TDKtalks – Speaking Your Way to Better Leadership

In this show I interview Marvin Henry, DTM,  Chief Judge for Division C of District 42. Henry has been a Toastmaster since 1995. He is past-president of the Igniters Club, VP Education of Calgary Advanced Club (CATS). Marvin has held several leadership positions in Toastmasters. October is the month for our Fall club, area, division & district Humorous & Table Topics Speech Contests. It is only fitting that I bring lite onto judging speeches & being a judge. In this interview, Marvin tells us how he became a Chief Judge and what is involved in Judging. Marvin maintains a list of members who like to be called upon to judge at local club, area or division. So when contest time rolls around, club & district execs only need to contact Marvin when they are short of judges. These members also have access to judges training to become proficient. So check in your specific Division or District for the same. There is no denying that being a speech contest judge several times will help in improving your performance and ranking for the judges. You know what the judges are looking for, so now you can give it to them. It will help round you out as both a speaker and a judge. I also talk about being an Area Governor and that the Fall Speech Contest (or Spring Contest) is the main venue for us AG’s. I conclude the show with my traditional “Tip of the Show”. Be sure to send me your comments or just write on my BLOG above. – You might also like Show #017 – Spring Means Convention Time or Show #011 – The Anatomy of a Speech

Are you an innerpreneur? Do you use or need Strategic Marketing? Can you make use of Creative Communications? In this show I interview Ms. Tara Joyce, an innerpreneur, strategic marketer, and creative communications consultant. Find her at elasticmind.ca Tara provides independent value-driven business owners with strategic marketing and creative communications support and inspiration. Not only is Tara a coach & strategic marketing guru, but she also writes innovative excerpts on her blog Rise of the Innerpreneur. Her blog format is inviting, inspiring, easy to read & thought provoking. I came across her website after 2 months of exhaustive reviews of websites. I was planning my branding and design of my website. My goal was to create a collaborative, 2-way, socially interactive website. Did I succeed? I’ll let you be the judge. Regardless of how good your ideas are, marketing is key! You have to be able to deliver those ideas. The new techniques always make your ideas stand out. In this interview, Tara tells us what she does and how, in her consulting business, after only 2 years of its launch. She is also available to do presentations. After finding her blog – Rise of the Innerpreneur and subscribing, I began regular readings and was inspired enough to interview her. I found it applicable to us Toastmasters, as we grow in speaking & leadership skills. For more detail on INNERpreneurship, you can read my article on Ezinearticles – INNERpreneurship – The Rise of Self Destiny I open the show with my home-grown, “Tip of the Show”. Tried PodPoster yet ? PodPoster lets you send your audio comments to the podcaster from your iPhone, iPod or iPad. Just find the podcast in the directory and with just a few taps, your audio comment is delivered. For podcasters, its an effecient way of getting timely feedback. You can use the audio feedback directly in your show. – You might also enjoy this interview Show #021 – Interview with Nicky Kriel – Life Coach – NLP ...

I am joined by my special guest co-host and Competent Leadership mentor,  Christina. We open the show by discussing our activities and features we took in at our District 42 Spring Convention. So what goes on at a Spring Convention? Well, quite a bit. Every Toastmaster on the globe knows it as the face off battle for the coveted World Championship of Public Speaking or WCPS. The winner proceeds to the world stage. That is at the annual Toastmasters International Convention. There is also the more mundane, but still very important administrative tasks. One such is the business meeting. Want to know why we practise parliamentary procedures in our regular meetings? Watch a well run biz meeting and it will become self evident. Every club should ensure to have 1 or 2 biz meetings each month. And the educationals are also a big attraction. Sometimes they are people from outside the Toastmasters realm. Most certainly, there is something there for every aspect of a well rounded toastmaster. Every district has their own. They are addictive however; but a GOOD addictive. For everyone, the spring conventions are a great way to network. You meet new toastmasters and re-affirm past connections. After I take in some educationals there, I go to my feature interview with Ms. Sarah Imran. Sarah presented an educational which I took in entitled Conversations Powered by Technology Just for You. In her 45 minute presentation, Sarah spoke about how the 5 most popular social network tools today, being Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, YouTube and WordPress are used. These make up a collaborative power of online communities, which cannot be ignored. PodPoster is a great new way to send your short (less than 30 sec) audio feedback via your iPhone, iPod or iPad. Find it on iTunes by clicking on its icon from my website. – You might also like Show #019 – Be The Judge at Speech Contests or Show #011 – The Anatomy of a Speech –

Having a mentor YOU can rely on; Toastmasters and non-Toastmasters alike. In todays’ interview, I talk with Dianna Booher of Booher Consultants. Her website is www.booher.com Being connected with someone who is sincere about YOU achieving YOUR SUCCESS is a good start. She is someone you can trust to help srengthen your leadership skills. My regular show format is pre-empted so that I can bring you this interview I had with Dianna Booher, Founder and CEO of Booher Consultants, a communications training firm. Her article appears on page 12 of the February, 2010 issue of the TOASTMASTER magazine. Her article titled, “The Link Between Language and Leaders” describes how leaders have to be careful at what language they use to speak and write. Wether your writing is e-mail, proposals or handouts, your choice of words is important. The proper use of the language we use “play a tremendous role in a person’s ability to lead and influence others“, she states. She asks, “Are you working to develop your leadership skills? If you are, then you should pay attention to this caveat: Language shapes thinking” She also states, “The importance of language to career and social standing is, with few exceptions, a universal issue. People from all cultures insist that proper language separates the wealthy from the poor, the educated from the uneducated – and most important of all – the leaders from the folloers.” Her firm has trained countless people in various countries in the proper usage of grammer. Being able to write correct business communications is also her forte. She has authored 44 books to date covering the full gamut of communications from writing, speaking, vocabulary and leadership development. She tells me because she travels so much, she can put her concepts to words and write, beit in an airplane or a hotel room. Take her FREE online grammar test of 25 questions at www.HowsYourGrammar.com Be sure to read her complete article in the February, 2010 issue and check out her website – www.booher.com – You might also like Show #021 – Interview with Nicky Kriel – Life Coach – NLP Facilitator or Show #030 – “Achieve Your Greatness !” – An Interview

This show is specifically directed to NON-Toastmasters. I explain what a Toastmaster is all about and hilite the many attributes being a Toastmaster helps to develop. One very important attribute is CONFIDENCE. Everyone can always use more confidence. LEADERSHIP is also an equally large part of the organization. Leadership is a highly sought after skillset in society. Regardless of what you do, these 2 human attributes are always with you. There is always a demand for outstanding leaders in our workplace or community. You can lose jobs, friends or move. But these stay with you. They form a persons heart and soul. Everybody joins and goes thru Toastmasters working on different skill sets which they realize is important to them and needs improving. Like most regularly exercised tasks such as combing our hair, washing our face or doing our laundry, we seldom if ever, think about keeping our softskills maintained. The regular, usually weekly, meetings do just that. Joining Toastmasters is not expensive. It’s also a great way to meet new people and network. Everyone develops their own speaking style. By learning around a club full of mentors, you can observe from others how thier skillsets have been honed to work for them. The Toastmasters organization has been around for 85+ years and began in California in 1924. I follow with my traditional, “Tip of the Show”. In this episode of “Of Worthy Mention” I discuss the article on Page 8 of the February 2010 TOASTMASTER mag, “Leadership Lessons from Olympic Athletes“. Seeing that the 2010 Winter Games from Whistler, British Columbia, Canada were closing off their 17 day spectacle, I found it fitting to talk about this article. I wrap up the show emphasizing that my previous Show #014 (below) covered our TLI of Jan/2010 which had for its’ theme, the same theme of these 2010 Winter Olympics, “Do You Believe?”. I congratulate ALL athletes who competed at these 2010 Winter Games as they are ALL winners getting that far to compete against the “Best in the World”. – You might also like Show #001 – The Inaugural Show or Show #008 – Social Networking Tools for Toastmasters –

In this show I take my “roaming mic” to our Jan/2010 Toastmasters Leadership Institute TLI. That’s where I ask attendees for their feedback on what they like and get out of the TLI. Senior members of Toastmaster clubs from all over our city are the trainers. So incoming executives get a good cross section of experience in their training. The fastest way to come up to speed is to mentor under experienced member executives. Why reinvent the wheel and make the same mistakes, right? Eventually you may consider becoming a district exective in your own toastmaster location. Being an executive in your club is the first step to get you there. When I first became a club executive, VP Education I believe, I realized it is the first step at honing my leadership skills. I had to encourage, excite, sometimes even coerce members to take roles in club meetings or deliver a speech. Many times, most of us have to be nudged to step out of our comfort zone. I think it is the default that we naturally seclude to our comfort zone. It’s like that adage, “Stick with what you know”. It’s our comfort zone. Since then I have also served as Treasurer, VP Education (again), VP Membership and even President. I learned that by stepping outside of my comfort zone, I could look forward to rewarding growth in my leadership foray. It was fun making it but I still can’t believe how private people become when they see a mic coming at them. Also, noticed how much more reserved and stiff people become in their speaking once they are being recorded. I open the show with my “Tip of the Show”. I then discuss the VIEWPOINT article from the February issue of TOASTMASTER mag. I present the feature live interviews from our local TLI. I round out my show with “Of Worthy Mention”, where I feature and discuss 1 select article from the February TOASTMASTER mag. – You will also like this recent interview Show #018 – Are YOU an Innerpreneur? or Show #016 – A Mentor YOU can Rely on – Interview with Dianna Booher

In this show I share my notes from being VP Membership at my Silver Springs Toastmasters club and what I did creatively to increase membership numbers and member satisfaction. Coincidentally, it was when we had a super executive and I felt we were firing on all cylinders. We 7 executives also meshed well and nothing fell thru the cracks. We had good leadership in our President. In this podcast, I give you a number of my tips, many of which I innovated myself when I was VP Membership. All I did was consider what was important to me as an early member. I then implemented procedures that would reflect that to all other members, especially the new members. Don’t forget the guests also. They are very important and when they visit your club, you have to capture them their first visit. Consider that most will not come back the second time. So ensure you greet them, talk to them and sit with them thru your meeting. Making them feel a part of the club is a sure way to capture their interest. By doing so, they feel like they belong and that a Toastmaster meeting is something they could learn to enjoy and grow into. There is nothing worse than feeling like we don’t belong. That is the primary reason people move on. Some say they find our meetings intimidating. I discuss the VIEWPOINT article from the Jan/2010 issue of the TOASTMASTER mag. I provide a “Tip of the Show” and conclude with “Of Worthy Mention”, where I feature an article from the Jan / 2010 TOASTMASTER mag. – You will also like; Show #004 – Finding New Members for Your Club or Show #007 – 7 Executives in 7 Minutes – Which Club Exec Should YOU Be? –

In this show I feature 1 of many club roles, that being the General Evaluator or GE. What value does a General Evaluator add? How does being a General Evaluator add to your leadership skills? In a Toastmasters club meeting, the General Evaluator evaluates the overall meeting. I reflect on my recent role of being GE at my home club meeting and explain what went wrong. I try to pass forward the tips I learnt along with some new perspective of the General Evaluator role. I hope others will consider this along with their own style of being the General Evaluator. Members look to the GE and their evaluation. It is especially helpful when the person is form outside the club. Those are usually more astute at picking up on details, despite how obvious, are sometimes overlooked by frequented members. Club members are build a tolerance to some bad practises and never report on it. They consider this the norm and no big deal. Even when a meeting is run correctly and smoothly, it is always good to learn some new process of carrying out a meeting. This helps to keep us flexible and open to new practises. Otherwise we become complacent and our learning becomes stifled. When you are GE and have to deliver critique, you realize it is 1 aspect of being a leader. You have to carefully choose your words so as not to discourage members but encourage, mentor and nurture. I discuss the VIEWPOINT article from the November TOASTMASTER mag, provide a “Tip of the Show” and conclude by hiliting 1 article from this November issue; “How a Hunter Captured his Game” – the introduction of Mark Hunter of Australia – this years winner of the “World Championship of Public Speaking” at the Toastmasters International Convention at Mashantucket, Connecticut. – You should also listen to Show #005 – The NEW Competent Leadership Manual – An Interview or Show #004 – Finding New Members for Your Club –

Writing a Speech can be a daunting task. For our clubs or contests, it only has to be 5 to 7 minutes. But so much has to be said in those few minutes. When you listen to a good speech, all time escapes you. In the end, you can’t tell if it was only 5 minutes or 50 in duration. To me, that is a sure sign of a GOOD speech. These helpful speech resources can give you a structured approach. First you have to know what your purpose is. Is it a call to action? Is it to educate your audience? Is it to make people aware of some situation? Or is it simply to entertain them using wit relating to everyday news? The purpose and means is almost endless, especially when you consider the addition of body language, facial expression and tonal variety to accent your delivery. For that reason, a speech to me becomes an artform; a work of art. Once written, you can tweak here, tweak there. You can fine tune it by adding a pause here and speeding up the last half of this sentence. Then, the numerous practise sessions give you a chance to polish the delivery. Because in the end, the speech has to achieve its purpose; whatever you decided on above. In this show I follow the elusive and mystical realm of a speech; beginning its complex path from conception, editing, practising and finally, delivery of “the message” or “call to action”, to your audience. Can it succeed? Will it succeed? Will “your message“ or “call to action” make it into most of your audiences’ action list? When presenting a speech to a Toastmasters or public audience – in a contest or just at your club – there are many challenges and obstacles in the way. I begin with the VIEWPOINT article from the 2009-Oct TOASTMASTER mag. I present the feature topic above. In “Of Worthy Mention” I hilite 1 article from this current TOASTMASTER mag – “Broadening Your Horizons” on page 24. – You will also like Show #019 – Be The Judge at Speech Contestsor or Show #002 – Distinguished Club Program DCP –

Before I write and record a podcast episode, I scour the internet, in some planned fashion. I come across some interesting and valuable websites for us Toastmasters. I bookmarked some of them on the left hand side of my website. Whenever I do have some spare time, I spend a few minutes within them. Some deal with Leadership. Others I began listening to just to improve my speaking by listening to others. Along the way, I even realized the content itself might give one ideas for their own speeches. The Elders is one on Leadership I came across. This group of select accomplished worldly leaders, go into countries long before conflicts escalate enough to have international media even bring us the story. They try to mediate the dispute and initiate an effort to a resolution. I found that inspiring as they do so on most of their personal funds. Talk about giving something back to society. TED – Ideas Worth Spreading –  is an US based series on YouTube which has phenomenal speakers delivering unbelievable speeches. There are some that I watch 2 or 3 times. If you want inspiration, education and even to be entertained, spend some time here. Many ideas to get us thinking and even get ideas for our own speeches. Canadian Voices – The Candian equivalent of TED.com above. Haling from Vernon, British Columbia, it is the product of Kootenay Co-op Radio. In this episode, I draw attention to these noteable links which I have discovered. I hilite VIEWPOINT from the September TOASTMASTER mag: The first official article from the incoming Toastmasters International President and the revelation of his Theme – I also give you my Tip of the Show.  In Of Worthy Mention, I Discuss a select article from the September TOASTMASTER magazine. – You will also like Show #003 – Club Website – Consider FreeToastHost & Why or Show #024 – Dawn of the INNERpreneur – Video (Fast Load) –

I review my year as Area Governor for 2008-09. It goes by so fast. When I started Toastmasters, just being a club executive was a daunting task. One goes into it apprehensive not knowing anything about it. Does failure loom? What if I don’t do the right things? Well, there is always a mentor or 2 within your club to help you out. You just have to ask. If not in your club, then perhaps in a neigbhoring club. What went well and what didn’t. You don’t want to stay as club executive too long as it can stifle your leadership growth. Being Area Governor also allows you to meet members and clubs outside your comfort zone. Usually we have to push ourselves, if someone else doesn’t. I also enjoyed seeing how other clubs have their ways of doing things. Not that it’s wrong, but that there are so many GOOD ways of running a club meeting. I found I could cross-polinate good attributes and habits from 1 club by suggesting such to another. I learned that whenever I do visit my area clubs, you should always either present an educational or just do a speech. You may be a new face to many of your area clubs, so they want to find out more about you. This is where I learned “Leadership by Example”. I present my “Tip of the Show” for all you aspiring incoming Area Governors. I review our outgoing Toastmasters International Presidents’ last VIEWPOINT article. I always make it a habit of reading every ViewPoint of each issue. Feedback is paramount for us to grow, even though sometimes it is difficult to receive, constructive feedback. In “Of Worthy Mention” I focus & discuss 1 select article from the 09-August issue of the TOASTMASTER magazine. I conclude by discussing an interesting tid-bit on leadership, read from the June 15 2009 issue of Canadian Business magazine – Page 77 TIPSHEET entitled “Ten is a Crowd: Companies too often use teams in all the wrong situations”. – You will also like Show #005 – The New Competent Leadership Manual – An Interview or Show #014 – TLI – What’s it to YOU! –

Social Networking Tools have inundated the internet. They have also taken us along in their abyss. Social Networks can easily become (and have) to many of us, a HUGE time sinkhole. FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ are the most common. As much as the internet is invaluable, it’s also taken us into forays of networking wasted time and productivity, that is, if not managed properly. No doubt social networks are another leap into mankinds quest to be connected, social and be good at networking. I am talking about mankinds foray into the social media realm. What is it? You’ve heard about it. Personal websites and blogs are other examples. Like anything “computer”, social networks are another test of how well we can manage our time. Because if you look at the offerings, and dare to get involved, it could easily consume, let’s say “seccund”,  every breathing moment of your day. I found some social networks are more social than others. And social networks are an irony in itself. Because it is virtual … really. In 99% of these social networks, you really do NOT get together. For example, how many times have we seen friends or family, at a restaurant or coffee shop, sitting inches away from each other with heads bowed, looking down and typing on their smart phones. They rarely say a word to each other. True irony isn’t it? Only 1 that I know about and used – MeetUp.com – has the sole purpose of bringing people together, face-to-face and in person. It could be weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Some MeetUP groups I joined, never ever had a meeting or got off the ground. So what’s the point, right? In this show I talk about several of the more productive social networking tools toastmasters can use to go about their speaking business. I reflect on leadership and my Area Governor role, which officially finished for all of us midnight of June 30, 2009. I also highlight 1 article from the May 2009 TOASTMASTER mag. I also provide the traditional “Tip of the Show”. – You will also like Show #003 – Club Website – Consider FreeToastHost & Why or Show #009 – My Area Governor Year in Review 2008-09 –

A Toastmasters club is run and managed by 7 club executives. I already was VP Membership. You soon learn it is all about Leadership and leading your club in the Distinguished Club Program. Seeing that this is Spring and with most of our speech contests done and the victorious contestants on their way to the World Championship of Public Speaking (WCPS), now before us are the nominations and eventual election of our new club execs for next year. So I thought it fitting to do a show on the club executive. Why would you want to be a club executive? Well, no one ever mentions it (though the position manuals lists “leadership” many times), but it is the first and suttle entry onto the “Leadership Track”. The 7 club execs steer the club and look after the members well being. Now that the newer members know the routine and are more relaxed amongst each other, they can consider becoming 1 of 7 execs and focusing on working closely with the other 6 execs. It isn’t all that much more work and gives a member more visibility both inside and out of the club. Since I started my TM trek, I have been (in order), Treasurer, VP Education, VP Membership, President (twice) and finally VP Education. The year went by fast but I learnt more about myself and about working with others also. It helped me acquire insight, especially now as I write to encourage others to consider such moves. With a choice of 7, each one providing a slightly different level of involvement, a prospective member need only ask the current exec for a synopsis of the position. I think the real gyst of these 7 positions is learning how to work as a TEAM. There is no real boundary to any position. Ideally there is slight overlap, but stopping short of stepping on each others toes, of course. The President is the one who has to keep all 6 motivated and working in harmony. Also, as leadership sometimes demands, if the President observes any of the 6 positions somewhat lacking and on a consistent basis, must in a constructive and motivating manner, get that position back on track, so they fulfill the minimum required. That is probably the more difficult attribute of a leader and not one that can be acquired over night. One probably learns more about themselves than others when confronted with the more challenging and demanding tasks of managing people. Of my 3 most current years as a club exec, there was 1 monumental year where I can say we 7 execs were “firing on all cylinders”. It was like “the perfect storm”. We had a very good President ( aka LEADER ) that kept all of us hopping but in a very fun, motivating and attentive manner. Even though we gained about 10+ new members, me as VP Membership did not feel any extra strain or effort required. Its the strangest thing to describe, somewhat difficult. BUT you can actually feel the accomplishment and sense of TEAM work. It was definetly a hilite for me that year as VP Membership. – You will also like Show #030 – “Achieve...

District 42 Spring Convention 2009 from Saskatoon, CANADA For this show I go live to the District 42 Spring Convention 2009 held in Saskatoon, SA, CANADA May 1, 2, 3. I interview an Educational Session presenter, most of the International Speech & Evaluation Contestants and special feature, I interview Toastmasters International President, Ms. Jana Barnhill. But my real treat was listening to the speech contestants insights into their speech performance. Delivering speeches, even at speech competitions can still lead one to personal growth and fruition. There is more than 1 way to win. If you can connect with the audience and leave several of them leaving motivated or moved, you have won. That is what it is really about. Winning that trophy is only icing on the cake ! I really enjoyed interviewing the speech contest contestants. – You will also like Show #028 – Turning Problems into Productivity – Project Management 101 or Show #027 – Triple DTM – Forever Learning –

The New Competent Leadership Manual – An Interview This is my first interview with my local “go to” Toastmaster on everything about the Competent Leadership (CL) Manual. Christina is an accomplished Toastmaster who is currently Area Governor for Area 10, Division G, District 42. She belongs to 2 clubs; Fluor Communicators and an advanced club, MVP Advanced Toastmasters. Christina has facilitated many TLI and training presentations on the Competent Leadership manual and how to implement it within your clubs. Before everything meeting starts, the sergeant-at-arms or the Toastmaster, should ensure ALL members have their competent leadership (CL) manual exchanged and being evaluated for the meeting role they are performing that meeting. If this happens at EVERY meeting in your Toastmaster year, I guarantee you, by June, you will have your CL manual done & credited. Evaluations are silent and short, so it is not any extra burden. This practise also allows you to learn how to multi-task and listen better. We started this at our club and believe me, every member is a better Toastmaster, thanks to this practise and the competent leadership manual. Christina has helped me immensely on understanding its many features and value. Over the course of the past 2+ years, since the Competent Leadership manual was unveiled by Toastmasters International, I attended 2 of her workshops and thought, “How best to further proliferate what I learnt, than by having Christina tell us all about the Competent Leadership manual herself”. As Area Governor, I also want to ensure my area clubs are doing their part in implementing the Competent Leadership manual within their membership. While performing this interview, I further enhanced my understanding and appreciation of the new Competent Leadership manual. Listen for yourself to Show #5 on my podcast site, http://www.tdktalks.com You might also like Show #023 – Dawn of the INNERpreneur – The Video or Show #020 – DCP Distinguished Club Program