Being a Human Resource professional, one thing that I never failed to do was to talk to my employees about great leaders who inspired the masses to perform well. I used to prepare PowerPoint presentations filled with leadership lessons stirred by great leaders like Dr. Abdul Kalam, Jack Welch and Mother Teresa. Every month my presentations changed but the desired behavioural changes was never evident among my employees. With all doors closed, I quizzed myself if there was any other way to make my employees become good leaders.
That was the time when I took over as the President of Chennai Toastmasters Club and in the next six months I got the answer to my question.
Initially I thought leading a club that brags of more than 80 members and great speakers was always a cake walk.
Soon I was in for a shock. True to the words, that the devil is in the detail, going through the member’s achievements, all I could see was, there were only handful of good speaker’s and evaluators who have played the dominant role and ensured that the quality of club meetings was kept high. We were at times made to feel handicapped by their absence.
That was the time my team identified few good talents who with little encouragement and opportunity had the potential to become great speaker’s and evaluators.
Those talents always existed in Chennai toastmasters but somehow, somewhere along the path they were not made to unleash their potential.
We as a team spoke to them, encouraged them, and helped them to perform better. Things weren’t as easy as I have penned down. People did fail at times. They wanted to throw their hands up and surrender. But we knew that those failures were needed to create better future for the club. Since then, whenever member’s failed, we lend them the helping hand, encouraged them and provided them the opportunity to excel.
That’s how we created better speakers, better evaluators and better leaders in Chennai toastmasters club.
The greatest leadership lesson I learnt from my term was that “Identify talent; provide them the opportunity and conducive environment to excel. Soon you will be amazed by their achievement”.
Today I no longer prepare leadership presentations for my employees instead I put them on the job, create a conducive environment and encourage them to perform well.
Thanks to toastmasters movement which taught me a leadership lesson that I never learnt even during my management lectures.
That was the time when I took over as the President of Chennai Toastmasters Club and in the next six months I got the answer to my question.
Initially I thought leading a club that brags of more than 80 members and great speakers was always a cake walk.
Soon I was in for a shock. True to the words, that the devil is in the detail, going through the member’s achievements, all I could see was, there were only handful of good speaker’s and evaluators who have played the dominant role and ensured that the quality of club meetings was kept high. We were at times made to feel handicapped by their absence.
That was the time my team identified few good talents who with little encouragement and opportunity had the potential to become great speaker’s and evaluators.
Those talents always existed in Chennai toastmasters but somehow, somewhere along the path they were not made to unleash their potential.
We as a team spoke to them, encouraged them, and helped them to perform better. Things weren’t as easy as I have penned down. People did fail at times. They wanted to throw their hands up and surrender. But we knew that those failures were needed to create better future for the club. Since then, whenever member’s failed, we lend them the helping hand, encouraged them and provided them the opportunity to excel.
That’s how we created better speakers, better evaluators and better leaders in Chennai toastmasters club.
The greatest leadership lesson I learnt from my term was that “Identify talent; provide them the opportunity and conducive environment to excel. Soon you will be amazed by their achievement”.
Today I no longer prepare leadership presentations for my employees instead I put them on the job, create a conducive environment and encourage them to perform well.
Thanks to toastmasters movement which taught me a leadership lesson that I never learnt even during my management lectures.
