How My Leadership Grew With Toastmasters
By: Leo Galvez
Tags: Leadership, Communication, Toastmasters, Success, Teamwork

How My Leadership Grew With Toastmasters

The right mix of public speaking and leadership.

Tim Davis | Corbis | VCG | Getty Images

Leadership and Communication are values that Toastmasters thrusts upon its members as the core skills to develop, hone, and impart to their peers. A Toastmaster undergoes a special educational track, called a Pathway, with this sole purpose in mind.

The culmination of a Pathway is a capstone project called the HPL or the High-Performance Leadership project. How you implement this capstone is wholly up to you.

My HPL was one of my most defining experiences as a leader. To better illustrate my journey, let me share it with you through the words of John Maxwell:

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

A Leader Knows The Way

From my 4 years of experience as a Toastmaster (I started 2015), I’ve come to know the ins and outs of the organization. Now as the Vice President of my club, I took it upon myself to lead the initiative to accomplish an awards program, the President’s Distinguished Award, during my term.

The President’s Distinguished Award is the most prestigious award granted to clubs that have gone beyond the norms and performance metrics for the year. Only a handful of clubs get to achieve the said recognition.

To make it even more special, the club I am part of (Meralco Toastmasters) hasn’t received this award for the last 12 years! This made me want to end the drought.

And I knew of a way how.

A Leader Shows The Way

Leadership is action, not a position. After that Eureka moment, I immediately spent the wee hours of the night crafting the plan. I listed down the minimum requirements to accomplish the points system. I pinned down who should be responsible for what.

After crafting the plan, I pitched it in our next meeting. Through a speech project, I showed them the plan and how we shared the responsibility of elevating the club. The team received it so well. They were proactive and thrilled with the initiative. I felt that they missed having the club on the forefronts.

The experience of developing a plan is very fulfilling, especially with the help of a team. I was blessed to have a guidance team composed of other Toastmasters (President Emely, VP Pam, Protocol Officer Perci, and Area Director Angel). We met several times to discuss the best way forward.

We also discovered that the best way forward usually presents itself with pizza and donuts.

We made member assignments as practical as possible. It is worth distinguishing which members were “rising stars” and which needed the push or a mentoring system.

On top of all that, we had a very supportive Area Director (Angela) keeping us on track. It wasn’t always a happy path for the club. Moreover, we initially didn’t plan on achieving any award. But after her persistent reminders and pragmatic goal-setting schemes, she eventually instilled the mindset. We came to realize that this was achievable — as long as we worked for it.

Angela showed me the way then I followed suit.

Hannah Busing | Unsplash

A Leader Goes The Way

I used to think that leaders were also the MVPs of a team. So it didn’t take me by surprise when I took a lot of the assignments. I was responsible for 30% of the club goals on top of leading the team.

I liked paving the way forward. A leader should walk the talk. A leader influences best through example, so I double-timed my speeches and made sure my deliverables were on time.

But it wasn’t just me of course. Soon enough, the rest of the members stepped up and pitched in on the goal. They became the MVPs themselves. I never doubted that we had champions in the club, they just needed a bit of a push.

Inevitably, we accomplished all 10 out of 10 points.

After months of catching up and eating speeches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we ended up being the first to reach the award within our area!

We put an end to that 12-year drought.

This year, our club is one of the few awardees of President’s Distinguished, an award they last claimed more than a decade ago. Plus, we are looking forward to making it a 2-peat.

A Leader Also Looks Back

If Maxwell were to add a fourth component to his quote, I’d recommend this. A leader should also know how to look back and see opportunities for improvement.

What’s nice about the HPL is that it has a 360 evaluation process to conclude your project. My guidance team was given a chance to evaluate me.

My key strength was my assertiveness. I was able to elevate the team to new heights. We are engaged more than ever. We used to have only 6 people in attendance during meetings, now we could breach 20 easily.

But as assertive as I am, I need to work on my collaborative aspect. As AD Angela noted, some times all you need to do is listen. We need to allow others the freedom to express themselves and their ideas.

I am planning on making team collaboration my next key strength.

If you are looking for a simple way of keeping track of your leadership skills, let these steps be your guideposts. A leader should know the way, go the way, and show the way — plus, look back and see what can be improved.

I’m off to complete my second path, and my second HPL project. I highly encourage everyone to try out Toastmasters. You won’t find any other place that will encourage you and support you to become the best Leader and Communicator — while having fun too!