By Karla Viebahn
“Better small than not at all” quipped M.E.A.T.’s President Christina when the seven participating members had gathered on this greyish Saturday Nov 20th. Toastmaster of the Morning Karla had invited with “Review, reflect, recluse?” as the meeting motto to embark onto an annual review of 2021, inspired by the timeless lyrics “It was a very good year” and its touching melancholy performance by Robbie Williams and Frank Sinatra .
Indeed, Toastmasters prevents one from seclusion from the world by offering hybrid and online meeting opportunities galore. This morning was another touching one with many highlights. Michael‘s TT coaching questions invited all to review, reflect and recap which elicited stirring spontaneous contemplations from the first childhood adventure (“my blue first bicycle”) via key career decisions (“editor is a diplomat’s job”, “my express exit for Siemens”, “I am an HR person”) to best (“a friend can be a best boss”) and worst (“surviving an alcoholic boss”) superiors. Truly beautiful.
The sharing continued with two profound reflections on mentoring: Mentor Brigitte inspired and helped her mentee to reframe post-presentation questions from attempts of sabotage to evidence for her expert status. Hector reflected on the mentee’s perspective in three steps analyse, reflect, connect with unforeseen teachers – his own family members. Indeed – sometimes a valuable mentoring lesson may be gained from a surprising source.
Stefan expertly led the evaluation section with himself and Michael untiringly serving in multiple roles to fill the evaluation vacancies. Christina again observed that “we are all M.E.A.T. diamonds that shape each other”. Despite the autumnal exterior and geographic distance, this online gathering drew us close and spread oodles warmth and joy – once again. Thank you so much.
Join us on December 4th for a pre-Christmas hybrid (regulations permitting) celebration. Feel free to dare and wear your best ugly Xmas sweater/ similar for some festive fun. Enjoy!