meeting roles. The mentor also helps the new member to prepare for their first three speeches.
[The following sentences can be modified based on club procedures--The new member also has the option of choosing someone to be their mentor, in collaboration with the VP Education [or VP membership depending on the club]. The new member basically tells me who they would prefer and I go to work to facilitate it. ]
RESPONSIBILITIES OF A MENTOR
1. Explain the various parts of the Toastmasters meeting to the new member (mentee)– such as table topics, project speeches, evaluations, and answer any questions the mentee may have
2. Make the mentee aware of club customs and procedures
3. Explain how to sign up for meeting roles and encourage them to do so. Also explain the different roles like toastmaster and the general evaluator team (grammarian, “ah” counter, timer, evaluator).
4. Discuss roles of club officers and the information they can provide.
5. Help with the icebreaker and other speeches – help the mentee overcome fears, and get off to a good start. Offer suggestions for speech organization if necessary. Also listen to the mentee practice the speech and offer feedback.
6. Provide positive feedback
7. Explain the member responsibilities to the mentee. Which is essentially a commitment to helping the club and its members be successful.
BENEFITS TO MENTORS AND THE CLUB
Those who serve as mentors also reap a number of rewards. Mentors get to remain productive and fresh (like the fruits and vegetables at a Whole Foods Store) by making use of their skills and knowledge. They learn new perspectives from their mentees and get the satisfaction of helping someone achieve their goals.
On the other hand, the club with a good mentoring program has more satisfied members, thereby reducing turnover and retaining more members.
QUALITIES OF A MENTOR
When working with your mentee, remember that your function is to help the mentee learn to think and act successfully and independently. Don’t tell the mentee what to do or do the mentee’s work yourself. Simply guide and offer feedback. For the mentor/mentee relationship to be successful, the mentor must be:
· available – there must be regular communication between the mentor and mentee
· patient
· sensitive – be tactful and diplomatic. Try to motivate and not frustrate
· respectful
· flexible – everything doesn’t have to go your way
· confident and friendly
· a good listener
The purpose of a mentor is to teach the mentee to think and act independently and successfully. Once mentees have developed to the point where they are functioning effectively on their own, the mentor’s services are no longer needed. The mentor can find new members to help and mentees have the skills and knowledge to become mentors themselves. It should be noted, however, that even experienced members have mentors too. It is usually geared towards what the member wants to learn. He or she may want to develop certain leadership skills or learn to use humor in speaking. He/she then works with someone who is well versed in that area to develop those skills.
Please feel free to follow up with me after the meeting if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you.
Source: Toastmasters International Mentoring guide.
Updated 7/7/2016 by Angela Lee for D46 TLI Page 1 of 3