Help From a Friend

 This past week, I was unable to fully participate in some of my Toastmasters activities due to illness.  In one case, there was a special club celebration meeting I had planned to Toastmaster.  I had also planned to order food.  For the health of myself and my fellow club members, I could not be there in person and had to ask for help from another member of the club to acquire the food and run the meeting.  Since Toastmasters are generally helpful people, it should come as no surprise that the Club President stepped right up and was more than willing to place the food order and run the meeting.  When she had a conflict that kept her from being able to bring the food to the meeting place, others in the club stepped up to help her out.  Thanks to this help from multiple friends, the meeting went extremely well, even though I only joined partway through and from my home computer.  I didn't need to stress about the fact that I couldn't run the meeting myself.  My friend was on top of running it for me!

I also was able to opt out of running a training for Toastmasters thanks to my co-facilitator's willingness to cover my portion of the training.  In this case, we had planned in advance for this possibility by sharing materials with one another and agreeing to be back-up for each other if one of us couldn't make a training for any reason.  When my illness reduced my ability to deliver a high-quality training, my co-facilitator was able to step in and take my place.  Though not her first choice for how things were going to go, she was prepared thanks to our advanced contingency planning.  Help from a friend saved the day again!

Who do you have whom you can count on to fill in for you if you need to be absent from an event?  If you aren't sure who that friend would be, start forming relationships with those in your organization and build a network of others you can rely on.  In many cases, the show can very much go on without you, as long as you identify a back-up plan and are willing to rely on a little help from a friend.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Two Legs

At last weekend's District 24 Toastmasters Conference, one of the guest speakers, Dr. Dilip Abayasekara, talked about the importance of the "two legs" of excellent Toastmasters club meetings: 1. Emotional Experience 2. Educational Progress This was an "ah-ha" moment for me because it perfectly captured what I love about Toastmasters:  I get to form real connections with my fellow club members as we support one another ("emotional experience") while also learning new things and improving my speaking and leadership skills ("educational progress").  These two "legs" reflect that we have both emotional  and educational  needs that Toastmasters can help fulfill. For those who are Toastmasters members, Dr. Dilip gave us two questions to ask after each meeting to make sure we are fulfilling both of those needs: 1. Do I feel emotionally enriched? 2. Am I learning and improving? If you find you cannot answer "yes" to both question...
Read more

Thankful for Toastmasters

As the US holiday of Thanksgiving approaches, I reflect on what I am thankful for.  In addition to my faith, my family, my job, and of course my cats, Toastmasters is also on my list of things to be thankful for.  Here are my "top 5" reasons to be thankful for Toastmasters: 5.  A chance to share my passions (such as my family, job, and cats) through speeches 4.  Seeing the creativity of those who come up with fun meeting themes and table topics 3.  Learning new ideas from the presentations of others - members know so much about so many different things! 2.  Meeting people I would have never met had I not joined Toastmasters 1.  Endless opportunities to improve myself and help others improve! If you'd like to see all there is to be thankful for with Toastmasters, I'd be happy to invite you to join one of my clubs, or you can find one that's right for you at  https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club .
Read more

Partnership

Yesterday I attended a Toastmasters workshop on "corporate clubs," meaning Toastmasters clubs that are fully supported and managed by a corporation.  The workshop, led by Pat Johnson, DTM, PIP, emphasized the importance of the corporation  partnering with Toastmasters in this effort.  Rather than simply "allowing" the club to exist, the decision-makers in the corporation actively work with the Toastmasters leaders to ensure the educational program provided by Toastmasters is effective at their corporation. This got me thinking about the difference between "allowing" something and actively partnering with others to make it successful.  If I think something is a good idea but I'm not really invested in it or I have higher priorities, I might "allow" someone else to work on it - I won't get in their way and I might even offer advice - but I won't be active in making it happen.  There is no "partnership" and no "ownership...
Read more