Competent Leader: As Easy As 1, 2, 3

When I first joined Toastmasters in 2007, I confess that I did not open my CL book, not even once. I thought that it would be too much to work on top of everything else I had going on. As it was, I was lucky to complete my speeches and conduct roles at the meetings. After leaving the company for three years to stay at home with the kids, I decided to come back to work and to Toastmasters. Finally, I cracked open the Cl manual. Boy, was I feeling pretty silly (and then some) when I saw that I could have already completed at least 80% of my CL from conducting past roles. Since joining the Mudslingers I had been: time keeper, ah counter grammarian, TI event coordinator, Toastmaster, General Evaluator, speech evaluator, Table Topics speaker, Table Topics Master, and speaker. In fact, I had done most of those roles several times. Yes, you can imagine my disbelief when I realized that only I had1) cracked open the book and 2) had a member  evaluate my role, I could have received most of my CL credits. After discovering this simple enough fact, I started taking my CL book along with me to the meetings and scheduled my roles ahead of time.

In April, I finally completed my Competent Leader manual. Today, after I logged into the Toastmasters International website, I was so excited to see the CL beside my name.  After working towards my CL for over a year,that was a reward in itself. It wasn’t difficult or burdensome to achieve.  In fact, I accomplished that recognition comfortably. On this journey, I was able to improve my team-building skills and become more involved in the club than I probably would have if I did not have goals to work towards, which is exactly what the CL projects become-goals.

This is what working towards my CL helped me to accomplish:

• To be more involved with the club
• To build confidence to conduct more roles
• To build confidence to accept more professional responsibilities
• To help the club achieve Distinguish Club Select status
• To experience the rewards of being a mentor to a new member (really awesome!)
• To experience the rewards of helping to coordinate a successful event
• To develop habits that belong to a "DO-ER"

According to MindTools.com, “By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind.”  To me, this is exactly what the CL manual achieves; it sets sharp clearly defined goals to help a Toastmaster measure his or her progress that can spill over into daily life. The bonus is that the projects are fairly easy to complete and are effective at improving team-building and communication skills.  The CL manual can easily be worked on at the same time as working through the CC (Competent Communicator) manual. Trust me. I learned that the hard way.

Now, dust of those books, sign up for a role, give your book to a member to evaluate your role, and you are well on your way to obtaining your CL.

See? Super easy.