Ribbon-Winning Speech on Why You Need A Mentor

Photo of President Sushil of Harrovians presenting ribbons to speaker, evaluator and topics speaker, Angela Lansbury.

On Monday January 29th at Harrovian Speakers' Club in Edgware, Middlesex, UK, I won three ribbons, for table best table topics, best evaluator, and best speaker.

Here's my speech on mentoring:

Why You Need A Mentor
I'm your mentoring organizer. Hands up if you are a mentor. Hands up if you are a mentee. Hands up if you are neither. I'm  mentoring organizer. it should be easy. In theory I could toss a dice in the air and match you all up randomly. Or I could run along pairing you up. Numbers one and two in the line mentor each other. Two and three. And so on. Job done.

It's not as easy as that. I belong to two clubs in London and one in Singapore and I've been to more than 50 clubs in Singapore, when I'm there I visit a club every night. They all have problems matching people up and getting them to meet each other. Can anybody guess or suggest why?

No commitment
Audience member Indra replied: People don't want to commit?

Yes!

Today, at the start of this meeting, I said to Kamlesh, "I'm your mentor," - which we had agreed the previous meeting.
But he said, "Well, um, I don't really need a mentor. I haven't got my manual yet. And I haven't prepared a speech."

So we have mentees who don't want to be mentored. If you assign a mentor, they all say, "No. I want to be mentored by the President." So I phone up the president, Sushil.

Too Busy
He says, "But I already have five mentees. Besides, I'm busy running the club. And I have a job to do. And next week I'm off travelling on business to America."

It's like arranging marriages, being a marriage counsellor, and arranging divorces! I've got six singletons and a man with four wives.

Being a mentor also has its problems. I was a mentee to somebody. He didn't have a speech title. He couldn't think of a topic. He didn't have anything to say. After I spent half an hour talking him through a speech, correcting a speech, he decided to change topic. Then not to give a speech. Then to leave the club.

However, it can be very rewarding.
I had a mentee at Harrovians' sister club, the current club president (Martin Doe). His speech was scheduled and by the time he had time to do it, I was off to Singapore. I said, email it to me. He emailed it, it arrived when I reached Singapore.  I corrected. He emailed, I like your suggestions. Now I want you to see me perform it."
I replied, "I'm in Singapore. Send me a video."
"How do I do that? I don't have a video camera."
"Use your phone. Phones take videos. A selfie video."

He sent it.
But it wouldn't go through. Too big.
So we tried drop box. I had to get a password and sign up.
He had to get a password and sign up.

It wouldn't send. He was on on Microsoft word. I was on a Macbook. My husband helped. His wife helped. We must have spent a day.

Eventually, I got a video full of breaks, like a 1910 film. However, by reading the script I'd been sent, I could work out the words matching his actions, and could suggest gestures to match, change of speed and so on.
Finally, he gave his speech and won a ribbon!
I was very proud of him. Even more proud of myself.
I thought it was my help which made all the difference.
He very politely agreed.

I needed to mentor somebody for their first three speeches to complete task number 8? in the Competent leader manual.

In Singapore I went to a different club every night trying to find a mentee. The President of Club A said he'd find a mentor. Nothing happened.

I went to a college Club. I found a menteee, mentored three speeches. Job done.

Back in London, PING! I get an email. 'I am Myanmar in Singapore. My president say you want to mentor me. Here my first my speech."

I don't have time. She has three mistakes in the first three sentences - and that's just the covering note!  So I tell her to run the speech through Grammarly.
Over coffee I suggest putting it in time order.
Later that day she comes back.
PING. She has run it through Grammarly. She urgently wants it checked for her speech tonight.
I read it and suggest she ends with a call to action, tell the members they can ask her about her job in the interval and they ever need advice on (statistics) they should come to her because she's the expert.

Next day I get another email. PING. Her speech was a great success. People particularly liked the ending.
I am so happy for her. I am so proud of her. And myself.

Mentors Helped
So mentees are helping mentors as well as being helped. You can also do mutual mentoring. My first mentor was Indra, who encouraged me to use props.

How Mentoring Helps Members And Clubs
Despite the problems, the marriage of mentors to mentees works. Mentoring helps the club provide a professional and friendly atmosphere with teamwork.
That's why you need a mentor, or to be a mentor. It's rewarding for everybody.
So, as soon as you join the club, contact the committee for a mentor. Harrovians' President Sushil meets new members and finds out their goals and needs and matches them to a suitable mentor. I keep a list and forward it to committee members Amparo and Sarda.

Are you going to sign up to be a mentor or mentee? Please applaud and shout Yes! Yes! Yes!

Angela Lansbury
Member of Harrovian Speaker, UK. Mentoring co-ordination.
Member of HOD Speakers. Secretary.
Member of Braddell Heights Advanced Speakers' Club, Singapore. VPPR.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Harrovian Speakers Club At St Lawrence's Church Hall

Pictures of Plaque and St Lawrence's Church from Wikipedia. On Monday December 5th 2016 Harrovian Speakers moved to the new address at St Lawrence's Church Hall. The meeting was opened by President Jayanthiny who told us how she and Amparo had met to discuss a speech in the church hall and Jayanthiny thought it would be a great venue for Harrovians meetings. No other noisy groups use the halls on Monday evenings, so nobody will be making a noise or wandering in by mistake nor on purpose. The hall is free on Monday, our traditional evening. The hall has a kitchen. Regarding hall size, we have a choice of both a cosy smaller room and a larger room for contests and important occasions - such as this opening meeting.

Amparo was timer. The theme of the meeting was Hope. Grammarian Meena gave us the word of the day Glory. Theme And Topics Toastmaster of the evening was Jesus and the theme for the meeting was hope. I was asked on arrival to be topics master. I wrote out four sayings connected with hope: It is better to travel in hope than to arrive. Thulasi spoke about the joys of yoga. In retrospect I feel these topics were too general and abstract. Speakers would have found it easier if I had focused on stages in life, for example, tell us about a time in your childhood when you were hopeful about trying a new activity such as riding a bicycle, swimming or cooking. I forgot what I had done the previous time I was table topics master. I had told the volunteers that if they could not answer a question, they should ask the audience questions. We had several guests. Prepared Speeches We had four speakers. Seema gave a roast speech on Warren Sheng. Jayanthiny gave an Entertaining speech, impressing me by saying that English is her third language. She started a debating society at university and made herself President. She told us how she had dealt with arriving at another club to give a general evaluator summary evaluation, where two people had been given that position. She had persuaded the other speaker to share the role with her. She wanted us to eat healthy fruit in the interval but was making an exception for this meeting allowing cakes as it was a celebration of meeting in the new venue. Sushil spoke on You Can Do It. Paul gave an icebreaker speech about how he grew up in Northern Ireland, and showed us a picture of the beautiful area, the Mountains of Morne, which inspired stories of Narnia, and were later filmed in the TV series Game of Thrones. He later travelled to New Zealand, where the landscape resembled Ireland, green with many sheep.

Our last speaker was the Rector of St Lawrence's Church. He told us the history of the church, which is a grade one listed building. He disputes the claim that the church at Harrow-on-the-Hill is the most famous church locally. he described how the Duke who built the church was a wealthy man. He had made money from being paymaster of the army, built the church and brought in composer Handel. The rector invited us to come along to the church which offers free guided tours every Sunday from 2 until 4 in winter, until 5 in summer. He asked if we had any questions. Jesus asked him what he could say about hope. He told us that if you give money or food, you are only offering a temporary solution to people's problems. However, if you teach them to fish or grow crops or earn a living you give them hope for the future. He said that a group called the White Helmets were active in far off countries carrying out this mission. He was a very good speaker. He spoke fluently, without notes. During the interval we enjoyed cakes, lovely chocolate and other cakes brought from Tesco, Amaparo's custard confection, and Jesus's wife had made a delicious apple crumble with a mystery flavouring which I thought might be cinnamon. After the break we had evaluations. Meena gave us all the parts of speech used. She remarked on the fact that I had encouraged the guests to speak by making positive jokes about their names. I had said to Earnest, "I earnestly entreat you to come up and speak". I told Victor, "Do a table topic - you might be a Victor!" (That's also a way to help me and the audience remember the names of the newcomers.) Ribbons President Jayanthiny presented ribbons. A ribbons was won by guest Victor for best table topic. Best speaker was Sushil. Best evaluator was Meena. Paul was given a ribbon to mark the occasion of presenting his first, icebreaker, speech. Warren took a group photo. Rather than taking us seated, revealing stacks of chairs piled up at the back, he placed us against the front wall in a line. Was Victor pleased with his victory? I think he was. Photo of guest Victor by Angela Lansbury Photo of those attending the meeting, by Warren Sheng.

Photos by Angela Lansbury, copyright Angela Lansbury. Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, CL, ACG, member of Harrovians and HOD speakers clubs in London.Author and speaker. Winner of 50+ ribbons. Winner of competitions at club and area level. Author of: Wedding Speeches & Toasts How To Be The Best Man Quick Quotations Who Said What When. See my profiles and books on Amazon and Lulu.com More pictures and posts of Angela and Harrovians and other speakers clubs on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. To contact a club go to www.toastmastersinternational/findaclub