Thursday, September 5, 2013


WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON I’VE LEARNED FROM TOASTMASTERS

 
I Spent 44 Years In The Workforce With Over 30 Of Those In Management.

As A Manager My Responsibilities Required Me To Assemble And Supervise Teams Of People, Organize Trade Shows, Sales Meetings And Seminars That Included New Products Training.

In My Personal Life I Convened A Fastball League, Organized Fastball Tournaments And Literally Hundreds Of Golf Tournaments And Curling Bonspiels.

I Didn’t Join Toastmasters To Improve My Communication And Leadership Skills But To Use My 3 Decades Of Experience To Help Teach Others Overcome Their Fear Of Public Speaking And To Improve Their Leadership Skills.

Now, With All That Leadership Experience You May Ask “What Could I Possibly Learn From Toastmasters”?

My Most Valuable Lesson Was My High Performance Leadership Project. Those Who Have Completed It Know It Contains 5 Individual Projects.

1.  Learning About Leadership

2.  Choosing Your Objective

3.  Winning Commitment To Your Objective

4.  Working The Plan

5.  Analyzing And Presenting Your Results

It Is The First Project (Learning About Leadership) I Wish To Address As That Is The Project That Taught Me A Most Valuable Lesson.

3 Key Elements Of That Project Are:

VISION, MISSION STATEMENT AND CORE VALUES.

The Vision Part Was Easy As I Visualize Pretty Much Everything, The Results Of A Golf Or Curling Shot Or A Given Project.

It Was The Mission Statement And Core Values That Taught Me The Most.

I Think Back To All Those Events I Organized And Realized How Much Easier Those Events Would Have Been Had I Written A Mission Statement And Listed The Core Values.

For Those Interested In Improving Their Leadership Skills I Encourage you to Select An HPL Project. I Guarantee You Will Be Surprised At What You Will Learn.

I Was 66 When I Did Mine So You’re Never Too Old To Learn.

Al Steele

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