Musings on Leadership

 If you're not familiar with the term, a "stretch" goal is a target that's set above what you expect to  accomplish. For example, if your non-profit usually raises $50,000 a year in donations, a "stretch" goal might be to aim for $60,000 for the coming year. Stretch goals aren't designed to scare you. They're designed to help you grow as an individual; to get you to think of new methods, techniques, and strategies; to get you to think outside the box. They're designed to be slightly uncomfortable because growth doesn't start until we leave our comfort zone. Think of the state as "productive discomfort". But do they work? American psychologist, and pioneer in goal-setting theory, Edwin Locke, looked at a dozen studies to see if he could find a quantitative correlation between a goal's difficulty, and its achievement. According to Locke, " the harder the goal the higher the level of performance...Although subjects with very h...

 During my campaign for International Director, I am frequently asked about my views on the challenges facing Toastmasters. I thought I might take a break from my leadership posts to talk about my views on the future of the organization and the challenges facing us. Retention In my opinion, the biggest challenge facing Toastmasters isn't COVID - it's member retention. It's only natural that a club will lose a certain number of members every year. People move, they experience life changes, their priorities change, etc. The number most commonly mentioned in Toastmasters is that we lose 40% of our membership every. single. year! If you run a business, and you lose 40% of your customers each and every year, you won't be in business for long. People in sales know this adage but, the least expensive customer to get is one that's already purchased from you. While we may not spend actual money to get guests to attend our meetings (although some may), we spend time contactin...

There is no question that this is an unprecedented time for leaders. They are being asked to make decisions that no one has had to make before. There simply are no game plans or rule books on how to keep an organization motivated when an entire society has to essentially shut down for an indefinite period of time. But here’s the thing. Crises, and challenging times, are when good leaders shine. They’ve taken the time to build trust with their teams. They get input from as many people as they can. They think through proposed solutions. When they decide on a course of action, assuming there is time, they explain the course of action to everyone and why they chose it. No, not everyone is going to agree with them BUT, because they took the time to build that trust with their people, they’ll trust them. During any crisis there will be two kinds of leaders - “ because of ” and “ in spite of ” - leaders. “ because of ” leaders focus on why they CAN’T succeed during the cris...