Thomas Chen's "The Power To Empower" Workshop

Do you aspire to unleash your giant within and become a great leader? In our 167th Chapter Meeting, we have the privilege to invite Thomas Chen, EC3, an Entrepreneur and International Business Strategy Coach from Pasirisian Toastmasters Club back to Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club to conduct a workshop on how to empower to accelerate to a greater leader.

The bubbly Thomas set the audience members’ mind on fire by asking us “What is definition of Leader and Great Leader”. He highlighted that everyone is a leader because everyone influences someone somehow in our social and corporate world. Everyone uses different leadership type and multiple leadership style in different context but he/she has distinctive primary leadership style which one should capitalize on. 

Thomas highlighted that great leader like our late Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, Martin Luther King (an American Christian minister and activist) and Bill Gate (Microsoft founder) differ from other leader in, these great leaders know how to empower effectively. He reiterated John C Maxwell’s quote that “Leaders become great not because of their power but because of their ability to empower others”.

Empowerment is about giving autonomy or authority to someone to do something, In workplace, it is a philosophy that encourages workers to make their own independent decisions and managers giving workers the proper support for them to feel confident in their roles. Thomas shared the 6 benefit of Empowerment- 

Build trust in team.

Empower is best way to gain trust, to show your staff that they have your trust. This is the strongest emotion for the team.

Team feels more confident of their ability when they are empowered.
When the team is confident, they will take ownership of their work and are more motivated and engaged.

Empowerment encourage participation.
Thomas quoted the success of Google and Facebook who tap into individual expertise to drive innovation and inspire creativity through empowerment.

Empowerment enhances team competency. It is teaching a man to fish than to give him the fish.

Empowerment facilitate Continuity of the organization. It empower new member and fresh talent to leadership development. Hence enhances Succession planning.

Effective Expansion allows the system to leadership expansion. Thomas cited McDonald as one of the successful model for expansion in empowerment.

Active participants of the workshop in Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club's 167th Chapter Meeting

You want to set your team to success? Thomas provided the 6 steps to an effective empowerment 

Step 1: Identify and specify Organization objectives. 

For everyone to move toward same direction, they need to see the ultimate goal. To avoid employee having a free rein, it is imperative to clearly define the project boundaries and expectations. This reinforce the standard of quality. Thomas quoted Salesforce.com, inc. an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Salesforce.com is one of Fortune 100 best companies to work for. Salesforce exponential growth is inspired by the Ohana culture based on family values which employees use it to gauge their KPI. 

Step 2: Leader needs to have clear communication of expectation 

As a leader, it's your job to get everyone on the same page. Precise clear communication is the key for people to know what they're supposed to accomplish. 

Step 3:- Assess and amplify the level of readiness of the team. 

One of the key takeaways is focusing on strengths, especially when you are looking at yourself and your team. By understanding each employee's strengths and weaknesses you as a leader can empower them in the ways that work best for them and your company. 

Step 4: - Gradual & Incremental responsibility allocation. 

Thomas cautioned that learning to lead is a process of learning by doing. Learning occurs incrementally and gradually so best leader knows the difference the type of decisions and have the discipline to empower as much as appropriate. 

Step 5:- Praise the process and encourage the empowered. 

Thomas emphasize the importance of praising the process of getting the effort, the way the employee get the result. This is to encourage improvement and progression. 

Step 6:- Review reflect and readjust. 

Finally it is imperative to always check whether you had empowered correctly. It is worth to take time to review your plan against activities. Access how far you had accomplished and readjust on whether empowerment is done correctly. 

Thomas concluded that Empowerment begin with the end at mind and in every organization great leader can be made. 

In conclusion, empowerment build trust, motivate and facilitate growth. To empower, we need to identify the objective and communicate the expectation and have vivid objective. Assess the strength and weaknesses of the team and teach the employee to fish. Finally it is imperious to review, reflect and readjust the activities.

The Saturday afternoon was another day well spent in a Toastmasters Club meeting, I had a lot of takeaway from the interactive workshop to morph into an effective leader. 

Thank you Thomas for sharing these valuable tips.

Written by Helena Lim, CC

Recap: 166th Chapter Meeting -10th October 2020

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon and after having a delicious lunch with home made Jeera Rice and Thai green curry prepared by my lovely wife, I joined my favorite bi-weekly routine which is Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club Chapter Meeting on Zoom. 

At 2pm, our Zoom floor is packed with our Club members with all the excitement and enthusiasm to participate in the Chapter Meeting proceedings. I can make out that the appointment holders are looking eager to deliver their speeches and role duties and the audience are in excitement to takeaway some learnings of the day. 

Tan Siew Foong, TM, our Sergeant-At-Arms (SAA) of the day opened the icebreaker session with a great intellectual topic “What Makes you smile?” 

Several members shared what makes them smile in their life and their responses brought big smiles on our faces as well. 

SAA managed the time very well by picking few members to wrap up the ice breaker session on time. 

Our Toastmaster of the Day (TMD), Marc Wong, DL2, kick started our 166th Chapter Meeting welcoming our members & guests sharing the agenda of the session, also reminding us the significance of the day, 10th October as World Mental Health day. 

Mark rightly mentioned that it is even more significant this year being in the face of Covid-19 pandemic which caused the disaster in many lives worldwide. We should all take our mental health seriously and keep in check. 

Our Club President, Rusman Hadijanto, CTM, CL, DL5 shared in his opening speech with some great questions to members, 

1. Do you prioritize your daily tasks? 

2. Do you make priority list when going on holidays? 

3. Do you ever create priority list in your life for the things that matter to you and your life? 

It is nice to say there are many hands raised for those questions and most of our members are in right direction in life. 

Rusman shard the reason why he brought up those questions and how they are relevant to his life in the past. He shared his past life style as a happy-go-lucky personality just going with flow without much concern about future. He had only one priority at the time and is making money thinking it will fix everything. Eventually he realized that it created a great distance between him and his parents because he was running after money not prioritizing his family. Even his health started to deteriorate at one point. He said he finally realized the importance of having good priorities in life than just chasing money. 

Rusman shared 3 priorities that he is following now and it made his life more meaningful and purposeful. 

1) Having complete clarity on why am I living on this earth 

2) Personal Health 

3) Family 

After his insightful sharing about how prioritizing improve lives, Rusman then gave the floor to next proceedings. 

Prepared Speech Segment: 

Started the prepared speech segment with Diego Taira, TM talking about how he fired his boss going in the way of achieving financial freedom. 

Diago shared the concept of FI(Financial Independence) number, F.I.R.E(Financial Independence, Retire Early) and how he started gaining financial literacy from early age inspired by Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. He obtained certification on Financial Analysis and started investing as early as in 2008 but succumbed to the losses due to 2008 stock market crash in the wake of subprime crisis. However, he didn’t give up and invested in himself to learn more about investing and reached the point to be able to fire his boss. 

He concluded his “FIRE” speech with 5 key points below to achieve financial independence. 

It is a great and enriching opening prepared speech by Diego Taira. Thanks Diego for an eye-opener speech on financial independence.

Our second prepared speech is by Joseph Lum, TC5, on “When John Paul II forgave his shooter” started with a nice song liner “Sorry seems to be a hardest word!!”.

It is all about “Forgiveness”. How many times is enough to forgive someone, once, twice .. 7 times? Bible says it is 77 times which actually means endless. When it comes to forgiveness, don’t focus on the offender but focus on oneself choosing to be a forgiver and forever. Joseph shared a real example of depth of forgiveness. In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot 4 times from a close range by an assassin named Mehmet Ali Ağca. John Paul collapse, suffered heavy blood loss and hospitalized immediately. The Ağca is sentenced to life imprisonment. Thankfully John Paull II survived and amazingly he asked followers to pray for Ağca’s pardoning. Ağca’s is pardoned following Pope John Paul II’s request. Isn’t a boundless example of forgiveness? Ağca is astonished by the act & kindness of Pope John Paul II and has become the follower of John Paul II and Christianity. In conclusion, let’s not hand on to the feeling of hurt but practice the unconditional forgiveness for our own happiness. 

What a an inspiring speech Jopesh !! Thank you!! 

Our final speaker Helena Lim, CC, talked about “Money Money & more Money”! Everybody loves money and think that 99.99% of the problems resolved by money although it is not true. 

Helena spoke about financial integrity. Financial integrity is keeping your values, principles & actions aligned to your financial goals. Financial integrity leads to your financial security. Helena shared how to gain the financial integrity. One should think about their short, mid and long term financial goals. Short terms plan could include clearing up the credit card debts, mid-term include saving money for making investments and long term goal include building retirement savings. Helena is using budget template to keep her financials in check. She always plans her annual financial goals at the beginning of the year. But generally it not too late to start the planning at any point. She cater budget for her loans and monthly expenses and review it every now and then to ensure she is within the budget else update it if needed. She treats her savings also like expense so she won’t touch the saving as her commitment. Now with Singapore is opening the businesses slowly, we can see the light at the end of tunnel to strengthen and immunize our financial health. She concluded that one should have financial goals and diversify the income. Once again a good speech on financial literacy, Thanks Helena for your useful tips. 

Time to time, our timer Cheng Kok Siong, TM, shared the timing sequence before each segment and helping the speakers and evaluators to track their timing closely. 

Prepared Speeches segment came to an end after three exciting speeches and we then headed for a tea break while some members are using the break time to hang in the call for chit chat and networking. 

We regrouped after the break for Project evaluation segment. 

Project evaluation segment: 

Siva Kumar, TM, evaluated and provided his feedback on Diego’s speech. He split his evaluation into qualitative and quantitative feedback. Siva said Diego set the stage on FIRE by structuring his speech well and using the virtual stage well by changing the informative background, engaging the audience by asking the relevant questions and also getting good responses back. 

As quantitative feedback, the speech clarity & vocal variety is good, eye contact is excellent, good hand gestures shown. 

While praising the Diego’s speech as one of the best, Siva also highlighted some area of improvement to be watchful of timing as Diego exceeded the stipulated timing (5-7 min) and also make sure the background is not blocked while during the speech. 

Our VPPR, Wee Chee Sian, ACB, ALB, provided his feedback on Joseph’s speech. Chee Sian said he identified two very distinct and outstanding things in Joseph’s speech. First is, use of very few words and second is using very impactful words. Using rhetorical devices like “Easier not to apologize than to apologizing”, “Easier not to forgive than to forgive” is very good. Use of song “Sorry seems to be hardest word” and use of sound “Bang Bang Bang” to portray the gun shot has been outstanding to create the impact of the incident what has happened.

Chee Sian suggested some areas improvement in terms of transition within his speech. While the use of song before narrating the serious event of assassination is being very appropriate, repeating that song on lighter note after the narration, sounded frivolous. The other improvement Chee Sian would like to see that while the narration of the incident is quite intriguing, the happening of good transition in the offender should have been narrated as well. 

Our Club President, Rusman, evaluated and provided his feedback on Helen’s speech. Rusman said he liked the title of the speech and it is very appropriate in the current situation. Good start of the speech with lot of appropriate gestures and facial expressions. These are all well connected to the audience. The suggestion provided to enhance the speech to the next level, there is lot of information shared in the speech, it is very valuable and however, the general rule is to limit the content as simple as possible so that audience could remember it easily. Rusman iterated that it is indeed a good speech at the right time. 

Table Topic Segment: 

Next come the most exciting segment, Table Topics, where speakers will speak for 1 to 2 minutes on any given topics without any preparation. Our Table Topics Master, Santwana Srivastava, TM, hosted this segment with very meaningful questions that stimulate our creative thinking. 

Great Job Santwana and all Table Topics Speakers.

Following the Table Topics segment, we were presented with the Ah Counter’s Report by Bharathamma Eswarawaka, IP5, who diligently listened and recorded all our pause fillers that we used throughout the session.

Award presentation segment: 

Last but not the least, our Club President gives the drum rolls on the award presentation and closing address. 

Congratulations to all winners. 

Best Speaker – Joseph Lum, TC5 

Best Evaluator – Wee Chee Sian, ACB, ALB 

Best Table Topics – Archita and Sophie Lum

Home Sweet home 

With all the excitement and accomplished feelings, we all exchanged goodbyes with and ended the session. Currently waiting for the next exciting session on 24th October 2020. See you again !!

Written by Venkat Voleti, TM

Recap: 165th Chapter Meeting -26th September 2020

It is drizzling on a cool and cloudy Saturday and I am looking forward to the warm welcome of our Chapter Meeting hosted by Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club.

Tik Tok - Tik Tok - Tik Tok and just slightly before 2pm, I “Zoom” into our Chapter Meeting. There were about 22 participants and we were very honored to have several guests including Vidya from Bangalore.

Freya Gwee, TM, our Sergeant-At-Arms, break the ice with this opening question for us. “How did Toastmasters benefit you?”

Several members shared their thoughts and indeed, Toastmasters journey has benefited us one way or another. 

Our Toastmaster of the Day (TMD), Durga Prasad, TM, kick started our 165th Chapter Meeting, welcoming members and guest, running through our meeting sessions and introducing our appointment holders. 

Our Club President, Rusman Hadijanto, CTM, CL, DL5 shared in his opening speech about his challenges due to pandemic crisis and encouraged everyone to be positive, focus on things that we have in control and embraced challenges/surprises in our lives Next, our distinguished guest, John Tan, ACG, CL, was very kind to serve as our Language Evaluator; he introduced to us to the Word of the Day which is so commonly used this year.

The Prepared Speeches segment started and our first speaker Santwana Shrivastava, TM, talks about Procrastination is Good or Bad. As she was approaching to the end of her speech, we came face to face with an unprecedented situation, her screen freeze and we lost her due to network issue.

Our next speaker then told over the air time, Valliapan Selvanmani, CC, CL, who have not been doing his project speech for the past 17 months due to his role as our Club President (now Immediate Past President) is starting his Pathway journey. He shared with us about his beginning from school to how he arrives in the garden city Singapore and finally how his Toastmasters journey begins.

After the Prepared Speeches segment, we had our usual virtual tea break before moving on to the Project Evaluations segment. 

Desmond Chong, TM, praised Santwana for her great speech. She was able to engage the audience with questions and demonstrated confidence during the speech. To challenge herself, Desmond recommended adding more vocal varieties in her story and to use (screen space anchoring) aka stage anchoring for more engaging speech. 

Helena Lim, CC, started her evaluation of Valliappan‘s project speech, told this is one of the best ice breaker speech she has heard. The opening is intriguing, speech was well structured and the humor bought laughter to the audience. Overall it was a very good speech and to further challenge himself, he can warm up his throat for a wider range of pitch and also to smile more. We then move into a “Cooking Workshop” conducted by our distinguished guest John Tan. In fact, it was a workshop to help members to spice up their speeches with many sizzling tips. I personally have captured many useful literary devices and gain a lot of very insightful tips. Below are some highlights of the workshop.

Next come the most exciting segment, Table Topics, where speakers will speak for 1 to 2 minutes on any given topics without any preparation. Our Table Topics Master, Kok Siong, TM, hosted this segment with very meaningful questions that stimulate our creative thinking. Great Job to Kok Siong and all Table Topics Speakers.

Following the Table Topics segment, we were presented with the Ah Counter’s Report by Siew Foong, TM, who diligently listened and took down all our pause fillers that we use throughout the day. 

Next, we called upon our Language Evaluator, John Tan, ACG, CL, who shared with us on the good use of language and also the improper use for attention. 

Last but not the least, our Club President gives the drum rolls on the award presentation and closing address. 

Congratulations to all winners. 

Best Speaker – Valliappan Selvamanni, CC, CL 

Best Evaluator – Desmond Chong, TM

Best Table Topics - Thomas Chen, EC3

Written by Marc Wong, TM