This speech is about leadership. I will try an experiment with all you. Then I will speak about the results. I will then link all of this to my results.
Simple Singing choir exercises
Do a simple chord progression C-F-C-G => CEG => CFA => CEG => BDG 3 groups
A conductor
Thank you very much, Every one of you today helped to create something beautiful. It couldn’t have happened if you didn’t choose to sing.
You didn’t know coming in that you were going to be a part of the Berlaymont Choir. Yet, by placing your trust in me and what I was trying to accomplish, you helped to create something beautiful. Thank you again for trusting me.
As the conductor, or leader; of this experiment, I had complete trust in you. I knew we were going to succeed. I knew enough about music, choirs and making things easy to have that trust in you.
Did I know if any of you are singers? No. Did I know that you were going to trust me and sing? No, Did I know that this was going to be a great result? NO ! But I trusted that by making it simple for all of you, you would jump in, sing and that the Berlaymont choir would emerge.
That was my role as a leader, create the conditions so that all of us together could create the Berlaymont choir.
There is so much to say about leadership, books have been written since the dawn of writing. It’s a subject that is talked about in every part of the world.
But to me, leadership boils down to this: Leadership is about creating the conditions for people to work together towards a common goal.
This could be anything like a choir, a family, a sports team, a company or even a toastmasters club.
Leadership styles are just techniques that can be used to create those conditions.
Based on the toastmasters leadership questionnaire, here are some examples of technique: creating a vision, involving your team in decision, facilitating communication, serving your team, caring about the team, improving your team interactions, coaching individual members, setting goals, create rules, enforcing the rules, create clear rewards & punishments, being a role model for the team and so much more.
My leadership results
My top 2 styles were very close, With only one point difference between each other.
My top 2 styles are: 1) Innovative 2) Democratic
I totally agree with this result.
I’m a creative person. I can see situations as opportunities rather problems, I’m also great at seeing things for different points of view, I can synthesize what everyone has said into a vision and a direction and I try to find the most optimal solution that is achieves the goal and makes everyone happy.
One of my fundamental beliefs is that we all have a limited view of reality. So to me, Different people with different points of views who are able to communicate effectively will always perform better at solving issues than the sum of their individual parts.
Those two leadership styles are just a reflection of who I am, what I believe and how I choose to live my life.
To close out this speech, I recommend you do the leadership questionnaire on pathways a discover your own style. I’m convinced that you’ll be surprised by the fact that even you, can be a leader.
Thank you for listening.