Beginning with the End in Mind

The following is my address for Division A’s Achievers Day, held on the 20^th June 2020.

Toastmasters has a tagline that claims, “Where Leaders are Made”.  That is not true.  We cannot make such a claim when we do not have a proper leadership development programme.  What we have is an executive training programme focused on effective communication, team management, relationship development.  These are ingredients for leadership, but that is not leadership.

There are many definitions of what a leader is.  However, many definitions conflate a leader with a manager.  A manager manages resources, people, budget, programmes.  He is the steady hand at the tiller, ceteris paribas.  And Toastmasters creates a lot of managers.  We manage the club, the Area, the Division, the District.  We manage expectations, funds, time.  That is not leadership.  Being the president of a club, the division director, the District Director; none of that makes us leaders.

Leadership is more than that.  Leadership is the ability to let go, and let people grow.  Leadership is the skill of choosing a team, and turning water carriers into generals.  Leadership is about developing strong characters who will challenge us, sharpen us, push us to the limits.  Leadership is to inspire people, and make them feel that they are part of something greater than themselves.  Leadership is to challenge the status quo, to shake the foundations of inertia, and rattle the rust of ossification.

When we step up, we begin with the end in mind.  Just as our beginning is the end of our predecessor’s term, our ending is the beginning of our successor’s.  We have to understand that, and plan for that.  As the Division Director Elect, for Division G, I am not here to clock my time, to make up the numbers, to fit in.  I am here to make a difference, I am here to change things, I am here to win.  To that end, I believe in planning as if I am going to war.

At the end of 2019, we  had a discussion at my club, AIA Toastmasters, and it was a collective decision that I consider running for Division Director.  To that end, by the end of January, the sitting Division Director was informed, and we had already prepared the strategic plan for the next three years.  By the end of March, we had the core team in place.  By the April, the entire Division Council was in place.  We had our Division Council meeting in the fortnight after it was confirmed I was Division Director Elect.  In that time, we had trained our Area Directors, put in place our timetable of action, and begun conversations with clubs in the Division.

Putting together a team meant finding the best and brightest.  Personally, I do not believe that we should be limited to people from the Division only.  That sort of tribalism is for small-minded people.  When we want to succeed, we take the best and brightest, regardless of club or Division.  We want people with this burning desire to win, and win in the most brutally efficient manner.  And that meant finding people of strong character, who would challenge my decisions, and keep me focused.

My Division Council is exceptionally large – 18 people.  There are ten Distinguished Toastmasters.  I will be the 11^th by the end of the year.  Out of these people, eight of them are from outside the Division.  They include our triple District champion, and future world champion, Ng Kin Foong,  They include senior people such as Robert Ng, Sivanesan K. Murugayan, and Mohamad Saddiqi bin Mohamad Said.  I wanted the best and brightest, and I went for them.

When picking our team, we must consider first, values, then ability.  Ability without values is an impediment.  People with the correct values, on the other hand, can be cultivated.  I got both.  I picked people who have tried and failed because failure is the best teacher.  There is little worth in successful people who have never dealt with defeat.  I chose people based on what they do outside of Toastmasters.  We have, in Toastmasters, many people who speak well.  That is the nature of our organisation.  But how many of us have experienced that after all was said and done, a lot was said, and nothing was done?  We are not here to entertain hot air.

The Division Council of 2020/2021 begins with the end in mind.  Accordingly, we plan for the Council of 2021/2022.  We will identify candidates for the next Council, and afford them an opportunity to shadow the current Council, and retain institutional knowledge.  They will be invited into the executive training programme to align their mindset with that of the current team to promote continuity, and growth.  This should be the practice of succeeding Councils.  We should always plan immediately for succession and handover.  We begin with the end in mind.

Why do we need all this?  This is because, for too long, Toastmasters have existed in a bubble.  We do not have proper handover of roles, no proper documentation process, no strategic vision.  We had no leadership, and we exercise no leadership.  This is the real reason why our membership has dropped 20%.  Covid-19 is an excuse.  People were looking for reasons to leave, and the pandemic provided it.

We are not going to fix this by chartering more clubs.  Most of these new clubs will die by the next three terms.  We are not going to fix this by running speechcraft.  Speechcraft programmes are a waste of time and effort.  We are not going to fix things doing the same tired programmes over and over and over again.  And that is what we have been served up – more of the same.

If we want people to subscribe to Toastmasters, we must understand what people want, and sit on their side of the table.  Most of us make the mistake of trying to appeal to the same things we like.  We fail to ask what is in it for them.  We have failed to appeal to their self-interest.  We have forgotten what it was like to be new.  Nobody joins Toastmasters to be a better speaker.  People seek to communicate effectively because of something they want.  Rhetoric is a means, not the ends.  As such, we need to shape how we present the programme to corporations, to organisations, to groups of people.  And then, we need to believe in their journey, and be there for that, until these people can stand by themselves.  We are not going to charter clubs for the sake fit to fulfill an artificial target.  That is not leadership.  That is being a civil servant.

The immediate goal for the new term is to set the standard we want to achieve, which is to be the absolute best.  This is part of our personal as well as professional branding.  We need to instill this burning desire to be better than the last term, and cultivate a culture of pride in excellence.  The role of the Council is to instill this burning desire to be better than the last term.  Not one step back.  Ever.  We will never settle for mediocrity.  We will never do just enough.  The goal is excellence on all fronts.  I hope you will all join us in that endeavour, and drive us to those heights.  Together.