Kan Kan delivered a speech based on a project, "Understanding Your Leadership Style."
Kan Kan delivering her speech online
"Leadership?" you may wonder. Yes, we learn leadership in Toastmasters by taking leadership roles in our meetings and in our daily activities. That is why some of the "Paths" in our education program, Pathways, have this project.
In this project, we respond to a survey with 48 questions. Kan Kan's results showed she has a strong tendency toward affiliative and altruistic leadership styles. After introducing this result, she went on to tell us a story of her helping a new employee by reaching out to her with small talk and offering assistance with her assignment. She wanted to help her because she remembered how insecure she was at the beginning of her career. She just wanted to make her new colleague feel a little better. She then told us that leadership does not have to be "big and lofty." It can be just being ready to notice someone's stuck and offer help.
With this simple yet strong message, she incorporated a lot of beautiful phrases such as "everyone else was buried with work," "I wanted someone to point me in the right direction," "I reached out because I'd been in her shoes," and "That's not I'm after right now." This was a great speech by "Kan Kan, an ordinary person still figuring things out."
A scene from the hybrid meeting
Another aspect of leadership visible in this meeting was a suggestion provided at the previous meeting. At the last meeting, the General Evaluator, Jinyoung, raised an issue that it is sometimes difficult for online members to find the timing signals, especially when the Timer is at the venue. We came up with some ideas and incorporated one of them. The idea was to have the Timer stand much closer to the camera than before. With the timing signals occupying a larger part of the venue pane on the Zoom screen, it should have made it a lot easier for online participants to spot them.
The timing signal shown closer to the camera
This is another way to demonstrate leadership in improving our meeting and our club. Thanks to Jinyoung's initiative, our meeting is now more online-participant-friendly.
(by Tenten)
