Page 31 - January 2021 Voices

Evolutionary Mentoring (Buddy, Coach, Mentor)

vocal variety. She tossed in humor drawing out Buddy, Coach, Mentor, and Protégé.
my inner voices. In a little over a one-year period, I learned a valuable lesson when I was
Carol was involved in over 50 roles in the Club Division Director a few years ago. One of the

meetings, as well as at Area and Division Events. Area Directors was more experienced than I.
In the year that she was in Toastmasters, He was my informal coach, but there was some
Carol delivered about one speech per month. . . contention. I had been an Air Force enlisted
nay, change that to she delivered a performance airman. He had been a Navy Combat Pilot/

about once a month. Carol was well-immersed Navigator. He was a DTM with vast experiences
into Level-3 of the Persuasive Speaking path. in life and a small business owner. I had no
During that year, I had not yet completed DTM, but I had been a technician, engineer,
the Mentoring Program and downloaded the manager, and computer systems engineer. What

provided forms. I kept loose notes, snips from I learned from him, I applied to my mentoring
agendas, and memorialized conversations as roles. One loosely quoted nugget, “Toastmasters
we went along. Both of us were retired and we is a volunteer organization. You cannot push
usually arrived early and stayed late performing members, you have to encourage, entice, and

Sergeant-At-Arms duties. We met informally inspire them to go in the general direction of
a few times during her Toastmasters year. success.” He earned the District 7 Area Director
I have since transcribed those notes into a of the Year Award.
tracking document using the Mentoring Forms My contention is that invention is in the

as a collection of guidelines. I use the same direction of completion of intention.
mechanism now with the four other Mentor-
Protégé members who are in various stages of

To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

VOICES! | JANUARY 2021 31