1. How Verbal Expressions Club 5736 used Executive Leadership Panels
-or-
A super fun way to get on-site managers and executive leaders
to help you build
Corporate Club Membership
in 60 minutes
with little or no effort on their part.
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

2. Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736
Once Upon a Time…
There was a Corporate Club that could not get traction w/ employees
Then they had an idea! …could they get executives to empower the employees to leave their desks by appealing to the executives’ delight in talking about how their communication and leadership skills helped them succeed?
Once they had secured several executives (we simply asked!) The Club President launched an HPL and club members diligently worked the details for room setup, timeline, communication, facilitation, advertisements…
VPR used the info provided to design promotional materials
An experienced club members used the advanced manual on facilitating discussion to outline how to guide the panel discussion to (a) each leaders strong points and (b) how that aligned with what we do in Toastmasters
Everyone had a lot of fun & engaged all club members in the process
HLP TEAM & club leaders demonstrated additional leadership by formally thanking the execs and providing recognition to club members
VPM invited people to attend meetings – and followed-up faithfully
VPE scheduled the following 2 meetings with experienced Toastmasters of the day who could “explain” the segments and keep things on time.
Their membership grew … and the club lived happily ever after!
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

3. Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736
NET RESULTS
Added awareness of our Toastmasters club on campus
Added awareness & appreciation of the executives’ endorsement of learning these skills
Names & s of attendees for the VP MEM to follow up with
MANY more visitors: 30+ over the next 3 months
Visitors became members.
Members from on-campus employee base increase
Primary Goals Accomplished! After 3 months we had more than 50% on-campus members, were over 30 members strong, and had 15 at our weekly meetings.
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

4. Club Members’ Biggest Learnings Never Underestimate the Power of:
Their own ability to ask their business leaders to participate – by saying I like how you lead and communicate, will you talk to us about how you learned to do that, executives and other leaders are flattered!
When any boss is offering an opportunity to learn from him/her… employees will show up
Providing follow-up information as most businesses are metrics driven, so survey responses were welcomed and appreciated.
The importance of demonstrating clear communication, leadership, teamwork and appreciation during the entire process while having FUN!
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

5. BACKUP (the nitty gritty stuff)
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

6. Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736
The Real Story
2008/9 - A open-club with a rock-solid ~25 year history on the same corporate campus was struggling with membership growth in a corporate environment of bankruptcy and continual layoffs
As layoffs continued, employees were more and more reluctant to leave their desks.
In the Fall of 2009
our last employee-member was laid off and we had 6 members left
several former members (who were still employees) rejoined, declaring that this club had to stay on this campus!
We planned out 25th anniversary celebration to get the word out and launched a huge on campus membership campaign.
After a year of rebuilding, though we’d achieved heroic goals in new members, and completed every year President’s Distinguished, the club struggled with
Retention - as external members often came for short-term specific needs (preparing something specific)
Mentoring needs increased (a good thing!)
Award completion was hard to plan - with many new members who did not stay
Attendance – even with 25 members, we often would get only 10 at meetings
Nov 2010 – the corporation was sold and employee morale and attitudes improved
Jan The incoming club president set a term mission to grow the employee-based membership to equal or exceed the “external” membership, and increase membership overall
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

7. How Do We Fill Empty Seats?
Mar 2011 – no net growth & limited attendance
We couldn’t get traction with employees – the on-campus uptake stifled by the always pending layoffs… employees might visit, but would not join
External membership continued to be our membership biggest growth area, with no effort beyond an active web presence.
We discussed how we needed some way to get executive management to endorse the idea of their employees participating one hour a week to build communication, leadership and team-work skills
Realizing those are the key marketing points for Toastmasters, and the key attributes that managers look for - THE IDEA WAS BORN for an executive leadership panel discussion
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

8. Knowing These Key Points
Toastmasters offers the unique opportunity to develop leadership, communication & teaming
These are key skills managers look for
Most corporate clubs need new members
It’s easiest to get new members from the corporate community if the employee base feels it’s OK to the spend time
Managers and executives value leadership, communication & teaming
Most people like to talk about themselves
Executives like to share the story of their journey
And provide coaching to others
(Especially when they don’t have to prepare anything special and get to talk about themselves!)
WE INVITED 7 VP & DIRECTORS
TO PARTICPATE IN A PANEL DISCUSSION
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

9. Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736
THE POWER OF THE ASK!
For the JUNE Panel –
I had worked with most of the panelist (before retiring) and had a personal relationships with many of them. Once the first one agreed – the rest clamored to get in on the fun!
Club members who were on-campus employees picked up the project immediately and managed most of the preparations
For the NOVEMBER Panel –
Pres. Carolyn (an employee) did all the inviting and negotiating (including diplomatically turning down some leaders from another department!)
Club members who were on-campus employees picked up the project immediately and managed most of the details including a membership drive table the week before the event and catering pizza, as an attractor
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

10. Once we had executives lined up…1.
HPL TEAM -Club members created an Executive Briefing slide set. 3.
We asked for professional bios, photos, and answers to any 3-5 of the key questions 5.
HPL team Created data gathering tools for s and session feedback. 2.
Club President walked through the briefing with each panel member (5-10 minutes each). 4.
VPR created advertisement material for posters, “tv” and .
(and preshow slides for the event!) 6.
PRES promptly appreciated executives and VPM invited employees to meetings 7.
VPM Followed up with employees who indicated interest 8.
VPE Scheduled 2 weeks with experienced Toastmaster of the Day and dependable speakers.
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

11. Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736
Focus & Key Questions
Focus: The importance and value of Communication & Leadership skills in Ericsson business units
Key Questions:
1. Describe the communication and leadership skills that are essential to your organization.
2. What communication and leadership skills do you think helped you advance?
3. Share a specific challenge you have faced in your career.
4. What important skills are needed to be a leader in Ericsson?
5. What do you see as employee challenges now and in the future?
6. How have your skills helped you outside, in the greater community?
7. What are your personal future communication and leadership goals?
8. What things do you consider important when doing annual reviews or giving feedback to your direct reports?
9. How important is it to you that your managers to be able to evaluate, critique and provide constructive feedback?
10. YOUR QUESTION_________________________________
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

12. Evolving a Flexible Event Format
JUNE 2011
Our first event took about 3 months to put together. It had 6 panelists and spent (30 min) with panel questions and discussion.
One consistent feedback request from club members and employees were for more time for open Q&A - a normal business process for this company. The executives also agreed it was a good idea, so we adapted.
NOV 2011
The second event took 6 weeks to put together with 3 panelists and offered a shortened (10 min) focused panel discussion and more time (20+min) for direct questions from the audiences.
… and this time the feedback from club members and employees was for more time for panel discussion and less Q&A!
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

13. Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736
PROCESS TAKE AWAYS
WIIFM - Focus on what's in it for the executive(s). We used the Toastmasters materials prepared for marketing clubs to businesses to guide this part of our conversation/communication, but put it in the corporate lexicon.
Ask early... it's hard to get on exec's calendars.  Once you have one big name, other leaders will WANT to be there, too, as they are fabulously competitive for the spotlight.  We also asked them who they would like to have on the panel with them... that reference really opened some doors. We planned for several months out which gave us time to gather their headshots, bios, comments... and to promote the event on campus and generate excitement among the club members.
Every Business Leader liked the idea about talking about soft skills... And especially liked the idea of having essentially "free" training available - some had heard of Toastmasters but did not really know what it was... (many of them voluntarily said they wish they'd attended Toastmasters when they were starting out!)
ADVERTISE – ADVERTISE – ADVERTISE – we used posters, personal invites, fliers in break rooms, membership info in cafeteria, in-house “news”, and some of the execs sent “join me” notices to their teams.
Use Toastmaster Meeting Skills and Props. We started a little late, because of crowd arrival & seating, but ended on time. Because people love to talk about themselves, we used timing cards to try to keep them to 1-2 minute answers... The exec’s loved it! & when our club VP Membership gave his personal story and a short “appeal” he asked for the ah-buzzer and posture bell to be activated and the audience loved it.
Capture the audience info using
sign in process - many corporations do this at meeting routinely –name, & phone
feedback form ... SurveyMonkey is a fabulous tool but we cound a larger percentage responded at the first event where we had paper forms in their chairs and asked for feedback immediately at the end of the event.
Follow-up with a thank-you letter to each of the execs – and invite them to drop in on a club meeting!
Follow-up with invitations to club meetings the attendees… and continue this over several weeks, sometimes it takes people a while to get their personal motivation going.
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736

14. Sample pre-event poster
The Essential Skills Ericsson Business Leaders Look For In Communication & Leadership A Panel Discussion & FREE PIZZA! Thursday – Nov 3rd 11:45 - 1:00pm in the Tower Auditorium Everyone is invited to learn more about these essential skills. Arrive early to get a good seat. --- FREE PIZZA ---
PANEL MEMBERS
JB Clarke BCAM Global Support Svcs
Jim Crosby RNAM Svcs & Eng
Vidya Krishnan RNAM Eng & Ops
Roger O’Hargan RNAM HW/SW & Svcs Ops
Sponsored by Ericsson’s Verbal Expressions Toastmasters
with over 26 years of developing leaders on this campus.

15. Sample post-event poster
Using the panelists words we created post-event advertisement and had it up the following week. We also summarized in our club newsletter and website.
Sample post-event poster
5/12/2019
Nancy Bateman DTM – 20yr Member of #5736