In Commercial Organisation, Company Leaders, Managing Directors and Managers accomplished their goals by exercising their authority.
 

In real life, the most effective leaders are those who can influence others by earning their respect and ultimately gained that influence to lead by helping or enabling others to follow them.
 

Do you C and C?

A simple "Command and Control" style will not work in this changing world, as people now expect to foster positive personal relationships with their leaders, workers prefer relationship that will give them a sense of satisfaction in what they have done.
 

But there is a better way to lead .....

To Lead is To Serve, the Servant Leadership style is the best and most effective way to produce end result.

In Toastmasters International High Performance Leadership Programme, it has established the 6 Dimensions to be an effective Servant Leader.

This evening, I would like to present my High Performance Leadership Programme, as part of the requirement towards achievement of my Advanced Leadership status.

I am choosing a very recent project "Celebrate District 80 Achievers' Day" which was held on 22 Jan 2005, to show you, how I applied these 6 Dimensions in my Servant Leadership experience.
 

Vivadi Pesu Da

The 6 Dimensions are:

1. Vision and Values

2. Direction

3. Persuasion

4. Support

5. Development

6. Appreciation

Last term, our Club Leaders, IPP and Madam President, and me, were very excited when our LGET, Dr. Khong proposed Our Club to host the Achievers' Day for District 80.

I volunteered myself as the Organising Chair due to my close relationship with the District Officers and involvement with many Clubs as the District Webmaster.
 

I started my Servant Leadership experience using 6 Dimensions with our team:

1. Vision and Values:

• The Achievers' Day was a Memorable Day for all Achievers

• Our Organising Committee, Club Members of Toa Payoh Central CC TMC celebrated the GREAT Successful event together!

• Our Members felt proud to be in the Family of our TPCCC TMC.

2. Direction:

The objectives and goals have been set by Dr Khong DTM:

• A Special Day was set aside to scale greater height in Education and Training goals.

• We wanted to acknowledge and congratulate recent CTMs & ATMs

• To provide a larger audience for Toastmasters completing their P10 or AP10

• The Workshops were being planned too!

• Several Toastmasters took this opportunity to do their Advance Leadership (AL) for this event.

WE shall now be known as Toa Payoh Central TMC

At the same time, we would also like to launch our new club name Toa Payoh Central CC TMC which was formerly known as Sky Media TMC. I hope to develop a GREAT Team Spirit among our Club Members, to experience the role in organising large scale event.

Our Club Members were invited to form a Team to participate in the Organising Committee. The guidelines were based on the Leadership Experience, Strength, Knowledge and Attitude.

The scopes of work for all Team members were clearly identified. Time Schedule for each stage was established. This includes Publication, Invitation of Guest-of-honour, Speakers, Evaluators, planning of Programme such as games, video, finding a food caterer and planning the budget for the Event.
 

3. Persuasion:

Apart from getting the Team to know our Vision, as a Leader, I need to project myself as a Role Model; I need to Lead by doing, also to project my self-confidence for the ability to make the Event a successful one.

I need to follow up closely with our members to make sure the time lines were met. A personal touch approach is always more effective for me. To persuade Clubs to encourage members to come forward as speakers, and also to learn from Advance Speakers.
 

4. Support:

With the follow up call with our Team members, I was able to detect problems and solved those problems at the early stage, for example like co-ordination with technician, to find all ways to get in touch with technician (including finding home contact) and arranged our Stage Manager to co-ordinate with him for sound and light testing.

One problem was the detailed Meeting Programme. Our Host/TME had problem in getting the information on Speakers, Evaluators, and Games Leaders earlier, that both the Chairperson and Co-chair person were needed to help in calling all Clubs. I also suggested meeting at my house for the final touch on the Programme one day before the Event Day.
 

5. Development:

I learned a lot through the experience in organising the Event, I am sure, our Team members also learned by taking up the challenge too.

In the process of the discussion, we also learned to be creative and flexible in solving problems. For example, Eskay was able to persuade his friend to offer the use of a Coffee vending machine FREE, and helping his friend to market the product. Different colour stickers were used to identify different attendance too
 

6. Appreciation:

After the Event, a celebration of success was organised, during Chinese New Year, Dr. Khong had personally prepared the raw fish Yu-Shen and BBQ at my house. We thanked our Team members for their hard work. I also sent a congratulatory email to thank all present for this memorable Event.
 

The Event was very well received by the audience and the achievers; I kept all the records of the Event for future references.
 

Success breeds success

With the successful Event, Dr. Khong was motivated to run the 2nd Achievers' Day which had 50% more attendance than our 1st Event at a Bigger Auditorium. I was invited as the Advisor for the 2nd Achievers Day. I was also in the Guidance Committee for two of the Organising Committee members, for example, Angela Lee is now the DTM due to her achievement in make the 2nd Achievers Day a great success!
 

Reading is good, watching is better, but nothing beats the Just Do It

I would strongly encourage our members to come forward and volunteer themselves in organising Toastmasters Activities, the learning experience as a Servant Leader was GREAT and Challenging!
 

Tay Yiang Ping ATM-B CL
11^th July 2005

---