Leadership Lessons being a TLI Chair in Toastmasters

“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be”

I have undertaken few club leadership roles such as the Club treasurer, VP-Education, President, and as an Area Director, at each level, I had different leadership lessons, which has helped me evolve as a leader. Last year July, I was entrusted with the responsibility of being the TLI (Toastmasters Leadership Institute) Chair. The Toastmasters Leadership Institute helps Toastmasters across the district to come together to network, share ideas, and be inspired. We share the best practices and experiences of senior Toastmasters with newly-elected club officers on how to best serve their clubs and grow as a leader. A lot of work had been done by the predecessors in setting up the TLI and reaching out to many members through the events. So, the bar was set for us to reach out to and raise it further.

As I look back now, at the whole term, there have been many memorable moments to cherish, and significant milestones which we were able to accomplish, maybe I will reserve it for sharing on another day. Let me delve in to my leadership lessons in the last one year.

    1. Leadership Success Triad – Vision, Autonomy, Flexibility

I came to appreciate this concept of leadership triad as being fundamental for leadership success in my role as TLI Chair. There are three aspects which one needs to have in place for smooth functioning and making a strong impact.

First and foremost, the question to be asked is “What is my vision as a leader for my team/company/employees? It is said:

“Leadership is about Vision and Responsibility, not Power”

Having a vision makes it easier to focus on when the going gets tough or it gets too much to handle. What is that we are trying to accomplish and what impact are we wanting to make, these questions will help us work towards achieving the vision without giving up.

The second dimension is the leader’s ability to give autonomy to your team and trust them to do the work. Most often, some leaders tend to micro-manage and end up taking all decisions for their team since they are the leader. They expect to rule their team with iron-fist and control them, expect them to abide by their decisions (or, orders!!). But that is a huge failing as a leader since it never gives the opportunity to the team members to showcase their talent. There is a fine balance to be maintained here, you have to give autonomy yet put in a process to check in frequently so to ensure good quality output.

The third success dimension is the flexibility to accept others idea/views. Sometimes, because of our past success, we may be tempted to believe that we know it all or ‘my way or the highway attitude’. Yet, as a leader, it is critical to keep this attitude at bay, because many failings happen because of the inability of the leader to adapt his views and accept others view.

In my TLI role, I had the opportunity to see all the triad elements in action (fortunately in a positive way).

The District Trio [TM Sarma Mahalingam (District Director), TM Pravin Mani (PQD), TM Satish Menon (CGD)] had the common vision of enabling members experience and we had the same focus for all the TLI events to give the best member experience, this ensured all our activities was aligned towards achieving the common vision.

As TLI comes under PQD (Program Quality Director), I had a trustworthy and passionate Toastmaster Pravin Mani who placed the trust on me and let me handle the TLI events as I deemed fit. He didn’t micro-manage or thrust his control on me except asking for updates and suggesting changes when required.

In terms of flexibility, many times during event planning, be it the event program agenda, role players finalization, we had differing opinions on the approach. Yet, at no point, we allowed our personal ego’s to come in, and we always were open to each other views and kept our common vision to dictate the final outcomes. I realized that being open to his views and event team views on some matters proved to right, since it was better than my view.

   2. TEAM in action: 

    Together Everyone Achieves More, and rightly so. Though, it’s become a cliché still it’s a satisfying experience to see it in action. The reality is, one can't truly succeed without having a good set of colleagues, who are equally passionate to work towards the common vision. We had a TLI Training calendar finalized at the beginning of the term (July-June) and budget allocated as per our plan. It was a good experience in project management and planning, since each TLI event was like a project/mini-conference by itself. And doing one event every month in the first term was equivalent to a full time job, if not for the support I had from my TLI team.

Each of my TLI event chairs and TLI SPOCs played a critical role in the success of each event. A big thanks to the following members:

TM Bhagath (Chennai Kilpauk YMCA TMC), TM Vinoth (HCL Pinnacle TMC)

TM Raja (L&T ECC TMC), TM Vijay (WABAG TMC),

TM Arun Kumar (Chennai Speakers Forum), TM Swathi Devi (DXC Chennai Chapter TMC)

TM Muthukumar (Infosys TMC, Chennai), TM Kavitha (CGI Chennai TMC),

TM Bharath (CGI Chennai TMC), TM Manisha (Wipro Chennai TMC),

TM Subramanian (BACI Chennai Silver Tongue TMC), TM Amartya (Terra VIT), TM Ranjith (Citi Odyssey TMC), 

DTM Malar (Virudhunagar TMC), TM Sasi Varier (L1 AD - Trichy TMC), TM Surya (TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL-NIT TRICHY),TM Shantanu (K6 AD – Brisa VIT), TM Akhil (K5 AD – Nuvens VIT) and TM Gayathry (DCP Chair).  

Many role players had supported the event team for the success, Iam unable to put them here since I didn’t want it to become a vote of thanks article, yet their contribution and support for critical for the success of the various TLI events across Tamil Nadu.  

3.    Innovate to Succeed:

It is important for any entity to continuously explore the aspect of innovation as a means for continuous excellence. When we started the year, we consciously made the decision to innovate in few aspects to enable the member experience. So, we started with online zoom training (first of its kind then) yet it has come commonplace now in quarantine time. The online zoom was especially conducted for Division L members for ‘Train the Trainers” session. We followed it up with doing a live demo meeting for the “Conducting Effective meeting” TLI event. It got 190+ attendees and was immensely enjoyed by all the attendees. Next, we wanted to make the ‘New member Orientation’ session memorable for the new members who join Toastmasters. So, we launched the ‘Inter-Area Fun’ Contest where each area was grouped into teams and they played fun games and quiz based on Toastmasters, to compete and win prizes. Though attendance was less, it was enjoyed by everyone who attended it and the event pics say it all.

Usually, JTP and Emergence is considered a standard format, so to make it different and engaging for audience, we introduced ‘Judges discussion Panel’, where experienced judges panel discussed on their experiences as a judge and what to do and what not to do as a judge. Again, this was received well by members, who could relate to practical application of judging instead of a boring presentation to run by. Finally, ‘Emergence’ event where contest winners share their technique to prepare for contest, we innovated by clubbing a leadership session by TM Sridhar Renganathan. We had mixed feelings about it since we weren’t sure how the reception will be, because it was an afternoon session, whether people would be patient enough. However, it ended up as one of the best received TLI event with over 240+ registrations and many stayed back till 7:30pm to network and discuss.

So, be it business or your daily work, explore ways to innovate, and it will be a sure shot way to make your mark as a leader.

     4. Acknowledging others Support:

As the TLI team for this year, we were successful in making our presence felt, create memorable members experience and learning, which was acknowledged by many. It is easy to get into a mindset thinking that this success was only because of our efforts. While, we did put humongous efforts for all TLI events, a significant part of the event success was because of the support provided by others, especially TM seniors, talented individuals who agreed to be the faculty for the sessions and were generous with their time. One can't succeed on their own and often you need to take others along, for which you need to be humble and be open to reach out to others for help.

In our own lives and enterprises, if you have been successful, it might be a good idea to think and reflect about who all have contributed towards your success. It might be your family members, parents, friends, office seniors and others mentors, whoever it may be so, reach out to them and convey your thanks to them for their support. Sometimes, we tend to take certain support for granted, yet however small their contribution has been, they did have a role to play in your success.

I take the opportunity in this article to acknowledge all the speakers for the TLI events this year (mentioned in the chronological order of the TLI events):

**************************************

DTM Karthick Mohandoss (CAT-EDCI Club), DTM Sampath Sowrirajan (TN Mentor Chair)

TM Deenadayalan (HCL Speech Weavers), TM Gayathry (DCP Chair), DTM Sunil Jose (Asst Chief Judge), DTM Lalitha Giridhar (Chennai Toastmasters Club),

DTM Saro Velrajan(Chennai Speakers Forum), DTM Jayan (Meraki), DTM Vijayalakshmi (Meraki), DTM Sundararaman (Meraki), DTM Rahul Shankar (Tamizhootru Chennai Solvendhargal Mandram), TM Aravind Vikram (Ericsson TMC), DTM Pattabi (Madras TMC), TM Srijana (Ford Mustang TMC), TM Aadil (Chennai TMC), DTM Reena (Chennai Wordsmiths TMC), DTM Sampath Sowrirajan (TN Mentor Chair)

DTM Reena (Chennai Wordsmiths TMC),TM Subramanian (BACI Chennai Silver Tongue TMC), DTM Ravanan (Madurai TMC),DTM Sampath Sowrirajan (TN Mentor Chair)

DTM Sampath Sowrirajan (TN Mentor Chair), TM Raghavan Sridhar (AD-D2), DTM Sunil Jose (Asst Chief Judge), TM Pravin Mani (PQD), TM Adithya (Agua VIT)

DTM Subhadip Banik (Infosys TMC, Chennai), TM Selvarajan (Chennai Communicators Club), TM Sridhar Ranganathan (Chennai Wordsmiths TMC)

DTM Sunil Jose (Asst Chief Judge), DTM Jayan (Meraki), DTM Vijayalakshmi (Meraki), DTM Sundararaman (Meraki), DTM Parthasarathy (DXC Chennai Chapter TMC)

TM Shantanu (AD-K5), TM Nirav Katyal (Fogo VIT)

TM Hemamalini (L&T ECC TMC), TM Selvarajan (Chennai Communicators Club)

TM Mohanakrishnan (Symantec TMC), DTM Ravanan (Madurai TMC), TM Priyanka (Genesys TMC)

DTM Lalitha Giridhar (Chennai Toastmasters Club), DTM Rajeev Nambiar (Chennai Wordsmiths TMC)

***************************************************

Hope my above insights are useful to you in your own leadership journey. I sign off quoting the words of John Donahoe who said, 

'Leadership is a journey, not a destination. It is a marathon, not a sprint. 

It is a process, not an outcome.'

For those unaware of Toastmasters International, it is a nonprofit organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of promoting communication, public speaking and leadership. I have been fortunate to be part of this wonderful community since 2012 and over the various years, have had experienced mentors and leaders from whom I have learnt and applied a lot in my Toastmasters journey. If you are keen to develop your communication or leadership skills, you can search for any Toastmaster clubs nearby your location, and attend one of its meeting as a guest.

“Pathetic” Politics: The Need Of The Hour

“Politics is like sewage. Those who enter it will themselves get soaked in it”. One word to describe the current state of politics. ‘Pathetic’.  Corruption, Money laundering, Family politics, Struggle for power, Lawlessness, Bad mouthing, you name it we have it in the current politics scenario. Be it national politics or regional politics, things are same everywhere. Except a few who are still upholding the true values of what the politics was supposed to do, the current level of politics has become irreparable beyond repair. Just to quote one blatant mockery of us, with the elections just round the corner, freebies are being promised to the people as if the politicians are spending their own money. Blasphemy to its max. I can rant on and on about the current condition of our politics. But instead what I want to discuss about is regarding redemption of politics and why I feel it is hard to redeem. I have added some thoughts on the kinds of leaders who are required for the political redemption. My fellow friends who might read this article can contribute a few more which they can think of.

It is said that one way to elect good leaders is to elect educated people. My belief goes on a tangential note in this case, because I feel educated people won’t be much different than the current group of politicians. It is said that to cure a disease it is necessary to identify the root cause rather than cure the superficial symptoms. The politics isn’t much different. The root cause according to me is the value system of the individual rather than his credentials. The current acts of the politicians who ensure that their power is passed on to their bloodline is nothing but a simple act of a human trying to ensure that his future generations enjoy the same comfort which they had. While I don’t say it is wrong thing, I believe that a person having such a value system isn’t the right candidate for being a leader of the people. But unfortunately, many among us have such inclinations. More so ever, the educated tend to exhibit such acts in an increasing manner than the uneducated ones.  I have seen instances in which people of the highest qualifications tend to pass on their power or elect those who are close to them with no regards to their ability.  While it is easy for us to dismiss it as a just a minor flaw, our casualness tends to be taken for granted by the politicians who do the same with the power which vest in them. And no one questions it. the reasons why we don’t question it, is a different matter to be debated on, but more importantly what matters is that many of us don’t have the right to question it because we end up exhibiting the same characteristics when we are vested with power.

I have thought of the characteristics of a person whose presence is required if we want to cleanse the politics of today. There are leaders of yesteryear's whose life had inspired us, inspire us now and will continue to inspire us in the future too. Few leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Periyar, Kamaraj, , Vallabhbhai Patel, APJ Abdul Kalam, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King etc. have had the following characteristics which have made them a legacy. Iam not saying that the leaders who I have quoted have been perfect in every way. They might have had their own imperfections still what I have considered here is that fact that when they had the authority of power in their hands, they displayed the below characteristics which made them belong to a unique league of great personalities. The characteristics of the politician should be:

• Having a Vision

All these leaders were motivated by a common vision; of living to the full potential, of living a better life. The best example that comes to mind is Martin Luther King. When the blacks were widely in-discriminated in the society, Mr.King didn’t ask the people to revolt against it. Nor did he blame the whites for their current predicament. His famous words that continues to inspire people all over the world and which effectively mobilized the blacks were ‘I have a dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ All great leaders have a vision which they share with the people and make them believe in it too. Not only that, they inspire people to achieve it. Our own Mr.APJ Abdul Kalam also exhibited this when he was the President of India. He inspired India to become a Super power by the year 2020. The fact that many of us have forgotten that now is a sad reflection of today current state of affairs. Yet, during his tenure, all of us were aware of India’s potential and truly believed in it. That is a true case of inspiring & visionary leadership.

• Being Responsible

The great leaders knew that the position they had made them responsible to the people. Instead of looking at their positional power as their moral right, these leaders were conscious of the fact that apart from a positional responsibility they also had a moral responsibility towards the people. All the leaders had a sense of ownership about the work they did. They took it upon themselves to finish a work they started. Be it be a great manager or a leader, this sense of ownership is what makes one complete a work which they start rather than look for laurels. Take Mr.Sardar Vallabhai patel for instance. He used his authority to single handedly unite the entire India.  He acted not because his actions would have earned him something but because he knew that he was carrying the aspirations of the entire nation with him.

• Selflessness

Almost all the leaders were self less in nature. They always placed the well being of the common man before their own good. These leaders had the greater good as their main priority before taking any action which also ensured that the masses liked them. Periyar, a great leader of South India has lived a simple life and always placed the greater good of the people ahead of his own interest. The great leaders empathized with the common folks and brought about lot many changes for their common good. Kamaraj is still remembered for bringing school education to millions of the rural poor by introducing free education and the free Mid-day Meal Scheme during his tenure as chief minister.

• Leaving Legacy

The leaders had a motive of leaving a legacy behind. One doesn’t go about saying that he wants to create legacy and then create it. One is driven by the passion to make a difference   and in the process they end up creating a legacy of their own. Take Che Guevara or Bhagat Singh for instance. Both of them were driven by a passion to proof something. Bhagat Singh inspite of his young age displayed the highest form of courage and was defiant in his attitude against the British domination. Che has been a symbol of rebellion and has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist-inspired movements. Each in his own way created legacy’s which continues to inspire people of all ages.

• Being a Role model

Promises are nothing but a shadow unless one acts upon it. These leaders not only espoused things but they also ‘walked their talk’.  There are many people who have been inspired by the lives of these great leaders and whose life is still an example to be followed. Gandhi ji considered the father of the country was a perfect role model for non violence. I understand that Gandhiji had his own imperfections. Yet, I believe that in case of teaching the lessons of non-violence to the world, he did mankind a great good. Not only he talked about it, he walked about it and exhibited it in his every actions. People looked up to him and felt that yes, non-violence is not for cowards, rather it requires more courage for a person to be non-violent than show violence.

Reading the above makes one think that all these things are possible, only in utopia. Yet, I sincerely believe that people exhibiting such characteristics truly exist. And that a day of redemption for politics isn’t far behind. A day will come, when true leaders emerge who will care for the common good putting aside their indulgences. Many have spent their life looking for the true elixir of life.  The elixir which makes them immortal. The leaders who will live their life in a way living for others will have truly found the elixir of life: their chronicles scripted in the pages of the history and more importantly, in the hearts of the people who he had served, thus making them the true IMMORTALS.

P.S: Having done my specialization in Human resource too, I have tended to use many of the examples from the subject of ‘Leadership Discovery’. I hope that my colleagues will forgive me for this indulgence.

"Do Aankhen Barah Haath" - Excellent movie showcasing Transformation Leadership !

Film historians regard the period from 1940-1960’s as the Golden age of Indian cinemas. Many of the acclaimed movies were produced during this era. We had films espousing social themes like Guru Dutt films 'Pyaasa and 'Kaagaz Ke Phool' and the Raj Kapoor films 'Awaara' and 'Shree 420'. Some of the epic films produced during this time include Mehboob Khan's 'Mother India' and K. Asif's 'Mughal-e-Azam'. If you have started wondering why Iam giving a recap of three decades old movies, here is the reasoning . I was going through the movie collection I have, when I stumbled upon the movie “Do Aankhen Barah Haath”. Very few movies in Indian history has the distinction of inspiring Hollywood films. “Do Aankhen Barah Haath” has that distinction of inspiring the Hollywood film The Dirty Dozen. It also has the distinction of being the first Indian film to win a Golden Globe Award.



Do Aankhen Barah Haath (Two Eyes & Twelve Hands,Hindi )is a 1957 Hindi film directed by the Indian film director V.Shantaram, who also starred in the film. It is considered one of the classics of Hindi cinema and is based on morals of Gandhian philosophy. The film was inspired by the story of an 'open-prison' experiment in the princely state of Oundh near Pune. In 2005, Indiatimes Movies ranked the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films. The film was later remade into the Telugu color film Maa Daivam (1976) starring NTR and Jayachitra and has been remade in Tamil film ‘Palandu Valga’ starring MGR.

My reasons for writing this article. Being a hardcore believer in innate human potential and transforming people,I feel “Do Aakhen Barah Haath” is an exemplary movie for showcasing transformational leadership and every future leader/manager has important learning in the movie. I wouldn’t recount the entire movie but provide a brief glimpse of the important scenes in the movie. A jail warden (Film principal protagonist) wants to rehabilitate six deadly prisoners. He takes these six notorious, surly murderers to a dilapidated country and makes them work hard with him on the farm. He aims to transform/rehabilitate them through hard work and kindly guidance. His senior Superindent comments that his task is impossible and that he can’t transform the criminals and eventually he would fail in his venture. Yet, he unflinchingly goes ahead with his plan and successfully rehabilitates them into good citizens.



As said before, significant learning for future managers/leaders are as follows:

1. You don’t need extra-ordinary people to do extra ordinary things. A group of ordinary but passionate people can do extra –ordinary work. We had a real life example shown by Shane Warne when he lead a group of unknown young cricketers to glory by winning the 20-20 IPL cup. So as Managers,just believe in this. All you need is a group of passionate people.,. Talent can always be groomed.

2. All along we hear about trust and faith between members in a team. The movie shows, how a leader/Manager must lead his team and set examples. In the movie, the warden has complete trust on the six prisoners and treats them as his equal. Over a period of time, the prisoners began to realize this and start to reciprocate on equal terms.

3. The movie is an excellent example of “Pygmalion effect”. (The Pygmalion effect refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people,the better they perform).When you start expecting people to do things in a particular way, if you are persistent enough in your belief, then people will eventually began to behave accordingly. This holds a great opportunity for Leaders/Managers. Belief in the capability of your team members and give them the autonomy to express themselves. They will deliver much beyond your expectations.

4. While working along with members on a project/work, it isn’t sufficient if the focus is just on the work. Iam not saying that one shouldn’t focus on the work, after all Work is the main reason for the existence of the team. What I mean to stress on is the fact that there has to be a bonding within the team members and equal focus on communication and helping. That will benefit the team in a myriad of ways.

5. Lastly, no matter what people around you say, as long as you have an idea and are passionate about it, go ahead and follow your dreams. You are bound to be successful if you are faithful to the idea. ;)

Hope the learning which I had shared has been helpful to you in someway. I would encourage everyone to certainly see this movie. The climax of the movie is outstanding and inspiring. Do share your thoughts after seeing the movie. The climax song “Aye maalik tere bande hum", sung by Lata Mangeshkar “ will surely touch your hearts. The link of the song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHVawkkXoWc

Happy watching and learning :)

The Last Lecture - By Randy Pausch

"Prof Randy Pausch delivering The Last Lecture"

In one of my previous post named "A Day With a CalTech Educatee" (one of the series of the PERFECT SHOW interviews which i host),I had interviewed Prakhar- a NITT alumnae who is pursuing his studies in Caltech University,Poseidon.

Well, this post is not about that. Its about a person whom Prakhar had told me over the course of interview. A man named Randy Pausch. I didn't have any idea about who the man was. I just assumed it must have been a Professor giving a talk to his students.

Now on a Saturday afternoon, when i was just browsing through my friends blog, i stumbled across a page which had a video about the talk given by Randy Pausch. I came to know who he was then.

To keep a big story short, Randy Pausch is a professor in Carnegie Mellon and he has been afflicted with pancreatic cancer and he has only 3 more months to live. He shares his experiences, his insights and his thoughts in a talk called the "The Last Lecture", which has been downloaded by countless people all around the world and he still continues to encourage people to pursue their dreams.

Not only the talk is inspiring and revealing, i can bet that whoever sees the talk, by the end of seeing it, will be wiser and lose a tear or two.You can check this out @
http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw

Experience is what you get when you dont get what you want

- Prof. Randy Pausch.