Members of Rio Copa Toastmasters with the assistance from other Toastmasters in District 3 have just completed our Success Leadership High Performance Leadership Project!  

In this project we planned, promoted, and hosted four seperate events to present the four Success Leadership Modules from Toastmasters International:

02/19/10: Leadership, Part I: Characteristics of Effective Leaders:

In this presentation we talked about the various leadership styles and how the leader can and must adapt their leadship style to meet the needs of their team.  Participants first graphed their leaderhsip style and then the needs of their team to determing their leadership match and leaderhip gaps.
The coordinators where Sally Goodwin, JD Austin, and Michael Mur.

This presentation covered skills and techniques needed to be an effective leader, such as contracting for excellence, team-building, motivation and coaching. The coordinators were Patrick Fitzgerald and Yolanda Stokes. 

In this presentation participants discovered the qualities of effective teams and how to build a team. Topics covered include developing team relations, encouraging commitment, fostering collaboration, building trust and resolving conflict.  The coordinators were Evelyn Adams, Susan Damron, and  Michael Trier.

The ability to understand and apply parliamentary skills is a much sought-after quality among managers and leaders. This presentation covered how to effectively lead and participate in parliamentary-style discussions.  The coordinators were Janet Nash, Steven Martindale, and Dave Endres.

Special thanks go people that participated in more than their own event:
Mike Trier, Susan Damron, Mike Mur and especially Patrick Fitzgerald that participated in all of the events as did the project leader JD Austin.

JD Austin's Team of Advisors were Steve Broe (Thank you Steve for attending practice runs and providing valuable feedback!), Emi Bauer, and Patrick Fitzgerald.

Patrick Fitsgerald  attended all of the practice runs and other meetings except for one, all of the events, and all of the advisor meetings THANK YOU PATRICK!

This project helped coordinators and planners achieve Toastmasters educational goals:

• 11 coordinators to complete a difficult requirement for their Advanced Communicator Gold projects
• 16 to complete project #6 'Help organize club special event' project in their Competent Leadership manual
• 4 to complete 'Chair club special event' for the team building project #10 in the Competent Leadership manual.
• 2 to complete High Performance Leadership projects

More about the High Performance Leadership Project below.

The High Performance Leadership Project from Toastmasters International is a project that requires a leader, a team, and a team of advisors.  Areas covered in a High Performance Leadership Project:

Service Leadership

Service leadership requires the capacity to lead both with a focus on service to those benefiting from the end result, and those who do the work in achieving the objectives. Such leadership requires working with a spirit and set of values that emphasize worthwhile contributions. Service leaders see their role as enabling or empowering others to accomplish something worthy.

Six Dimensions of effective Leadership:

Vision and Values

Good leaders visualize what they would like to have happen, they can understand what is happening now, and they decide what needs to be done to make their vision become a reality.

Direction

Good Leaders help people accomplish tasks necessary to turn the vision into reality.  Good Leaders set goals, establish priorities and delegate responsibility as necessary.

Persuasion

Good Leaders persuade others to see, understand and believe in their vision. When others believe as you do, they are more likely to commit themselves to achieving your objective.

Support

Good Leaders encourage creativity. When the team encounters problems, Good leaders provide the guidance necessary to resolve the problems quickly and effectively.

Development

Good Leaders provide opportunities for their team members to fulfill their own needs and goals. Good Leaders challenge team members to learn new skills, but make it clear that they are expected to work hard.

Appreciation

Good Leaders know that their team members need to be appreciated, and readily recognize the team members with praise for their efforts and accomplishments.

A Brief Look at the Program

The Program has five parts each with a three-part learning process, Study, Action and Feedback.

Study

Study presents information that should be learnt and sets out ways to go about achieving your end result for that section.

Action

This section contains an easy way to plan your actions and consider other things that you need to do to complete this section.

Feedback

You will have a guidance committee and when you reach the end of each part (part 1 to part 5); you will convene a meeting with this committee and discuss what has been done. The members of your guidance committee should provide you with feedback, which will equip you to continue on with the project.

Part 1: Learning About Leadership

·         Assess your knowledge of leadership

·         Assess your leadership skills

·         Select a project

·         Recruit a guidance committee

·         Convene a meeting with your guidance committee

Part 2: Choosing Your Objectives

·         Describe your vision

·         Write your mission statement

·         Define you core values

·         Plan your speech to your club

·         Review your speech with your guidance committee

·         Present your speech to the club

Part 3: Winning Commitment

·         Recruit your action team

·         Agree on your vision, mission and core values

·         Create an action strategy

·         Identify key result areas

·         Develop action plan

·         Convene a meeting with your guidance committee

Part 4: Working the Plan

·         Review your progress against your action plan

·         Identify and overcome any problems

·         Handle any conflict

·         Re-evaluate overall plan

·         Convene a meeting with your guidance committee

Part 5: Analyzing and Presenting Your Results

·         Plan your speech to the club

·         Review the speech with your guidance committee

·         Present your speech to your club.

·         Complete “Leadership Excellence Award” and send to T.I.