Be accessible, build trust | Daniel Sandars

TM Daniel was extremely happy - not only because I contacted him for the blog post, but also because of a special connection that Northampton shares with Pune. Our member Aniket (from Deccan Toastmasters Club) had been a General Evaluator at the Northampton Speakers during his visit to UK - Daniel's club!

Exchange opportunities, help each other

Daniel shared a few thoughts about influence in general. "Toastmasters is a voluntary organization. My general approach is to understand the people that I am working with, and to try to identify their needs, motives. We get to exchange opportunities, for ex. maybe if someone wishes to do an HPL and I have another project, we could see these opportunities to help each other."

"My personal style is a very open collegiate democratic approach. I tend to communicate freely and explore ideas to build consensus. Even at the top levels of District Leadership, it is building up trust that is effective. Autocratic leadership doesn't work well in my opinion." Daniel mentioned discussing further on influence relating to leadership styles.

in Toastmasters, a leader might not have the necessary formal education

Daniel brought up a very important and a burning point during the discussion, "I have a very formal, well-developed educational background and I work at a University, but often within Toastmasters, people can be in Leadership positions even when they don't have a formal educational background as such. For ex. your District Director may not actually been to a University". The effective workaround in this situation was mentioned by Daniel "I always think it is very much up to me to reverse mentor and reverse manage that situation and try to develop the trust. I need to operate more freely."

establishing connection, being available is the key

What advice would Daniel give to new Toastmasters who want to influence people? "I really think that the key is getting to know people in a formal and informal situation, communicating freely, making yourselves available and accessible." He mentioned of a personal experience "When I had applied to be a Division Director, even before getting elected, I started networking with potential Area Directors. In our District, we elect Area Directors. We had established a connection through Facebook group six weeks before even I got elected."

Key takeaways for me from the fruitful and enlightening conversation with Daniel would be:

1. Trust is important to create influence

2. Mentor or reverse mentor depending on the situation

3. A leader should be accessible and available

About Daniel:

Daniel Sandars, DTM is a research fellow at Cranfield University, and a member of two clubs viz. Northampton Speakers and Cranfield Speakers. He is currently serving as the District Public Relations Manager at District 71. He has served more than 7 terms in different positions at clubs, also as Area G44 Director, Assistant Division G Director: Program Quality and Division H Director. He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts, an Associate fellow of the operational research society and a dual M Sc.

The influence story #2 | Karen Knight

Mentoring makes a huge difference. My mentor is Pat Johnson who is the Past International President. She used to live in the same city as I did. I had moved since then but she is still my mentor and I talk to her regularly and Pat Johnson has a mentor who is Ted Corcoran who is another Past International President who also has a mentor. I have about six people that I am mentoring right now.

I am a huge fan of mentoring

There is so much difference that you can make. One of my mentees Yasir Khan, he is from Pakistan - when he joined our club, he had never spoken in public before, but he really wanted to do things and he wanted to go to international stage. So he came over to my place one night and because he had joined in January, we did about three or four speeches so that he would be eligible for the club contest. He entered into International Speech Contest at the club level and won, and then he entered at the Area level and won, and then Division Level and won, and then he came second at the District level. He had been in Toastmasters for only three months.

If you have the right mentor, it can make all the difference in the world

This happened during last year (2017). This year, in March, he spoke on TEDx. It is just over a year, and he went from having never spoken in public to speaking on TEDx stage. He was amazing but, if you have the right mentor and that person has time to spend with you, it can make all the difference in the world.

Mentoring has a lasting impact

It has far more influence, long lasting influence than any other medium. I have been influenced by speeches, but it tends to be short term. Public speech is the best way to influence a large number of people - if you need to get A message across in a short period of time, a well-crafted speech will work for that. But if you wish to make a lasting change, then it is mentorship that does that definitely in my opinion.

-Karen

About Karen:

Karen Knight, DTM is a Past District Director - District 21 (Canada) and an avid Toastmaster since 1995. She has recently received her second DTM title and has finished the Competent Communicators manual at least 10 times. She is extremely amiable and a fantastic storyteller. She told me lots of stories about different influences. I thank her and take this opportunity to publish these stories through this blog.

Mentoring and Interpersonal communication | Randy Cooper

What is preferred way to influence people other than public speaking? TM Randy mentioned that it can be done through interpersonal communication and mentoring. "In Toastmasters, learning a person's goals is important.  It is also a big issue when working with club and district leaders.  There is a lot of mentoring and support, especially at the top levels of district leadership." I think, mentoring is one core and inseparable component in the Toastmasters education program which not only allows better learning, but also helps create the right influence.

Whenever there are influences that overlap, Randy specified, "We should find the common ground and work from there. When a club struggles, there are differing solutions to how to fix it.  However, when each side realizes that the other side has the same goal in mind, they can work through their differences."

Interpersonal communication is the most effective way to create influence

Randy concluded on a spotlight note saying "While public speaking is a great way to influence people, interpersonal communication is the most effective way to do so.  Knowing people and trusting them goes a long way to influencing each other."

I think in just a single conversation that I had with Randy regarding 'influence', I have had a supermassive learning. I learnt that interpersonal communication and mentoring are effective ways of influencing people and working towards same goal keeping aside the differences helps resolve influence overlaps.

About Randy:

From Alabama, USA, Randy Cooper, DTM is a Toastmaster dedicated to members. He is a Past District 77 Director and extremely active on International forums. TM Randy is also a Pathways enthusiast, his impressive analytical skills have bought a lot of knowledge to the international online forums.

Helping others | Carole McCulloch

Leaders use a variety of methods to interact, communicate and influence. It could be interpersonal communication within a group, a public speech or even a phone call. But magic happens when they maximise their impact with other technological communication streams and social media! In Toastmasters, people can now join and interact internationally in online clubs. This is a challenging and equally exciting process to influence people. In Toastmasters, members are now interacting with learning management systems to enhance their learning and preparation for becoming better speakers and leaders. The new Pathways program is also challenging, and equally exciting. How would it work? I was fortunate enough to get an answer from TM Carole, she said "Pathways is inline with latest technology. Two leadership projects from my Paths (Effective Coaching - HPL) and (Strategic Relationships - Lead in Volunteer Organisation) have helped me shape my preferred leadership style in the international community of Toastmasters". There's no doubt that Pathways projects are made to work with the way we interact in this modern world. Mentoring continues to play a vital role as well, "Working with a team (Guidance Committee and/or Steering Committee) enables me to keep on track and check my thinking." Carole added about mentoring.

Open communication, conciliation and consensus

Even within online environment, encountering situations where there is a conflict between thought processes can be expected. People definitely tend to have different styles of influence and making their points. When I checked with Carole how she handles these, she mentioned "Conflict resolution is a challenge still for me and I usually strive for a 3 step process: open communication, conciliation and consensus". I personally feel that a structured and proper approach to handling such situations must definitely be effective. I would want to learn more about her experiences in future interactions.

She further added a very inspiring and rather an opinion that each one of us should carry with us "I like this new motto for helping my teams stay focused on 'helping others'".

Being a person who is effectively leading the online movement in Toastmasters, our interaction was also online and the conversation was definitely fruitful.

1. Learn from the Pathways projects by thoroughly studying them and using them effectively in this modern world

2. Structured approach towards a situation shall be effective

3. Key principle : 'helping others'

Moreover, TM Carole is a fantastic storyteller, and she paints her imagination in terms of Toastmasters through like an exquisite piece of artwork! You should definitely visit her blog to read more at:

https://toastedtraining.wordpress.com/

About TM Carole:

Carole McCulloch, DTM is an extremely enthusiastic Toastmaster from Victoria, Australia who is serving as a Leader for Division O in District U. District U is a District for undistricted clubs. In her team, she has around 30 Pathways Guides which are supporting around 160 clubs. What makes her leadership role in Toastmasters unique is the fact that she is leading a unit of clubs that is significantly different than land clubs.