Looking for mentors

Preparing for all of the new leaders

My last blog post was an attempt to distinguish two different leadership styles, a direct and a very defined directive of expectations and a softer more subtle and encouraging approach. In the boxing gym and as a Navy SEAL the first more stringent manner of leadership is what I became accustomed to. However I stumbled onto the benefit of encouragement when I trained military dependent kids while I was stationed in the Republic of Panama.  I had a kid that I could not force to do anything and then one day he threw a left hook perfectly, on his own and I noticed and got all excited about it and before I knew it he was doing all kinds of things right and so were the other kids after hearing the praise I directed toward him. Then I heard a quote by Dexter Yeager the top producer for AMWAY as “You can only get negative when the horse is in the barn”. Then when I joined Toastmaster in 1994 I was part of a really good group, a whole bunch of us joined around the same time and the club sponsored a Speech Crafters training and six of us all reach the level of Certified Toastmaster at the same time. It was exciting to see that kind of participation.

I have just recently been elected to the position of Vice President of Public Relations for HUB CityToastmasters and at the new officers training the announced that Toastmasters International is changing their member development to be more customized by actually finding out what the Toastmasters member wish to accomplish and actually define which skills they wish to develop through Toastmasters. This got me so excited! If someone wishes to become a better teacher or trainer, work on sales presentations, become a motivational or entertaining speaker. Now the individual Toastmaster can determine exactly the direction they wish to go and how fast they get there. If they wish to be pushed and perfected they can choose will do that for them or if they wish a more subtle manner of drawing their natural talents as they are ready for them to come out they can choose to be mentored in this fashion also. It is up to the individual and their own expectations. I am so excited about this new development but it will not be implemented until November but between now and then we need to gear up and bring in Toastmasters who are up to the task of developing these new members who are going to line up to map their own success through Toastmasters.

HUB City Toastmasters meets Wednesdays 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Pharr Memorial Library, 121 E. Cherokee, 2nd floor Meeting Room, in Pharr TX. https://www.facebook.com/HUBCityToastmasters1297787.