Speaking of my leadership style? 

1 year ago, I never thought I could be a leader, let alone to talk about my leadership style. 

And 1 year ago. I became president of TDB club. The club was quite down then,often times with only around 10 people attending regular meeting. 

At such a bad time, I became president of the club. 

However, I was not intended to be a hero by leading the club to prosperous because I didn’t know how to be leader at all.

Why was I so crazy to take the lead then? Frankly speaking, I just wanted to have a try. Anyway, Toastmasters is a place with very low cost of making mistakes.

Oh, the cost of mistakes! I had to pay dearly for one of my mistakes at my previous workplace. How I longed to find a place to try and fall with learning but without having to pay the cost. 

So I made the decision to try the club president. I didn’t know whether there would be enough new officers there to support but I was optimistic: at least I have enough time to support the club meeting ALL by myself. 

At the first few weeks, I felt awkward and hesitated because I didn’t know what to do. 

However, with the awkwardness, I stepped forward by faking it, by faking to be a passionate club president.  

Gradually, I realized that the club officers were even more passionate. And we were destined be a great team! Gradually, more and more people came to our club meeting. And our passion eventually attracted passionate members who later became our current officers and the upcoming officers. 

Officer team’s passion was like a spark of light lighting up the club and inviting others to join TDB.  

Maybe it’s not only about the passion, it’s also about the faith like: I know you could make it. So don’t worry about faking it at the beginning. 

Fake it until you make it. 

That’s how I’ve been following to create my leadership journey at Toastmasters and later in my daily life. 

After successfully serving as the club president, I had more faith in myself. It’s not so hard to fake it until I make it. So later, I tried something new. I organized families in my community and started the 1stHalloween activity. But again, I felt awkward. On the way to the meeting spot that night, my heart was even throbbing. None of the participants were Toastmasters. What if they found out that I was faking it. 

But there’s no time to worry, soon I was facing dozens of strangers and their noisy kids with strange Halloween costumes. Taking a deep breath, I started my opening speech. 

That night, the activity turned out to be a success. Every family went back home with happy faces. Again, I made it. 

Later, I couldn’t stop trying more new things. I hosted Toastmasters meeting at my workplace, I started on-line classes and became an English pronunciation coach, and a public speaking trainer. It’s not that hard. Fake it and I can make it ALL. 

Now I am pride to say that I am an effective leader, to lead people grow together with me. 

As to my leadership styles? I never think about it until today I did the test from the pathways tutorials. The result shows that my dominant leadership style is coaching, following closely by altruistic,democratic and innovative. 

And I learned that the attributes to be a successful leader are to communicate effectively, to lead by example, to be optimistic, to be open-minded and so on. 

Looking back, when I firstly lead the club, I didn’t know how to be a leader. 

So I communicated with officer team, to understand how I could support them to fulfill their goals. 

I wanted to every member and guest to feel relaxed and encouraged, so I stood by the door to greet everybody at every meeting. 

When the VPPR was gone in the middle of the term, I was optimistic so that I found an excellent backup PR very quickly.  

Communicating effectively by listening to others, leading by example, be optimistic....Those attributes enable me to empower others, and eventually to be an effective leader. 

Dear friends, what about your leadership style? Not sure? Don’t worry, you’ll find it from Toastmasters. Fake it until you make it. Don’t miss any chance to be a club officer and don’t worry to fake it at the beginning because I know and we know,  you will eventually make it.