Implications of Being a DTM

Over the past 4 years I have seen some really amazing speakers and some pretty crummy speakers. I can forgive crummy speakers who are working the Toastmasters program. It is easy to assume that a person has worked hard, come far and is still not a great speaker. I can even forgive a bad speaker who has one DTM. The one thing that grinds my gears is a speaker with multiple DTMs, but is still a crummy speaker. Another thing that grinds my gears is a crummy speaker in a major leadership role, with a DTM (or multiple) who stumbles through speaches like a new member. It frustrated me even more when I know speakers in both those situaitons are members of multiple clubs, including an advanced club. It frustrates me to the point of distraction. What has this person been taking away from the program if they speak this way? What has been the point of all those evaluations, every speech being a manual speech and insane number of speaking opportunities if you still stumble through a speech that should be easy for you.
As a newly minted DTM, I am feeling my own frustrations with other DTMs impact me. I have created, in my mind, an image of what it is to have a DTM and to be working on multiple DTMs. Being a polished speaker before my DTM was easy. I did not feel people would expect me to be a polished speaker. It was a point of pride that I was so polished. Now, I feel my own expectations impacting my current skills. Combine this with my real desire to be better at giving advice rather than telling people what to do. Last night, at my TLI session for presidents, it all hit me a bit. I got visibly nervous. Until I got to this point as a speaker (completing my DTM), I never had this problem. Nerves have not been my problem before. Now I have to work on a new fear- the fear of not living up to people's expectations. Chiefly, this is my own expectations of what it means to be a DTM.
The session went very well last night. I was hyper aware of myself and my communication skills and I don't think I needed to be. I think I did a good job of making sure my ideas didn't come off as "the right way", but as the way that worked for me and my club. I spoke about things I did well, didn't do well, or wish I had a chance to do. I allowed the presidents to ask questions related to their club and I said what I would consider. I tried to make sure I made 'I' comments (I would try this, I think you could consider this). I know my fear, my nervousness was a bit silly. Yet, I have to address it if I want to continue to be a good speaker and improve my communication skills.

Setting Context

Within club leadership there is typically a core group of leaders, at least from my experience. These are the people who know the system well and can be counted on to be take some leadership role every year. I have become one of those people in my home club. After four years in the club I have spent one as Ed VP and two as President. This year I take Ed VP on again for two reasons: someone needed to do it and I never did it right my first time. As past president, I need to be available to provide the new president advice, but as Ed VP I have to be available to back him up. It is very important to me that I keep a clear line between the duties of these two roles.
The reason I did not have a successful run as VP Ed a few years ago was because I did not know how to do this. We lost our Membership VP within a month of the year. I took on the role since there weren't enough of us to go around. I could not draw the line between the membership work I did and the educational work I did. I ended up putting to much effort into membership and letting education fall behind. Knowing what I do now about my own ability to organize and communicate, I am looking for a second chance to balance two important roles.
How does one do this? I asked myself this question and have come up with two tips for myself and other people in this situation:

1. Make sure you are clear on the duties for both position. I need to make sure I know what each duty entails before I start working. This helps you know what the context of your duty is.
   
2. Put the situation into context. This often means speaking the context aloud. In my case, when the president comes to me from help I must say "As the VP of Education" or "Do you want to hear what the past president has to say?" This helps people learn that you are aware of the different context. This will also help them process it better. The new president does not want his past president being so hands on, but he will accept it from his VP Ed. If he is clear this is who is comes from, he can process the information in the correct context.
   

Hopefully this will help me and others fill two roles within club leadership.

It is Sara's Way or the Highway

In my attempt to get feedback for my leadership experiences, I got some amazing comments that have been very helpful. The comment that struck the strongest cord can be summarized by the title of this entry- it is Sara's way or the highway. That is what my advice sounds like to others- sometimes... most of the time... maybe all the time. Wow! I never thought about it before, but it is very true. When I offer advice I have a little bird in the back of my head telling me that this is the right way, the best way, the only way to make something happen. I know because I am Sara and I am always right.
What I need to face is that little bird is a liar. A dirty liar too. This little birdie has blinded me to the reality that my experience has only worked for me in my given situations and it turns people off as it causes people to feel like I don't value the opinions and experiences of others. My mother has been the loudest opponent to the bird, but she has often been ignored because she is my mother and, therefore, knows nothing about me.
Yes, this bird is my narcissism speaking to me. It is my mind allowing me to place me at the center of the world. My narcissism has become a club joke, but I have to face the reality about it working against me and the people I work with.
This is my biggest project this year- turning off the bird and allowing other people to be right. It directly connects with my desire to be a better coach and mentor. How can I be a good coach if I don't let any other ideas and experiences into the process? It means I am going to have to face some very difficult times as this mean going against my own nature to really change myself. In the end, by changing this, I really do become a better leader and communicator.
Thank you to the person who left that comment. It may be hard to learn, but this will really help me become the communicator I want to be.

Leadership Feedback

I have been thinking about the feedback we get as leaders. The CL manual is the only feedback we are currently given on our leadership skills and it's not working. I am not interested in my listening skills when I am timer. I am interested in my leadership skills as a club or district leader. For an organization that values feedback, our leaders do not seem too anxious to receive it.
The question I keep asking myself is: 'how do I know I was a good leader?'
I have stories from my fellow officers, I have our success with the DCP plan, and I see the distress when I mention that I may have to leave the club in the future for various reasons (I am not getting into that). When I was PRO for the district I had self evaluation and I know I sucked, but I am not sure why. I do not know why communication was disconnected between me and the top 3. I hear rumors and I know what happened in my life, but I don't know enough to grow as a leader. If I really want to be international president of Toastmasters I know I have a long way to go as a leader. I need to determine what skills I should focus on improving. Toastmasters has nothing in place to help me do that. They are perfectly happy to allow me to move up the ranks of officers and leadership without any feedback.
This is going to change, at least for me. I know there are attempts to develop some type of evaluation track. I don't think this is what I am looking for. From what I understand, this idea is to make us better evaluator. What I need is evaluations, not better evaluators. I need feedback forms, surveys, etc. Thus, I have made myself an evaluation form. Yes, it's not perfect, but it's a start. Feel free to review it, but please do not take it (there is just the one page). I don't want to skew the results.
I am going to do this all the time too. I am going to make one for me as a coach and any future positions I hold. Please let me know if you have suggestions for better or additional questions. I want to eventually turn this into something all leaders can use.

MindMeister

I love MindMeister- specifically this map.
I am not sure how many people use mind maps, but they are my favorite thing in the world. I show them to students during the sessions I run in the library because they are so helpful to develop research topics. The same can be said about speech topics. I have seen one member take on topics and use a mind map to create the first 10 CC speeches from that one topic. I have seen other members use a map to identify the main points for a speech and break it down to the discussion points. I can do a mind map for kitty litter and come up with a great topic:

The topic: Kitty litter's impact on the environment.

What I like about MindMeister is that social networking meets the mind map. A mind map is only as great as the minds making it. Social networking allows many people to contribute to a mind map, therefore making it a better map. The previously linked map is about marketing and toastmasters. I can't even begin to count the number of people already helping improve the map and the things we can do with it. We can embed links, photos, notes, get updates via twitter and so much more. Yes, you can keep maps private and use them to simply build speeches, but that's not the fun. If you want an invite, let me know. The free membership is nice and premium costs less than $5 a month.

It's Almost Over - How We Reached Presidental Distinguished

My second term as president is almost over and Twin City will be Presidential Distinguished this year. According to all records I can find, this is the first year we have successfully finished with distinguished status- any level. You can imagine my elation at having been the president to successfully reach this goal. What has kept us in the past, as far as the records I can find, has been the membership requirement. We do not have a problem reaching educational goals- in fact, we already have a number of educational awards lined up for next year from people who have asked that we hold on to them. Our problem is all in the membership. Here is what Twin City Toastmasters did this year to solve our problem:

1. We followed advice from other clubs that proved successful. We asked each member to commit to one communication and one leadership goal for the year. For new members that was the CC and CL manual. I feel like this sent a clear message that we were focused on their goals. Some members, other than the officers, have reached that goal and others are still working to do so.
2. Postcards were sent to all guests after the meeting by our membership VP. I ordered postcards from VistaPrint and all we have to do is write a quick, personal message and send it out. These contain a written invitation to join.
3. Our Membership VP was awesome. He is very social and didn't speak about what TM can do for you, but what TM did for him. He encouraged all of us to speak to guests about TM did for us. This was successful in giving real examples of how the origanization helps people. He set a goal of one new member a month and we welcomed about 17 new members this year. Not all stayed, but it worked.
   
4. Club culture was defined and maintained. We officially recognized our relaxed atmosphere. When it was challenged, we addressed the issue with maturity and openness. We encouraged people uncomfortable with our culture to try other clubs and find the right place for them.
5. Our mentoring program helped with retention.
   
6. Educational tips at each meeting addressed issues the members were interested in.

I am sure there are more reasons we were successful.

What things have worked for your clubs?

Organizational Protocol vs. Club Culture

I have been in various unrelated situations this week where the overall debate has been between the organizational protocol vs. the club's culture. Here is one example: the club in question has a very relaxed atmosphere. Meetings typically start on-time, but they rarely end on time. Since the members enjoy this, the leaders have never made an attempt to push the meetings to end on-time. Toastmasters, as an organization, pushes clubs to both start and end on time. If you say the meetings start at 7pm then start the meeting, regardless of who is present, at 7pm. The same goes for ending the meeting. If you have to cut elements of the meeting, so be it, as long as you end at the time you tell people you are going to end. This is to teach us time management.
In the case of my example, a guest made a very clear statement about the need for the club to end it's meetings on time. This upset a few of the members. I am encouraging the leaders to focus on the issue of protoc0l vs. culture rather than the person pushing the issue.
This, along with my other situations, had made me wonder about the issue of protocol vs. culture. I think it depends on the club. A corporate club that only has one hour for a meeting has a very real need to start and end on time. A community club depends heavily on the culture. We all know each club is different. We often encourage members to join the club that is right for them; to shop around if they can. Some club cultures involve meetings that are very formal and follow the protocol of the organization. Others, see protocol as a guide to help them make decisions.
In the end I think the club has to decide how they interpret the mission of our organization. For this club I advise no change, but clarification for guests. They feel they want to make sure they support everyone, no matter how long it takes. They are looking at small changes like number of speakers, adapting meetings for special events and clarifying information on their web page. They have also decided to allow the members a few minutes to vent at the next meeting so that the issue is acknowledged, people can express their frustrations and give their ideas on the solution to prevent this from happening again.
What thoughts do you have about the issue? What does your club feel is more important: protocal or culture? What tips to do you have for the leaders in this example?

Electronic Newsletters

I have been asked to give a workshop on Electronic Newsletters at the upcoming TLI. I am going low tech with the presentation with acetate slides (yikes!), but I am going techie with the support material. I returned to Squidoo to create a lens about Electronic Newsletters.

Please enjoy and leave feedback on it anywhere.

DCP Pt2: Older members

There was a comment responding to my post about how I explain DCP to new members. I was asked about older members. My club has young membership. By that I mean the members are very new to the organization. There are two members who have been around longer than I have. Of the two of them, one is our Area Governor. After years of struggling with the membership requirement he doesn't care how we get there, just that we do. The other member is bored with the DCP, but knows the importance of it for the club.
That being said, my club is unique. I am in a district that is obsessed with the DCP because we have been distinguished, as a district, four years in a row. There is a lot of pressure to maintain the momentum. My point of view is not from direct experience, but more from observation. I see the DCP splitting a club in two: insiders and outsiders. The insiders understand the program and some become obsessed with it. Outsiders tend to be new members or those who don't care. The clubs I find to be most successful keep the focus on meeting the members goals. In this effort they are successful at achieving educational goals and bringing in new members.
The insiders are a very different issue. If there are insiders who are bored, frustrated or irritated with DCP, a focus on the goals of the members may be refreshing for them. I would keep them distant from the discussions regarding the plan. My club's seasoned vet who is bored with the program has only been asked to give manual speeches. DCP is suppose to be a guide to keep club's focused on working towards goals, not the be all, end all of Toastmasters management and recruitment.
That brings me to the second part of the insiders issue: those obsessed with the membership requirement. From my own experience, the membership requirement is the most difficult part of the plan. That requirement has been the one thing that has kept my own club from DCP success in the past. This is the element and the two points you get for new members should be better addressed by Toastmasters. This is a bigger conversation than I wish to take on here. How would I deal with members obsessed with the membership requirement? I would put their obsession to my use: make them in charge of bringing in guests (PR) and closing the sale. I would use their motivation to the club's benefit. If they are unwilling to step up I would ask them to hold their concerns for another time (this will require a lot of tact).
It may also be worth having a club insiders meeting to address the issues and brainstorm how to get new members in the club. I feel new membership should not be the driving the club. I learned that lesson last year. I have a 'field of dreams' idea that if we build a strong club that will help our members meet their goals then the new members will come.
There is an article at the TM webpage that suggests something very similar.

Podcasts

I have figured out what I am going to do about the podcasts. It took a while, but I think I really like this plan. I was inspired by the Grammar Girl podcasts. The idea is 3-6 minute quick tips for speaking. I haven't come up with a nifty title yet, but you get the idea. There will be some Toastmasters content as I am trying to provide guidance for members, but they will have a general message as well. I am hoping to work on a few this weekend. Cross your fingers and wish me luck!