Dianne Wanja - Outgoing President

Having been in the role, describe the role in your own words.

• I have learnt more about myself than anything else – both strengths and areas for improvement.
• Mentorship is key to any success, be it in preparing for a speech or in running a club.
• I have had the chance to really exercise my leadership style – the affiliative leadership style, which focuses on teamwork and cohesion in achieving the objectives of the club.
• My role consisted of ensuring that I supported all six of my Exco members to perform their tasks. As such, I am always quite involved in almost each role in the Exco, from assisting the Vice President Education in training new members and ensuring members contribute to the achievement of the DCP Goals, assisting the VP Membership to bring in new members, assisting the treasurer in ensuring timely renewals, assisting the secretary in her role, pushing the Vice President Public Relations agenda, to ensuring that the SAA is well equipped in ensuring the smooth running of the meeting. Through all this, I have learnt the power of Team Work; the power of my all-time motto, “Let’s do this 💪🏾”.
• My role has ensured such beautiful and effective team chemistry; it has been like no other. I will certainly miss it.

What initially drew you to take up the role?

The challenge of stepping out of my comfort zone. This role challenged me to my core as I am naturally a shy, reserved individual. Yes, I know – it doesn’t look like it, but I really am. I was however fortunate to have held leadership positions before, therefore I had learned to put on the big-girl shoes when the need arose, and run with the challenge – this started from the time of preparing a full-on presidential campaign before being elected, to performing in the role and doing with razzmatazz.

What were the challenges you faced while in office?

Shouldn’t the question be, “What challenges did you NOT face while in office?’ Kidding. There were many, but three stand out a bit more: a. This is the first time, in the history of Earlybirds Toastmasters Club, that we transitioned from physical to online meetings.

• As good as it was to join meetings from the comfort of our homes, it was quite a challenge to learn how it all works, then teach members the same.
• Online fatigue was real as not only were there so many opportunities to attend other Toastmasters meetings and learn from them, but many of us also worked online. Keeping Earlybirds alive during this period was no easy feat. Thank you, Members, for always being there, cheering each other on, encouraging each other to keep coming for meetings; to keep growing. b. Since transitioning to online meetings, there was no income coming from physical meetings like it used to, yet to keep the club afloat, money was still needed. Through the work of Hamred Chungani, the Exco and generous Earlybirds members, we were able to keep the club running. c. Attracting and retaining new members in this online environment was not easy, but thanks to the efforts of Pricilla Karumba, VPPR, who actively helped attract new members, Earlybirds members who invited their friends and family to join and Moses Njuguna, VPM, who helped with the onboarding process, we were able to add and retain twelve new members to the Earlybirds family, within only 1 year.

How did you manage to keep a balance between work and Toastmaster leadership? Did you experience club officer burnout?

I work approximately 14-15 hours a day, with 10 to 15 min breaks between each hour. It’s very rare to have a 30 min or 1-hour lunch break, if at all. Everything I have done at Toastmasters has been prepared in these short breaks. Any Toastmasters engagement I have been involved in has had to be planned in advance by literary and deliberately choosing not to chase that dollar for that hour, closing that hour off and choosing that Toastmaster engagement instead. In summary, I have kept a balance between everything, by taking advantage of every minute available. Miles Davis, one of the most successful jazz musicians in history, says:

Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the ONLY thing

Any lessons learnt while in office?

Good teamwork and harmony can fix all problems and achieve any objective.

Advise to your successor?

I repeat: Good teamwork and harmony can fix all problems and achieve any objective.

Now that you are done with your tenure, where to next in your Toastmaster Leadership journey?

You just wait and see…