I was able to relate this to one of my leadership learnings that I got in the past as Divsion K Director of District 92 at Toastmasters Internations.

It’s easy to do everything by yourself, but that’s not your role anymore. However it’s always important to keep a birds eye view to facilitate growth, learning and fun.

Too complex? Read through and let me explain. As Area Director of area K3 of District 92, it was my role and responsibility to support the 5 clubs that comprised K3. Each club have their set of goals and as an Area Director, it was my duty to support them in achieving their goals. I learnt the nity-grity of club support, chartering new clubs and everything else that surrounded it. It ended a fruitful term of Area Director in June 2019. I had already been elected as Division K Director of District 92 and my term started from July 2019. I had an enthusiastic team of Area Directors with me, ready to jumpstart their tenure and help clubs of Division K grow leaps and bounds.

During the early months of my tenure, I was actively involed with the Area Directors individually, understanding their chanllenges and helping them understand their roles and responsibilities. I would spend hours over call to understand their learning needs, strengths and weakness to plan the year in their self interest as well as aligning their learning goals with the club support. It was also during this time I realised that if I am involved with each of them, personally, it’s going to be very easy for me to keep things the way I want them to be. Well, what was I even thinking? I learnt my ways in District 92 on my own, with the right guidance ofcource from my Division Director, but without his active involvement. That’s what gave me a sense of satisfaction at end of my tenure of Area Director. I would be doing more harm than good by being actively involved. And that is when I distant myself from each of the individual areas, not the Area Directors. I had the best time with them, shared arguments and laughs with them.

It was always my duty to guide them, but never my responisibility to do their work. And that’s exactly what I did through my tenure. I can proudly say that each of my Area Director’s achieved their goals all by themselves. I know it must have been difficult and tedeous, but they exceeded my expectations and in many ways the expectations of Disctrict 92. I would never say no to them for support or help, but they were kind enough to not ask me too often as well. While I distanced myself from their clubs and areas, I kept a keen eye over each of their clubs. My Area Directors and all the 23 clubs were still my responsibility. I had to weave a safety net for them so as to save them from a dramatic fall while not letting them see it.

Thinking about this, I am always reminded of the movie The Dark Knight Rises. When Batman is imprisioned in the well of hell, the only success he has of coming out from it is when he gives up the safety role. I wanted to emulated the same expereience for my Area Directors. I wanted them to see where they would fall if they failed, but at the same time being their to catch them if they did fell.

I can recall this one instance in this regard. It was sometime in September. Division K was hosting it’s fist division meet of the tenure, Kindle Face-off. Abhinav Bhatt was leading this event. It was a smooth and fun experience overall, without any noticable jitters or pit falls. He had planned a small debate contest during the event for the audience members to participate. To be honest, it start like a fish market. The rules were slightly complex and while Alok, who was handling the section and Abhinav were doing their best to answer all questions, it was just getting out of hand. I was standing on the sidelines, patiently, observering everything. It arguments went on for sometime and we were loosing the interest of audience members. That is when, I stepped in, took over the mic and addressed the audience. We were able to start the contest after that.

It would have been simple and easy had I did hosted the debate myself. But I believe it was a learning experience for Abhinav and Alok. Not just for one aspect of simplicity of debate rules, but also about better communication, handle question and answers, handling a crowd and so on. On the other hand, it was still easy for me to ignore everything and never take the stage and let the fish market burst. But that would have made a mess of things and sored an amazing experience.

When have already learnt something, it’s important to step aside and let others learn it. While you do that, it’s important to keep an birds eye view as well. To facilitate their speedy growth, by learning everything that they possibly can, while having the best time.