Page 38 - October 2020 Voices

COACH CONVERSATIONS

persuade the entire town with Toastmasters, Monitor. Even though I said that you need

nothing would have changed, but our approach to visualize the club’s future, you still need to
of using the best of us gave us the results and control if all is going great, maybe you have 25+
reputation we have been building. members, but you miss an L2 and you need to
identify who can perform that speech.
What advice would you offer to new or Be ambitious. No one could dream that
prospective coaches? our Club would ever revive. I just remember

Understand the current situation. Before the words from my math IV teacher: “Guys,
giving solutions, you need to identify the always target the 10, never a lower score. Let’s

business cases and the root cause. You need to go suppose that you need an 8 to pass my class, but
deeper and understand everything, understand you were lazy and targeted the 8, sure, you can
previous initiatives and everything related. This get an 8 or a 5 and if you get the 5, you need to
is where active listening is crucial. take my class again and you don’t want to see

Focus on long-term goals. An easy mistake me again, do you?”
when you become a coach is “as soon as I get And it’s similar here, Michelle was our
my credit my work is done.” You need to think inspiration, the one who saw that we could make
like Warren Buffet or Jeff Bezos—they focus it happen and the opportunity that she gave me

on the long-term wins and not the short-term to be the club coach is something invaluable. It
wins. Don’t focus on getting 20+ members and might have seemed like an impossible mission,
5+ DCP goals at the end of the Toastmasters but she was the true visionary of this dream.
year, visualize how your plan is going to work Have fun. If you don’t have fun with what

in the future, the club could enter into a new you’re doing, you will burn out as in any work.
crisis in a blink of an eye. Don’t allow it to happen, become part of the
Micro-manage until you trust. This was Club, and make all the success a real story.
not my work, but it was Kim’s work, the other Something that you will enjoy sharing later.

coach. We were like the good cop and the bad
cop. Since she focused on monitoring everyone
and securing the payments from potential
guests. This is something important like in any

business.
Collaborate. A typical myth is that I’m an
experienced person, I know all the answers.
Not all clubs are alike, not all places are alike,

and what could have worked in a certain place,
might not work in another. You need to think
together as a team and work for the greater
good of the Club.

38 ONE COMMUNITY