High Performance Leadership Part V: Analyzing and Presenting Your Results

The fifth and final part of the High Performance Leadership is Analyzing and Presenting Your Results.

The purpose of this step is to review the results of the project and present a five to seven minute speech to your club describing the learning process of running the project and the end results.

I began my presentation with a brief overview of the various steps of the High Performance Leadership and then moved on to the specifics of my project to improve Attendance and Participation at our club meetings.

I described the challenges I faced and needed to overcome and what I learned about leadership by leading the project.

What I learned in particular was the importance of flexibility, because nothing will go exactly as planned and to rely on the support of a well-chosen action team.

I ended my presentation by thanking my action team and my guidance committee and reminded the club that the benefits of the project: a fully functional mentoring program, well-oriented members and an active individual outreach to our members will continue beyond the lifespan of this project.

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High Performance Leadership Part IV: Working the Plan

Part IV of the High Performance Leadership is by far the meatiest part of the project.

In this stage, I met several times with my action team, reviewing the progress in each separate Key Results area.  This was also the time for more intensive support and encouragement.

We reviewed the Action Plan and Timetables, making adjustments as necessary.  We also shifted responsibility from one party to another when the first was unable to continue with the project.

Towards the end of this stage, I met again with my Guidance Committee to evaluate the progress so far and make note of any changes to original plan were needed as well as to re-evaluate the entire Vision, Mission and Core Values of the project to ensure they were still valid.  I also shared the feedback for my Action Team on my leadership skills.

What I discovered was that the original timelines and milestones set were a touch too optimistic and needed to be adjusted.

The next, and final step of the project is to analyze the results and present them to the club in a 5-7 minute speech covering the project as a whole and what I learned about leadership through the experience.

 

Toastmasters Year in Review (2011-2012)

The 2011-2012 Toastmasters year has just come to a close and now is the time for a retrospective review of this past year events and accomplishments.

I started the year with the challenge of serving four separate clubs as Area Governor while still helping to guide my own club as Immediate Past President and keeping on track with my personal educational goals.

Serving as Area Governor was challenging and very rewarding.  I was able to get to know many fellow Toastmasters and help the clubs in my area to define and achieve their goals.  As an Area Governor, I also served as part of the District Executive Committee.  There was a lot of traveling involved (up and down the entire State), but I’m glad I stepped up.  My area ended the year as a Distinguished Area.

In my club, I helped to advise the current President to lead our club to achieve Select Distinguished Club status and formed the Nominating Committee to propose nominees for this coming year’s Club Officers.

For my personal educational goals, I completed my Advanced Communicator Bronze and lead several committees as part of my High Performance Leadership project to increase participation and attendance at our club meetings.

In all, I would call this a very successful year.

My plans for the coming year are:

• Serve as my club’s Vice-President Education, with a goal of having four members complete their Competent Communicator.
• Finish off my High-Performance Leadership project, which will achieve Advanced Leader Silver.
• Complete my Advanced Communicator Silver.

 

 

 

High Performance Leadership Part III: Winning Commitment to Your Objective

Part three of the High Performance leadership project involves enlisting the help of others, putting together and action team and getting into more detail by devising an action plan.

The first step is to enlist an action team.  This is done by identifying key helpers and people who might resist the project from among the list of stakeholders, people who have something to gain or lose from the project.

From amongst the key helpers, I formed the action team and met with them a few times.

The first meeting was to introduce the team to the vision, mission and core values of the project (outlined in Part II).

Once the team had bought into the vision of the project, we worked together to define the key results areas of the project.

As a reminder, the project is to increase attendance and participation at our club meetings.

We came up with five key results areas:

1. LDP Requirements: Establish and track the requirements for member who join our club through our company’s Leadership Development Program.
2. Mentoring: Revamp our club’s Mentoring Program.
3. Orientations: Establish a team and procedures for making sure that all new members receive orientation into the club upon joining.
4. The Successful Club Series: Ensure that presentations from the Successful Club Series are presented in the club often.
5. Spirit Squad: Establish a Spirit Squad to encourage members who may be lacking in participation or attendance.

For each of the key results areas, we then established specific tasks to be accomplished and a timeline for those tasks making sure that each task meets the SMART criteria:

Specific

Measurable

Action-oriented

Realistic

Time-bounded

Each member of the action team were given their tasks and timeline and we will meet again at the end of the month to discuss status.

 

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High Performance Leadership Part II: Choosing Your Objective

Part two of my series describing my progress through the High Performance Leadership Program

In this part of the program, I need to devise a vision for project, craft a mission statement and identify the core values that will drive the project.  I then need to plan and present a speech describing the project and enlist my audience to support my vision and assist in making it a reality.

As a reminder, my project is to improve meeting attendance and participation

To devise a vision, the instructions are to close my eyes and picture the outcome I would wish for in the project.

The mission statement is a brief, simplified version of the vision which encapsulates the purpose and foundation of the project and further describes the benefits the project will provide.

The core values of the project are a list of beliefs the should determine what types of actions and behaviors will bring about the vision of the project.

The vision of the project is:

Our club meetings will be filled to capacity with members eagerly performing roles and giving speeches that they’ve scheduled ahead of time to move themselves closer to their educational achievements while other members enthusiastically congratulate them for their hard work.

My mission statement is:

My mission is to have members working together to encourage participation, attendance and educational goal-setting so the club and its meetings can become more engaging and vibrant and all members can work towards and achieve educational improvement at a challenging pace.

The core values of the project are:

• Active members will encourage less active members
• Every member will have an educational goal
• All members will recognize the importance of regular attendance and participation

I have made the following plan for my speech:

I will open the speech with an expression of appreciation to the members in attendance.  Then I will describe my vision by phrasing it with “Don’t you wish…” or “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if…”

Next I will read and expand upon my mission statement.

Then I will list and talk about the core values of the project.

Finally, I will conclude by reiterating the vision then say: “I will need dedicated club members to help our club turn this vision into a reality”

I will close by mentioning that I will be reaching out for volunteers and asking that anyone who wants to help can volunteer now or contact me later.

My speech is scheduled in August.

This is where I currently am in the program.  At this point, I’d like to invite all of you, my readers, to join my Guidance Committee and share your advice as I progress through the  program.

High Performance Leadership Part I: Learning About Leadership

As part of the requirements to achieve my Advanced Leader Silver, I am working through the High Performance Leadership program.

The program is broken out into five parts where I will develop my leadership skills by working to complete a project.  To do this, I have had to recruit a Guidance Committee to help me work through the project.  I meet with this committee at the end of each part.

I’ll describe my progress through the program one post at a time.

Part I of the program is Learning About Leadership.

In this part, I learned the six dimensions of servant leadership, performed a self-assessment of my current leadership skills, came up with a set of potential projects to work on and recruited my Guidance Committee.

After doing all that, I met with my committee to discuss my progress through part one and to solicit their feedback on which project to work on.

The project I chose was to improve meeting attendance and participation.

I chose this project because attendance at our club meetings has been low for quite some time.

I’ve seen this as a big problem in our club that I’ve been trying to improve for a while.  My hope is that, through this project, we’ll be able to reinvigorate our flagging attendance and help our members and club improve.

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