Posted by I enjoy volunteering as a leader for my Toastmasters club and district. In doing so I have found that there are least four things that make me more effective as a leader:
- Being a self-directed leader.
- Providing clear direction and focusing on an end goal.
- Creating a collaborative team environment.
- Being a lifelong learner.
Being a self-directed leader
A good first step when striving to be a leader is to lead yourself first. This means taking charge of your life and effectively managing your health, your finances, your goals, projects, tasks, and responsibilities. This gives you a solid foundation to lead from.
If you cannot effectively lead yourself in these areas, how can you expect other people to follow you? If instead you effectively manage these areas of your life, you can be an example for others to follow. You can also learn techniques that you can teach to other people to help them manage their lives effectively.
For example, I used to be hopelessly addicted to video games and I didn’t eat well or manage my finances. This led to a disorganized life where I spent all of my time outside of work on video games and I wasted all of my money on fast food and junk food. At this time my life was not a good example for others to follow, and I was the farthest thing from being a leader.
However, I turned my life around once I started volunteering for leadership roles for my Toastmasters club and district. This had me doing things in my time outside of work to support other people and I stopped wasting all of my time on video games. I also turned my life around and started eating better.
I am now an active leader for my Toastmasters club and district, and I have lost over 80 pounds. I have also developed a system of daily and weekly planning that helps me fulfill my responsibilities outside of work and to make progress on my goals. With these changes in my life, I am now a much better example of a self-directed leader than when I spent all of my time on video games.
Providing clear direction and focusing on an end goal
Another important step for being an effective leader is to provide clear direction to your team and to focus on an end goal. If you don’t provide clear direction, at least two things can happen:
- Your team doesn’t produce the results you want.
- Your team can become frustrated because they don’t know what you want.
If you provide clear directions to your team, they will understand what you want from them. They won’t have to constantly ask you questions because you will have explained what you want. This allows your team members to work more productively at producing the results you want because they won’t have to spend time asking questions to clarify what is required of them.
As a software developer, I know how important it is to clearly understand what is required of me at work. If I am given an unclear software issue to work on, then I have to spend time asking questions and waiting for answers before I can start working to resolve the issue. If instead the issue is well documented and the expectations are clear from the start, I can spend more time working on the issue and less time waiting for answers to my questions.
In addition, it is important to give your team an end goal to work towards. Without an end goal, your team may not know what direction they are moving in, or what the result of their efforts will be. If instead you give them an end goal, they will know what they are striving to achieve.
For example, in a Toastmasters club we have a set of 10 clearly defined goals to work towards each year. We can earn recognition for our club by completing these goals. We can choose our actions and plan for success by keeping these goals in mind.
These goals for a Toastmasters club include recruiting 8 new members a year, as well as having club members completing their education awards. We also have a training goal and administration goals. Working to achieve these goals each year gives us a direction to work towards. And achieving these goals each year is cause for celebration.
Creating a collaborative team environment
Another key aspect of effective leadership is providing a collaborative team environment. This includes providing opportunities for all team members to contribute to team discussions and to encourage them to share their ideas. It also means having everyone work together to solve a common problem.
Teams are made up of a diverse set of people, each with their own unique set of skills. Having a collaborate team environment means leveraging these skills and encouraging each team member to participate.
A collaborative team environment also includes celebrating team successes, and sharing credit when the team succeeds. It also means not blaming individuals when challenges arise and working together to solve issues faced by the team.
Being a lifelong learner
Finally, I have found that being a lifelong learner can help you to be a more effective leader. This means having a growth mindset and always striving to learn something new. As John Wooden says: “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
Every year the officers of a Toastmasters club attend training events designed to teach them how to be effective in managing their clubs and supporting their members. This is a great opportunity for club officers to learn something new and to build upon what they already know. Even if you are already an experienced officer with many years of experience, there is always an opportunity to learn something new by attending training. You could even be a presenter at these events, which provides other ways of learning. After all, it has been said you can strengthen your understanding of a subject by teaching it to other people.
Continuous learning doesn’t just apply to Toastmasters. You can expand your leadership knowledge by reading books or by volunteering in your community or at work. Other ways of learning include working on personal projects. For example, I learn more about software development by working on personal software projects, which are software applications I envision and create myself. I even got to practice some project management skills by developing a custom software application for my Toastmasters club.
Conclusion
Do all four of these things, and you will be a more effective leader. Lead yourself first and learn how to be a self-directed leader. Provide clear direction to your team and focus on an end goal. Create a collaborative team environment. And commit to being a lifelong learning.
Leadership is a journey and these are only some of the aspects of being an effective leader. Embrace these ideas in your life, and you will improve your leadership skills. And most importantly, always strive to improve your leadership skills over time, and do your best to support the people that you lead.