Let the New Competent Leadership Manual Lead You to Success!

Arendse Bernth, PhD., ACS/ALB
District 46, Div G., Area 72 Governor 2007-2008

Your boss just left your office having spent half an hour telling you that everything you did was wrong and that you are a real idiot. And real idiots don’t last long in this company. You didn’t get a chance to describe the considerations that went into your solution. It’s only Wednesday, but this is the third time this week. You already put in 30 hours this week, and you feel totally drained and can only think of when you can afford to retire.

Your boss just left your office having spent half an hour praising the fact that you attacked a difficult task head-on. She listened to your report on why you chose this specific solution and agreed that this was a good way of handling it, pointing out a few twists and turns that will turn the good solution into a real killer. It’s only Wednesday, but this is the third time this week. You already put in 30 hours this week, but now you feel energized and motivated to work at least another 30 hours before you call it a week.

Which kind of boss do you want to be?

If you don’t know the answer, consider this: “If I ran my set with fear, I would get 1 percent, not 100 percent, of what I get.” Film director David Lynch in his recent book, Catching the Big Fish. Which do you prefer – 1 percent or 100 percent?

Your Vision Needs Leadership Skills

A good leader must have vision. But a good leader must also possess good interpersonal relations skills—it’s not enough to know where you want to go; you must also know how to get your team to help get you there. A good leader must:

Listen. Listening with your ears, as well as your eyes, helps you acquire information, enabling you to identify and clarify issues, make decisions, resolve conflicts, and be creative. Listening also helps team building. Your team members have important contributions to make in how to bring about the team goal. You must listen to their suggestions and carefully evaluate them.

Think critically. Critical thinking is crucial to making good decisions. After gathering information, you must analyze, interpret and understand it before acting. Question the information and determine its quality, and then use logical reasoning to reach conclusions and make decisions.

Give constructive feedback. Fulfillment of your vision is your goal. In order for that to happen, you must provide feedback to team members in a way that enables them to do their best. Team members need to know what they are doing well, what they are not doing well, and how they can improve. Giving performance feedback is a necessary leadership function. And if it is done in a constructive manner, feedback can actually reduce stress for the team members.

Plan well. Your plan is your road map to achieving your vision. It details the goals, strategies, and schedules that will fulfill your vision. It also assigns responsibilities to team members, taking advantage of their skills and giving them opportunities to grow. As the project progresses, you will need to review your plan and, if necessary, revise it.

Manage time efficiently. In order to make the most out of the time available to achieve your vision, you must manage not only your own time carefully, but also that of your team. You must know when to start sub-projects and when they must be completed. And you must be able to fit the unforeseen into your plan.

Delegate. Teamwork allows you to accomplish a greater goal, so you must create a well-working team. Assign specific areas of responsibility to each team member to handle as they see fit.

Facilitate. A team leader must help the team function properly by acting as a “go-between” between members, resolving conflict and clarifying the roles of the team members.

Inspire and motivate. Show the team that the vision is meaningful and attainable, and that everybody’s contribution is needed and appreciated. A motivated team will overcome obstacles of all types to achieve its goals. A good leader creates and maintains an environment where team members are likely to become motivated.

Help is Here!

Tall order? The good news is that leadership skills can be learned, and even better news is the new Competent Leadership, (CL), manual from Toastmasters. I’ve worked my way though it, and I can tell you from personal experience that it has a lot to teach.

It is deceptively simple, but it works. At first blush, it doesn’t look like it would do much to make you into the wonderful leader you want to be. After all, the first many projects are just about ah-counting, timing, and other activities that are traditionally assigned to new members. Only about a third through the manual do we get to the “real” leadership roles, right? Wrong! Think again. Ah-counting hones your skill of listening. Timing does too.

And evaluation! Evaluation provides training in several leadership skills: First of all, listening. You have to hear and see to absorb the speech before you can evaluate it. Then you have to think critically in order to analyze the speech and have something intelligent to say about it. Now you are ready to give constructive feedback, which is what a Toastmasters evaluation is all about. Not only do you learn to give constructive feedback, but also to give the feedback on the spot. In that sense Table Topics and evaluation have a lot in common: They both teach you to think on your feet. Participating in Table Topics is also part of the CL manual projects. The ability to think on your feet is not only important for giving immediate feedback to your team, but also in situations where you have to negotiate, be it with team members or other leaders.

The first part of the CL projects offers you the opportunity to practice these very basic, but also very important, leadership skills. Then the manual takes you on to working with a team. First you get the opportunity to work on a team for a Public Relations campaign or other group effort. Later, after you have experienced working on such a campaign under the leadership of a more experienced member, you lead one yourself. This provides practice not only in planning, delegating and giving direction, but also in conflict resolution and other team-building skills. Several projects require that you take the role of Toastmaster of the Day. This is practice in planning and organizing a coherent event with several participants. It is also practice in flexibility and ability to handle last-minute changes and unforeseen problems.

All project assignments are to be completed within a specified time frame. Activities such as evaluation and giving speeches have to be accomplished within the time constraints of the meeting, and team efforts need to be completed in the time you and your team agree on. In this way, all of the assignments allow you to practice proper time management, even though one project has this as its specific focus.

Inspire to Success

There are two types of motivation commonly used: The stick and the carrot. The carrot gives better results in the long run because you inspire people to do their best and feel good about it; this gives you their support and trust. The stick builds resentment, which in the long term turns into non-cooperation. In fact, David Lynch says: “When people are in fear, they don’t want to go to work. So many people today have that feeling. Then the fear starts turning into hate, and they begin to hate going to work.”

David Lynch adds that if instead of instilling fear, a company offered a way for everyone in the business to start expanding energy and intelligence, people would work overtime for free. They would be far more creative. And the company would just leap forward. This is the way it can be. He says that it’s not the way it is, but it could be that way so easily.

What Are You Waiting For?

Bad leaders are not evil; they are not properly trained. Luckily, good leadership skills can be learned. And, luckily, Toastmasters offers you a way to practice and learn these skills in a safe and supporting environment. The CL program gives you a very real opportunity to hone your abilities in the carrot approach because you have no real power to threaten your subordinates with. They are just volunteering their time and skills, and if they don’t want to do what you’d like them to do, just too bad. Your only way of getting them to help is by providing motivation and proper rewards for their contributions. This brings out the very best in you as a leader and teaches you to lead in a productive and supportive manner, for the benefit of your team, without which your vision will not be fulfilled. Bring your CL manual to every meeting, and encourage others to do the same.

“It could be that way so easily”… So what are you waiting for?

Get manual credit for promoting the use of the Competent Leadership manual in your club or area

Here’s a list of suitable manual projects:

CC manual

• #9 Persuade with Power
• #10 Inspire Your Audience

Advanced manuals

Persuasive speaking

• #5 The Persuasive Leader
• #3 The Winning Proposal

Speaking to Inform

• #2 Resources for Informing
• #1 The Speech to Inform

Speeches by Management

• #3 Manage and Motivate
• #1 The Briefing

Specialty Speeches

• #3 Sell a Product

Public relations

• #3 The Persuasive Approach

Tools to help track CL progress

Competent Leader Tracking Chart (Now in Word format)

by George Corrado & Paul Scharf Click to download Word document

Competent Leader Project Spreadsheet

by Robert Hintersteiner Click to download Excel spreadsheet