Become a Mentor and Help Your Fellow Toastmasters Grow!

Why be a mentor?

Becoming a mentor makes you see things from a different perspective. You'll also be able to grow your own leadership skills and strengthen your progress toward your own goals as you help another person strive toward theirs. Check out this article from Art of Mentoring.

Who can be a mentor?

Everyone! We believe that we can learn something from every person we meet and every situation we come across. Even if you are new to the club, you have a unique perspective that you can share. As a mentor, you're not expected to be better than the person you are mentoring. Your job is simply to help that person see things that they themselves aren't able to. We often get tunnel vision in regards to ourselves and miss little details. Think of a mentor like the coach of a football team. Do you think the coach can go play every position better than each of the players? No way! But what the coach can do is observe and provide a different perspective to help each player grow and improve.

What is involved in being a mentor?

At each meeting, we have evaluators that provide feedback for individual speeches. Evaluators are one of the most valuable aspects of speaking in a Toastmasters club. What do you do with that feedback after you've spoken? How does it relate to your larger goals? This is where a mentor comes in. As a mentor, you observe your protégé long-term over multiple speeches and help them incorporate the feedback they receive. Perhaps your protégé has a long-term goal of using gestures more effectively, so over multiple speeches you pay attention to their gestures and give tips to nudge them toward their goal.

What is the time commitment?

This is decided between you and your protégé. Generally, we recommend doing an initial meeting together to talk about long-term goals (15 to 20 minutes). Then after every meeting where your protégé worked on one of their goals, connect with them for a few minutes to discuss how it went and any feedback they received. Periodically (every couple of months or so) check in with your protégé in a goal review meeting (15 to 20 minutes) to check their progress, see if their goals have changed, or to set new goals in place of any they have completed. When your protégé completes a goal, please let the VP of Education know so that we can celebrate in our next meeting! A mentorship typically runs for about 6 months. At that time you can discuss with your protégé if they would like to get a different perspective by changing mentors, or if they would like to keep you as their mentor.

How do I become a mentor?

Just let the club's VP of Education know that you are interested and they will get you set up with a protégé. There is a Pathways Mentor Program lesson in your Toastmasters Base Camp. It takes around 20 to 30 minutes to go through and prepares you to be a Toastmasters Mentor. We highly recommend completing this course.

I'm still on the fence...

Here are some articles that may help you make your decision:

• Mentoring Matters

• Five Tips for Mentors

• Leadership: The Ultimate Mentor

If you have any other questions, please reach out to the club officers.