*So You've Decided to Become a Club Officer

Hello. You've clicked on this essay, most probably for 1 of 2 reasons:

You're thinking about becoming a club officer and you're a little nervous about taking on your first leadership role.
You're already a club officer and are beginning to unravel at the seams, trying to figure out how to manage all of this.

(or you're simply reviewing material. I don't know.)

The Club Officer responsibility is the first exposure to leadership that most people have in Toastmasters. For some people, it is their first exposure to leadership in their life, and the burden can be quite shocking.

Leadership is, at its core, a very simple skill. It boils to three skills, the ability to make a decision, the ability to face consequences, and the ability to communicate. Yet, there is a distinct shortage of good leadership in the world. The average "leader" is usually lacking one of the three skills, whether it is the nervous middle manager who is too scared of losing his job to make a decision, or a cruel boss who blames everything on his team.

I can't make an exhaustive guide for the club officer role, simply because leadership cannot be cleanly flattened into a list of activities. Leadership requires you to deal with unexpected situations and sometimes take hits to the chin. However, in this essay, I will outline some simple guidelines so that you're better prepared to discover your own leadership skills.

Let's dive in.

General Advice for Officers

Advice for Self

Balance - notoriously burning out. First foray into leadership. Exhausting. See what you can do for yourself.
Goals - not trying to do everything
Teamwork - assist each other.

Advice for Planning

Calendar
Backup Plans
Engagement and Self-Sufficiency
Associates - I like the 3 month - 3 month approach.

Image Credits

The graphics used on this page were used with the consent of Vanitha Rangarajan, DTM, the District 121 Program Quality Director 2020-21. Thank you to her and her team for creating these helpful resources.

Contributors: