Club Mentoring
Where to find advice and guidance.
No one is born with all the answers. It’s often difficult to know the correct response to situations that confront us every day at work and at home. Seeking help from knowledgeable and experienced people can help us achieve our goals faster and avoid making mistakes and wasting valuable time.
Such knowledgeable and experienced people are called mentors. They can be found everywhere. Think about your work. Was there someone who helped you get started in your career, offering advice and guidance, showing you how things worked and how to get things done? How about your education? Was there a teacher who took a special interest in you and had positively influenced your life? All of us could probably name at least two people who profoundly affected our lives for the better.
What is a mentor?
These people were mentors. A mentor takes a personal interest in and helps an inexperienced person. The mentor serves as a role model, coach and confidante, offering knowledge, insight, perspective or wisdom useful to the person being mentored. Membership in Toastmasters offers many opportunities, but none so rich and rewarding as the chance to work with a mentor.
Most new members join because they have problems and/or needs that relate to speaking. They believe that improving their speaking skills may help them advance in their careers or offer them greater personal satisfaction. They expect the club to help them solve their problems and meet their goals.
But remember that these new members are not familiar with your club. They don’t know, for example, what a timer is, or what an Ah-Counter does. Everything that happens in your club is new to them. They do not even know most of the club’s members. Yet these new members are expected to participate fully and prepare and present speeches – something many are terrified to do. Moreover, many clubs expect them to do all of this with a minimum of instruction and guidance.
Anyone will have difficulty succeeding in this type of environment. In unfamiliar situations people need support, personal contact and reassurance. Your new members need someone to explain the program to them and show them how to prepare for various meeting roles. They also need help preparing and rehearsing their first few speeches. Your vice presidents of membership and education play important roles by explaining the benefits provided by the club, persuading members to join, and then briefly reviewing meeting roles and responsibilities. But neither can supply the individual, ongoing support new members need. Mentors make available this valuable personal attention.
A mentor program has many benefits for new members:
- Learn the program. Mentors help new members become familiar with the basic manual, club meeting roles, and opportunities available through membership.
- Learn club standards and customs. Mentors help new members learn about the club and its activities.
- Develop confidence. Armed with the knowledge mentors provide, new members’ self-confidence increases.
- Participate more. Mentors help new members become familiar with and enjoy the club and its members. As a result, new members become more involved in club activities.
- Quickly learn speaking skills. Mentors familiarize new members with the resources available to them and coach them with their speeches, enabling the new members to advance faster.
Help for your club’s experienced members, too!
Mentors aren’t just for new members. Some of the more experienced members in your club can benefit from having a mentor too. Perhaps you’ve been a member for several years and even have received the Competent Communicator award. Yet you still want to learn more about some particular aspect of speaking – such as speech organization or humor. If another club member excels in your area of interest, this person could be your mentor and help you to further develop that special skill. Or perhaps you have admired an officer’s ability to motivate and inspire members. Maybe the officer would be willing to help you learn these leadership skills.
With a mentor’s guidance, more experienced members:
- Further refine skills. Sometimes an experienced member’s skills can become a bit rusty. That’s when a mentor can provide some helpful feedback that will encourage the member to build upon and perhaps revitalize the skills they already possess.
- Learn new skills. Existing members can always learn new skills.
Mentors enjoy many rewards too!
The benefits of mentorship aren’t limited to those who receive mentoring. There’s a lot of good that can come out of the experience for those who offer the benefit of their expertise:
- Learn from those they work with. New members often offer new information and perspectives.
- Remain productive. Mentors continue to make use of their own knowledge and skills.
- Do something for others. Much can be said for the pleasure we receive from helping someone else. To do so is not only a confirmation of our own skills, but we also feel good about ourselves when we help someone achieve their goals.
- Receive recognition. Mentors are respected and appreciated by fellow members.
The club as a whole benefits too!
When some of the club members experience a positive effect of an activity, everyone in the club benefits:
- Have more members. Turnover is reduced because members quickly become involved in the club and develop friendships.
- Have more satisfied members. Members continue to learn and grow and enjoy the club experience.
- Retain more members. When members are satisfied, they stay in their clubs longer.
So how do you add this to your club’s advantages? It’s easy! Take a look at the presentation titled, Mentoring, which is part of The Successful Club Series. You can have an experienced member perform this scripted presentation to your club. If they want to know more about what it takes to become a mentor – that and other questions are answered in the presentation.