Mentor a Member
Where to find advice and guidance.
Seeking help from knowledgeable and experienced people can help us achieve our goals and avoid making mistakes and wasting valuable time. Such knowledgeable and experienced people are called mentors.
What is a mentor?
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 and they expect the club to help them solve their problems and meet their goals. But these new members are not familiar with your club. They don’t know what a timer is or what an Ah-Counter does. Everything that happens in your club is new to them. 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.
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. Mentors can supply the valuable personal attention and ongoing support new members need.
A mentor program has many benefits for new members:
- Learn the program. Mentors help new members become familiar with the CC and CL manuals, 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!
Even the more experienced members in your club can benefit from having a mentor. Perhaps you’ve 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. Perhaps you admire 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. A mentor can provide helpful feedback to 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!
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. Helping others is 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!
When members experience the 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.
Adding this to your club’s advantages is easy! Conduct The Successful Club Series presentation titled Mentoring and teach your club what it takes to become a mentor.