Guest Post from Antonio Salituro, VPE

 5 key teachings from being a VPE

I’ve always enjoyed teaching, and I did it at University for a while. There’s nothing more rewarding than contributing to someone else’s growth. That’s mostly why I signed up for a Vice President Education role in my Toastmasters club. 

Today I’m honoured to share with you the 5 main takeaways from my 2 years’ experience as VPE.

1) Education is a life journey

Before joining Toastmasters, I thought my educational journey had ended. I then discovered it was just the beginning of a new learning adventure. 

At Toastmasters we strive for providing a high-quality education. To meet this goal, there are some essential elements a VPE must promote.

• Training
• Knowledge sharing
• Pathways
• Evaluation

I’ll go into more details about the last two points later on within this post.

We don’t need the education system Roger Waters sang against in “Another Brick in The Wall”, but we desperately need a thought-provoking, embracing, inspiring education. And Toastmasters is no doubt the place where this is delivered.

2) The importance of finding the right path

Albert Einstein said: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

The most important thing in life is to find your purpose, your path, your way. Well, being part of Toastmasters let me embark into an educational journey which helped me develop my true self.

However, new members can be overwhelmed by the information overload at the beginning and might feel lost. VPE has to be the light illuminating the way along members will walk.

A call to all VPE (and not only them)! Speak up about the Pathways invaluable resource during regular meetings, via email, by phone. 

If a member is not sure about which path to select, make them aware of the online assessment they can take. On top of that, it’s extremely helpful to know the different skills they will enhance for each of the 11 pathways available, therefore I’d suggest sharing the poster below with your club members. Doing so, a newbie will be in a better position to choose a more suitable pathway.  

3) Ensure paths are walked upon

Great. All the members of the club have embarked on a pathway. Job done. Can relax now. 

Sorry, but doesn’t work like that! Once the selection step has been ticked off, VPE will have to make sure each member moves along the chosen path. 

Based on my personal experience, it’s good practice to deliver the ice breaker as soon as possible. Some people might be reluctant to take the first step, and VPE should be there to support them. Most of the times, once the ice is melted, a member will gain momentum and speed up on his/her pathway.

To keep track of everyone’s progress, go to the “Pathways” section of the TMI website, log on base camp as manager and go to “member progress” (see figure below).

T

hen, if you click on ”individual progress”, you’ll be given a summary of how many members are on each level and at which stage (see screenshot example below).

You can export data in excel and I’d recommend creating your own spreadsheet to be used as pathways tracker.

4) Feed the seed so that it grows

New members are like seeds which need to be fed nourishing evaluation to grow up.  Feedback is a fundamental element for a member’s growth. The more feedback a member gets, the faster he/she will improve. 

As mentioned by Dr. Assegid Habtewold, “If excellence is one of your values, not only you self-critic and evaluate your performance consistently, you beg others for honest feedback.”

It’s therefore paramount for VPEs to encourage all members to give constructive, thorough, empowering evaluations. 

There are some strategies you can adopt when delivering an evaluation.

a) The Sandwich technique

This is one of The Toasted Sandwich club’s strength, of course. Essentially, you squeeze each suggestion for improvement (recommend) between two commends.

b) The CCRRC approach

An evaluation is nothing but a speech itself. As highlighted in the picture above, it has an enticing opening, a detailed main body and a positive ending.

As concerns the core of the evaluation, this method implies giving two commends, followed by two recommends and a final commend. At each stage the evaluator has to be specific, providing details about what, why, when a speaker has done something and how to improve it.

In summary, which are the key ingredients of an effective evaluation?

• Provide observations, not opinions
• Give strategies for improvement
• Cheer & praise
• Be positive!

5) Brilliant speech writing leads to excellent speech delivery

Last but not least, speech writing. It does make the difference.  

It might sound obvious, but most speakers focus solely on the oral delivery, neglecting the speech craft aspect. This often leads to a poor performance, even for experienced speakers.

One of the VPE’s duties should be to advise on how to structure and write an audience-captivating speech. 

I’ve collated a series of tips to produce impactful contents within your speech:

• Initial hook (this could be a rhetorical question or a striking statement; the speaker should grab the audience’s attention straight away).
• Keep hooking (maybe one or two more question throughout the speech to check on your audience awareness).
• Articulate your major points (i.e. 2-3 pros and 2-3 cons) in the speech's core.
• Apply the “Rule of 3” to reinforce concepts (spoiler: I have included a few examples in this post).
• Use alliterations to stimulate your listeners’ ears.
• Incorporate metaphors and similes to enrich your language.
• Conclude your speech with a question or a call to action for effect.

I hope this post was useful for early stage VPEs (and perhaps more experienced too).  

Keep up the good learning!