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.
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Speeches On Coaching And Keep Safe

Audience in semi-circle at Harrovian Speakers' Club, August 2017.

Thank you to Ruth Vishnick who drove me to the meeting. We arrived smiling, in hysterics after driving over the gigantic potholes in the car park which had a switchback effect, jolting us up and down.

The audience sat arranged in a semicircle in Harovian Speakers Club's spacious hall. The venue is often delightfully decorated with colourful bunting or seasonal adornments.

President Sushil opened the meeting with his usual calm and efficiency. He conveyed the impression that all was well organised, despite delays because we did not have the projector for a speech, and were missing a speaker and an evaluator.

He replaced the evaluator by me, Angela Lansbury. I had put myself down as backup speaker and backup any role.

Suchil's most remarkable achievement was his novel way of replacing the missing printed agenda by writing the names of speakers on large oblong coloured pieces of paper, stuck onto the black back of the wheeled whiteboard. The black felt tip pen proved the most easy to read colour at a distance.

The President and his agenda board. Sushil, President of Harrovians Speakers' Club, wrote the speakers' names on paper coloured cheering, eye-catching yellow, orange and pink.

Jayanthini was Timer and explained the lights in a cheerful and positive fashion, saying, "It's my honour to be your timer." She admitted she had not been timer for many months, adding amusingly, "It's time for me to be timer!"

She described how an Advanced club claps when a speaker has spoken too long. We adopted that system for the meeting.

We started with table topics - impromptu speeches which in the early days of Toastmasters in the USA in the last century involved the speakers picking topics from cards which were on the table. I presume having topics hidden, face down, creates excitement and a random and surprise effect. But face up the topics would have offered choice to nervous speakers.

Indra Sikdar presenting table topics as Table Topics Master.

The programme stated that that Indra would evaluate odd numbered topics and another person would evaluate even numbered topics. However, Amparo was appointed topics evaluator. Ruth instead introduced the first three topics as Topic Master and Indra introduced the next three topics. Sharing the Topics Master role is a good system to give practise to more people and be more inclusive. The audience also gets to hear and to know more people.

Table Topics speaker.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. (More photos of this event are available from Angela Lansbury to members of Toastmasters International.)

Grammarian Biju introduced the word of the day, Sanguine.

Seema spoke on Keep Safe. she described how the police had changed their way of communicating danger quickly to the public by tweeting.

She gave us a list of ten things we could do to keep safe. These included having a phone which can act as a torch (and knowing how to turn on the torch) so that in an emergency we can find our way around in the dark. (A torch can also be used to signal.) A mobile phone should also be kept charged in case you need it.

Most people thought that these precautions were easy to achieve and remember. However, carrying a door wedge to stop others breaking in through a door was not so easy. (But it's a matter of putting your mind to it. Door wedges are inexpensive and you can buy them in DIY shops or order them online.)

Oqbonnayei gave her icebreaker or first speech to introduce herself to the members. She spoke about fulfilling her dream of going to live and work in Atlanta, Georgia, in the USA.

Lorna spoke on Coaching.

Lorna gave a speech from the Advanced manual on Coaching, project 4 of the Communication manual. 

I usually make notes whilst listening to the speech. At the end of the meeting I copy the notes, briefly, into the manual. This delays the person giving me a lift home.

This time I wrote a detailed analysis in her manual. Afterwards I simply photographed the page with my mobile phone so that I had a record. (If she ever lost her manual, I would be able to give her the dates when she did her speech.) I also have a photo record of what I said, plus a video of myself on my mobile phone, if I need to get the record of my giving an evaluation in my leadership manual.

Jesus giving the General Evaluation of the evaluators and the whole meeting.

Jesus, GE, offered useful tips on the advantages of pausing instead of saying um and filler words. Pausing enables the speaker to gather thoughts, planning what to say next. The audience has time to reflect for a moment. You, as a speaker, sound less rushed, calmer. 

Members of the audience.

Members of the audience.

Jayanthini operating the lights.

Where's my ribbon?

President Sushil presented the winners with awards for the achievements of the evening. Winners of the ribbons were (left to right):
Rhea for Best Table Topic;
Oqbonnayei for delivering her Icebreaker speech;
President Sushil Shah (centre) presenting prize ribbons;
Seema Menon, best speech on the subject of Keep Safe;
Angela Lansbury, best evaluator, for her evaluation of Lorna's speech project on Coaching.

Author
Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG. Member of Harrovian Speakers and HOD in London, UK, and Braddell Hieghts Advanced Club in Singapore.