How can we make our teams better?….“Team-Building Events.” That was our theme today, introduced by Toastmaster Jovica. He used a sumo-suit wrestling story to illustrate that team-building events aren’t about winning the individual competition, they’re about enjoying shared experiences and building connection between team members. Like a magical wand, Jovica used his leaf-blower to remove all team anxiety at the beginning of our meeting.
President Moises provided this quote, “If you can laugh together, you can work together.” Moises doubled up on roles to be our Timer and an Evaluator, as the majority of our members were out enjoying this last weekend of summer. Grammarian Traci gathered everyone around for the word of the day, “Huddle.” She led a grammarian team-building event asking each attendee to fill in the blank and make this statement, “I’m ______, and I’m in!”
Once again, the meeting theme worked as a through-line weaving within all three speeches.
“Why are we here at 7:30 on a Saturday morning?” asked Ahmad, starting his speech titled “How to Build a Strong Team.” The answer of course: To build leadership and communication skills. We need these skills to build strong teams. Ahmad provided stats on the staggering rate of business startup failures. A major reason they fail: a weak team. Here are five qualities, and their highlights, to build a strong team:
- Defined purpose – clear vision, ground rules, and set expectations
- Strong connection – shared experiences, mutual connections
- Emotional intelligence – know what motivates your team member, and apply it
- Communication- understand communication preferences, in person, email, phone, etc.
- Diversity-each member brings a different skillset, value various contributions
Teams are everywhere. Ahmad invited us to reflect on our own teams to identify areas of strength and weakness. We are empowered to activate these five qualities to build strong teams.
Ketan rocked his speech titled “Is remote working the future?” We huddled up to watch his funny clip of a Texan court session, working remotely. Somebody standing before the judge had a cat filter on his screen. You could only see a cat talking like a person. The catman didn’t know how to remove the filter. He assured the judge, in all seriousness, by saying, “I’m here live, I’m not a cat.” The levity from this clip brought connection to all attendees in today’s meeting. It demonstrated some benefits, limitations, and progress of working remotely. After Ketan declared the case “catastrophic” he shared an interesting study that projects 70% of the workforce will be working remotely by 2025. Benefits of remote working include an increase in productivity, less time commuting, and less investment in real estate. Consequences of working remotely include a rise in burnout, lack of team collaboration, and decrease in Social Capital, knowing your team. Before Ketan closed he observed that there is conflict in the perception versus the reality of working remotely. This speech is relevant, timely, and helpful as we navigate how to remain safe and choose what to carry into the future.
It was a delight to have guest speaker Judy Young, DTM, and to glean from her speech titled, “What can be learned from the Toastmaster International Speech Contest.” Hot off the press, she was up early-early this morning to watch the final 8 competitors in the 2021 Toastmasters International Speech Contest. These great eight ascended the climb starting from the bottom with 30,000 other contestants. They rose, each possessing these 9 winning qualities:
- Vocal variety
- Body language
- Eye contact
- Humor
- Language – descriptive-evocative
- Pacing
- Enunciation
- Repetition of key points
- Enthusiasm
Judy called us to action to watch these 8 lighthouses on YouTube and to use these 9 qualities to build teams for leadership and communication.
Since we are all hardwired to connect, Table Topics Master Jinendra gave us 7 principles to bring connection to our teams. They include communication, commitment, respect, delegation, accountability, support, and results. He then gave contestants the opportunity to speak about given quotes related to these principles. The three quotes that we had time for highlighted accountability, respect, and commitment.
We have teams all around us. Our Toastmasters team equips us with strategies and skills to build our teams and make them better. Don’t just collect these insights, put them into action!
Keep sharpening your sword with Toastmasters!
Our next meeting is September 11th.
Some ideas....What brought you to Seattle Sunrise? Where are you from? What would you like to learn? What's your proudest accomplishment? What did you want to be when you were small? What would you sing at Karaoke night?
