10 Tips on Using the Competent Leadership Program

Fellow Toastmasters, this is my weekly Vice President of Education post.

We tend to focus on our prepared speeches and, sometimes, that means we neglect the value of working through the Competent Leadership (CL) manual.

By working through the CL projects, we have opportunities to learn and stretch our comfort zones. Each project focuses on different leadership aspects primarily through meeting roles but also some more involved work such as being a Contest Chair or running a Membership Drive.

Make no mistake about it though, this is not just a "checklist" of tasks to be crossed off in a race to complete the manual. It is a learning and development tool requiring careful consideration of each project.

Please see me or your mentor if you have any questions on using these projects to further your goals both within and outside Toastmasters.

You can find more information on the Competent Leadership program on the Toastmasters.org site by clicking here. I have copied the article below for your convenience.

John Schneyer, VPE


10 Tips on Using the CL Program

“My club found every part of the CL manual very useful. There's no doubt that it really serves its purpose of developing new leaders.”
-Voltaire R. Victoria, DTM

So, what’s the deal with the CL program?

The Competent Leadership (CL) manual gives you an opportunity to learn and practice leadership skills by serving in club roles. It will help you gain self-confidence and skills that will help you in many ways: academically, professionally and personally. The CL manual offers training in time management, organization, planning and critical thinking – all of which can be applied to everyday life.

Consider this: If the CL manual can help a club run more efficiently and successfully, and it can also help club members to improve their lives, why wouldn’t your club leaders pursue it? Sometimes, a little promotion from a fellow Toastmaster can help smooth the way. In case you’re finding it a little difficult to get the ball rolling with your VPE or other officers, here are ten quick tips from Toastmasters members that you can use to help promote the Competent Leadership manual:

1. At each club meeting, have one member assigned as the CL evaluator. By having an assigned evaluator, you ensure member progress in the CL manual.

2. Increase member awareness by requiring that members bring their Competent Leadership manuals to every club meeting.

3. Does your club have a sample copy of the Competent Leadership manual on display at every meeting? Keeping an extra copy on hand means you’ll have one available for guests to peruse or for new members to borrow.

4. Make sure that you recognize your members when they participate in the CL manual. Award a member with a ribbon when she’s halfway through and make an announcement when that person completes the manual. Let her know you appreciate the special care and preparation that she took with each meeting role.

5. Encourage the president and VPE of your club to promote the CL manual at each club meeting. Emphasize how the manual functions as a valuable learning tool – training each member on the different roles of the meeting and helping them build beneficial skills for the working world and daily life.

6. Place equal importance on the leadership and communication tracks in your club by including accreditations for both tracks in all correspondence, agendas and programs for your club.

7. Use the Competent Leadership Achievement Chart! Post it on the wall during meetings and keep it up-to-date. Draw attention to the successes listed on the chart.

8. For every speech a member gives, your club can request that he perform and receive evaluations on at least three meeting roles.

9. Does your club have a newsletter or Web site? Post a reminder to members to bring their manuals. Also, your club can post a congratulatory list of those who have completed the manual.

10. Ask each member who achieves the CL award to mentor a new member in the manual.

These tips will help make the CL manual a natural and easy part of your club’s meetings. When the CL manual is second nature to the members of your club, you’ll be pleasantly and easily learning leadership skills that help you everyday.

Successful Club Series - Mentoring

John Schneyer presents Mentoring from the Successful Club Series

Part 1:

From Videos

Part 2:

From Videos

District 47 Spring Conference 2010

Click here for a few pictures from this past weekend's Toastmasters District 47 Spring Conference and Contests.

John Schneyer


DSC00310
Originally uploaded by jjschneyer

Meeting Roles Guidelines Now on the Online Roster

Fellow Toastmasters,

In the hope of making information on our meeting roles easier to find, I have added a tab to our online roster. The tab is "Meeting Roles Guidelines" and can be found at the bottom of the page right next to the "Weekly Agenda" tab.

You will find a list of our meeting roles and links or, where we don't have links, a brief explanation of the role.

You can find this information by clicking here.

In 2 weeks I will be giving a presentation from the Successful Club Series on Meeting Roles. Please take some time to familiarize yourself with all of our roles and, prepare in advance for any you are filling.

Give me a call with any questions and, as always, feel free to post comments below.

John Schneyer
Vice President, Education

The Magic of Mentoring

This is my weekly VPE post.

I will be giving the Mentoring presentation from The Successful Club Series next week so thought it appropriate to include a link about mentoring from the Toastmasters site. Click here to prepare for the presentation and, check the author's name on The Magic of Mentoring portion of the link.

John Schneyer
Vice President, Education

Fellow Toastmasters,

My weekly VPE post is early this week because I found something I don't want to forget to share with you.

Craig Valentine is the World Champion of Speaking from 1999. You can find a lot of great information at this link:

http://www.craigvalentine.com/speech/articles.php

and you can sign-up for a tip from Craig each week for 52 weeks here: http://www.52speakingtips.com/

Today's topic is one of Craig's:

Ignite your Audience with your Introduction

Here is a traditional introduction speakers use:

Do yourself a favor and read the following paragraph out loud as if you are using it to introduce the next speaker for an event.

Our Next Speaker is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking. With more than 175,000 Toastmasters in 68 countries, and over 25,000 contestants, he came home with the first prize trophy and a significant amount of national and international recognition. In addition, our speaker is absolutely oblivious to the fact that we could care less what he has done and that we are much more interested in what we will be able to do after hearing him. Moreover, our speaker seems to have no idea that we are simply hoping for his autobiographical introduction to end so we can start clapping as if we are interested. Finally, he does not realize that we are beginning to say to ourselves, "His entire introduction is about him; therefore I bet his entire speech is about him also. Why did I even come here today?" So, with that said, please help me welcome to the stage, the person who would have the least effective introduction in history if it were not for the thousands of other presenters who have introductions just like his; the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, Craig Valentine.

What's Wrong with that Introduction?

Do you get the point? How similar is your introduction to my old one that you read above? Is it about you or is it about what your audience will get out of your speech? Everything you do should be about the audience, including your introduction.

Your introduction flavors your entire speech. You can use it to get the audience fired up and excited about what they are going to hear, or you can use it to boost yourself up in their eyes. You can use it to whet their appetite with the valuable tools they are sure to get from your presentation, or, again, you can use it to boost yourself up in their eyes. Here is one thing I know for sure; once I changed my introduction from me-focused to you-focused, I gave myself an extreme advantage before I even said one word.

5 Guideposts to Fire Up Your Audience with your Introduction

An effective introduction is the difference between starting off in a hole or on solid ground. Here are some nuts and bolts tools you can use in your introduction to get off to a great start with your very next speech. Do not go into your next speech without them.

1. Start it off about them. Make your very first sentence about them. Instead of starting off with "Our next speaker today is the 1999 World Champion…" start with something like the following:

There is a definite process for keeping your audiences on the edge of their seats. It is not easy to come by and it is not easy to use. However, once you master it, you WILL find doors opening for you that you never even knew existed.

You might have noticed there were 5 you (or your) words used in those two sentences. Make it you-focused first. Start with them not with yourself. How many you-related words are in your introduction? Count them and make sure there are many more you-related words than there are I-related words.

2. Make a promise. Let them know not only what they will get, but also what those tools will empower them to do and to receive. In the example above, I tell them they will get a process that empowers them to keep their audiences on the edge of their seats and rewards them with more open doors and opportunities. That is a pretty compelling promise. What compelling promise do you make with your introduction?

3. Build your credibility but only with your relevant credentials – For example, I have a specific introduction for my teambuilding workshops. This specific introduction includes a piece that mentions how I won 3 consecutive East Coast Conference Championships and played in 2 NCAA March Madness tournaments as a college basketball player. Because this part of my history relates to teams, it belongs in this introduction on teambuilding.

However, as proud as I am about those basketball accomplishments, do you think they belong in my introduction if the speech is about presentation skills? If I was sitting in the audience and I heard the introducer say, "Our presentation coach today was also a college basketball player," I know I would be thinking, "Well, while he was dribbling up and down the court, was he giving speeches? If not, why do I care about his basketball past?" Only use the relevant information no matter how well-rounded you are. Even if you are extremely proud of something, if it does not fit, do not force it. Instead, leave it out. Is all the information in your introduction relevant to the subject at hand?

4. Use the introduction to set up something in your speech - For example, when I begin speaking, I often call back to my introduction by saying the following:"Do you know, that even with all those accolades, people still do not like me? Do you know why they do not like me?"

Then I go into a humorous story about why they do not like me, but it all is set up by the accolades (relevant ones) in my introduction. Find ways to make your introduction seamlessly feed into your speech. How do you currently tie your speech back into your introduction

5. Take everything about you and turn it into everything for them. If you do this, your audience will be ready and excited to receive your message. For example, instead of stating "Craig Valentine is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking" I could make that actually matter to them by saying, "The process you will pick up today helped our speaker become the 1999 World Champion and you can use it to become a speaker in high-demand." Do you get it? Turn everything about you into something for them. Doing this will get them fired up to hear your message. It tickles me now because when the introducer gets to the end up my introduction, he or she usually says, "Are you ready for the process?" At this point people actually begin yelling out, "Yes!" That is some great energy to walk into for a speech. Are you turning everything about you into everything for them?

Follow the 5 guideposts listed here and watch as your audience leans forward in their seats and anxiously awaits your presentation. That is how you ignite your audience with your introduction.

What's your opinion on Craig's suggestions? Please comment below.

John Schneyer

Vice President, Education

Weekly VPE Post - Meeting Roles

Fellow Toastmasters, this is my weekly Vice President, Education post.

I think it's great to have a club with such diversity and am happy to see we have continued to bring in new members.

Based on some questions asked about meeting roles at the end of this week's meeting and my observation of how some roles were handled the past few weeks, I offer the following:

Please check the guidelines for the role you are filling in advance so you can do research and prepare properly. Links are included below. If you have questions about your role after reading the guidelines, please call your mentor, the Toastmaster of the Meeting, the General Evaluator, or the Vice President, Education. We will be happy to help you.

When you are giving the Inspiration:
Give an inspirational story, quote, anecdote, or idea that is a maximum of one
minute. It should be directed toward personal growth and, if possible, the
theme of the meeting.

When you are giving the Small Tip:

The purpose of the Small Tip is to give a brief educational tip on a particular subject related to public speaking or meeting protocol. It can be original material created by the speaker or a restatement of material from another source. If another source is used, the other source should be credited. The Small Tip should be a maximum of three minutes.

We seem to have been getting a little lax in both timing and content for the Small Tip in particular. Both the Small Tip and Inspiration are speaking roles that require some planning and rehearsal. Please make sure your topics conform to the guidelines.

Here are links to information on our meeting roles. All can be found at the club website: http://www.bocaratontoastmasters.org/

Sample Meeting Agenda
Meeting Guidelines & Protocol
Inspiration Guidelines
Small Tip Guidelines
Toastmaster Guidelines
Toastmaster Preparation Guidelines
Timer Guidelines
Ah Counter Guidelines
Grammarian Guidelines
Table Topic Guidelines
Speaker Guidelines
General Evaluator Guidelines
Evaluator Guidelines
Meeting Minutes Template

Please offer any comments below. Thanks to all for making our meetings increasingly valuable.

Thank you,
John Schneyer
Vice President, Education

The Unexpected Benefits of Toastmasters

John Schneyer delivering Speech #5 from the Technical Presentations manual. This video is in 2 parts as it exceeds YouTube's 10 minute time limit.

Part 1


Part 2