Since
joining Toastmasters International in June 2011, I've wanted to become a DTM
(Distinguished Toastmaster) and part of the Leadership Track to take you there
includes doing a HPL (High Performance Leadership) Project. After a lot
of thought I decided what I wanted to do and put my guidance committee together
and I gave the introduction speech for my HPL project at Word Weavers on 26
March. The guidelines for the HPL
introduction speech indicate that you should share your vision and mission with
the club. The speech is kind of a
kick-off of your project within your club. In my case I also wanted to
encourage the members of my club to join me on the project, so that they will
take an active part in my project. During the project phase I will put a team
together and we’ll determine the details of what will be done during the
project as well as the timing of the project activities. I’ll have further
meetings with my Guidance Committee where I’ll review the project planning, status
and how things are going. At the end of
the project I will give a speech with a lessons learned about the project. What
follows is based on the text of the speech I delivered. I’ve left in some detail
that I had to cut for time purposes from the speech I delivered.
MY HIGH PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP (HPL) PROJECT INTRODUCTION SPEECH- "OUT OF THE STONE AGE"
Introduction
Fellow Word
Weavers, Mr/Madame Toastmaster, honored guests.
At a meeting in January, Norbert said something that really stuck in my
mind and that was that he didn’t like the way things were today and would like
to be able to turn back the clock 20 to 30 years. While, people fondly look back at the good
old days, I know that I’m guilty of this, I’m here to propose something
different today. I’d like to bring Word Weavers out of the
Stone Age and into the Digital Age.
About the HPL
“As populations increase and cultures
and people become increasingly diverse, more issues – and more problems -- face
us than ever before… Many of the critical issues and problems today are the
kind government is least equipped to handle… This is why the world needs
strong, competent leaders now more than ever before. Progress can only happen
when someone assumes a leadership role – when someone decides there is a
problem, a need or an injustice, and takes action to solve the problem, fulfill
the need or correct the injustice.“ (this statement comes out of the HPL manual)
Toastmasters has recognized the need
to develop leaders and the HPL (High Performance Leadership) project is a
product of this recognition. Gandi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Mother Teresa
are all unconventional leaders who were able to accomplish great things without
the traditional political authority that we’re used to seeing in historical
leaders.
Vision & Mission Statement
Vision:
To bring
Word Weavers from the Stone Age into the Digital Age.
Mission:
Word
Weavers, Toastmasters of Wiesbaden, will become commonly known throughout the
Wiesbaden/Mainz area to adult residents of all ages. Potential visitors will be
able to find us relatively easily within popular search engines and social
media sites. We’ll expand the Digital Footprint of Word Weavers.
People Google everything today, so Word
Weavers needs to be found on Google.
Google changes their search formula all the time. In fact there are
people that are paid tons of money to try to figure it out. But I’ve noticed
that there is more and more of a focus on social media in their rankings. If you Google someone you’ll like find a
Facebook entry and a LinkedIn entry and other social media sites in the top
returns.
Body
You have probably all heard that Facebook has over 1 billion users and if it were a
country it would be the 3rd largest in the world. It is easy to get
lost in statistics and forget about all the people. Boiled done, Social Media is people sharing
things socially, with family, friends, colleagues, and so on. I’d like to share
3 stories with about Social Media with you now.
You might
have heard about the Pink Tutu project.
In order to cheer up his wife who was being treated for cancer, Bob
Carey, started taking pictures of himself running around in a pink tutu. The video of their story on YouTube has over
2 million views and Deutsch Telekom has been promoting their story. Bob Carey not only cheered up his wife and the
other women that were being treated for cancer with her, but his story has raised
cancer awareness and tells us how Social Media can spread the word and connect
with people all over the world.
Facebook was
doing lookback videos earlier this year. They showed when users joined, popular
pictures and status updates made by the user and many of them were very
touching. John Berlin, desperately wanted to see the video for his son that had
recently died. He launched a campaign to
do this and I found it on Facebook via a radio station that I listened to back
in Detroit. This campaign got the attention of Facebook and he got to see the
lookback video for his son. John Berlin showed us that it is possible to get a
company to listen to us and he was able to tap into the feelings of parents and
non-parents who would want to be able to do the same thing if we lost a
child.
Some of you
will remember that I did a speech about the presentation site SlideShare, there
were maybe twentysome people there when I gave it. I also did a workshop for business English
teachers in Frankfurt with twentysome people present. I put both presentations
on SlideShare and both presentations have been viewed by more than 1000
people. I love the idea that I can give
a speech or presentation one time, that it can be viewed by people all over the
world that weren’t there when I gave it. We all want our speeches to be heard
and to make an impact. Since setting up my profile on SlideShare, over 26,000 people
have viewed my presentations. With Social Media you can put something online or
share something where a lot of people look at it in a short period of time or
that people can look at over a long period of time after it was initially
posted or shared, the best outcome is of course to have a good combination of
both.
What we’ll
do during the project
· Establish profiles on popular social media sites
· Post regular updates where we have profiles
Each and
every one of you is doing amazing things. When I look around and I see the growth
that all of you have made from speech to speech, this same possibility for growth can and should be our
gift to the world. We don’t want Word
Weavers and Toastmasters to be a secret. Toastmasters is re-engineering their
educational program to better meet the needs of members and potential members.
They’re working to make sure that Toastmasters stays relevant and we can do
this via this project And we can let the world know about some of the great
things that are happening. This is not just my HPL, it is really an HPL for the
club.
Conclusion:
Hillary
Clinton once said that it takes a village to raise a child, well, Word Weavers
is like our own child, it takes everyone to be a successful club.
Join me in
our HPL, there is room for everyone!
- You’ll learn how Social Media can help Word Weavers to grow and thrive
- You’ll have fun
- You’ll be a part of a great team
- And,You don’t need to know anything about Social Media to start.
Together we
can bring Word Weavers out of the Stone Age and into the Digital Age.
The Word
Weavers website can be found at:
Our Facebook
Page is at:
We have a
Flickr group at:
Feel free to
follow along as my HPL project unfolds. I will share a lot of my experience and
I hope that other clubs can benefit from my experiences.
Note: I created the graphic above based on using the
quote from the HPL Manual. I believe it
is a very powerful statement.
Posts
