Do you like your boss?

This was the question long-time CCTMC member Yann posed in a short speech at the Aug. 12 meeting, encouraging our club members to pick up and read the Competent Leadership (CL) manual. Many bosses cover up their inadequacies through arrogance and trying to belittle their subordinates. If you want to be a better leader than your boss, Yann said, the CL manual can help you.

As with the Competent Communicator manual, the CL manual takes you through 10 projects, focusing on:

• Listening and Leadership 
• Critical Thinking
• Giving Feedback
• Time Management
• Planning and Implementation
• Organizing and Delegating
• Developing your Facilitation Skills
• Motivating People
• Mentoring
• Team Building 

The skills in the manual are not only useful, they are easy to practice in Toastmasters. The majority of the projects can be completed by taking meeting roles - you just have to bring your CL manual to the meeting and ask a member to evaluate you.

Yann said after the meeting that working his way through the CL manual had helped him realize his goals of becoming a better leader in his software company. He gave the example of improving the way he gives feedback to his employees, especially during performance reviews, which he says can be very motivating for them.

He said: "If you want to be a good speaker, you've got to be a good leader. And if you want to be a good leader, you've got to be a good speaker."