Stretch Opportunity - Toastmaster Showcase May 23, 2023

Do you choose consistency and predictability, or do you enjoy occasional changes from routine? Some people will choose predictability at all times, but many need an occasional break from routine and a chance to push their limits. I like to mix in some chaos within a predictable routine.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been planning with local Toastmaster leaders in Saint John to provide an incremental challenge for our local Toastmaster members. We arranged a stretch opportunity for members, and guests, on Tuesday May 23^rd 6:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at the Kent Theater on Coburg Street.  Here is a link to the Facebook event  https://fb.me/e/NLPP9eX2

Consistency and Predictability

Regular Toastmaster meetings provide a predictable format, which I enjoy.  Public speaking and leadership are both skills, and skills require practice to keep skills sharp. It is imperative that Toastmaster members have a quite consistent environment in which to develop their skills. Members join with varying levels of experience, confidence, and expertise. Therefore, the environment needs to feel safe for new participants to engage.

Stretch Opportunities

While consistency is critical, stretch opportunities provide a chance to exercise skills in a more fluid environment. At the May 23rd event, speakers will climb a few stairs to an elevated stage, and use a handheld microphone to address the assembly. The microphone is required as very few voices will project well enough without the use of the microphone. You’ve watched speakers use a microphone.  It requires some practice and experience to be comfortable holding a microphone at a consistent distance while presenting.

Guests at the Event

There are many people who have an interest in developing their presentation skills, their soft skills, and their leadership skills. Some are interested in Toastmasters specifically.  For these people, May 23^rd will be a stellar opportunity to see the types of routines practiced at regular Toastmaster meetings.  These routines include planning and running meetings, delivering two-minute impromptu speeches, preparing and delivering longer speeches with prior preparation and practice, and providing and receiving developmental feedback.

There are four local clubs in the Saint John region. More information is available at this link https://saintjohn.toastmastersclubs.org/

The meeting will feature a speaker from each of the four local clubs, and 2-minute speeches from other Toastmaster members. Guests will not be required to speak, but may be invited to speak.  

Stretch Opportunities in General

When developing employees, or group members, leaders need to find opportunity to exercise their skills. Leaders always need to build employee’s confidence and competence, but further to find a way to gently push employees a little beyond their comfort zone from time-to-time.

Should you wish to attend the Saint John Region Toastmasters Showcase and stretch opportunity, please let a local toastmaster know, or email me at jimkokocki@gmail.com

 

 

 

My Process Preparing a Keynote

On Saturday, May 13^th, 2023, I delivered a 40-minute keynote with 15 minutes of Q&A.  The event was organized around three keynote presentations.   I will share my development process here.

Defining My Keynote Purpose

Purpose drives content. My process began with a conversation with the organizers to understand their requirements and what they hoped to achieve with the audience.  I'm generally familiar with the types of volunteer leaders who would be in attendance, and we discussed and settled on a relevant theme.  

I chose a theme around recognizing their successes in general, helping them realize the immense opportunity they have for skill development in their volunteer roles, and a description of the value of the Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership model to help their efforts.  The organizers needed a title and I chose Situational Leadership Every Time.

 

Exploring the Theme

Often people don't understand how they are being shaped during their experiences.  We are all shaped by our experiences. A goal with my talk was to help the audience members enable increased intentional focus on finishing their year well, and their skill development. A key component would be some research I discovered which indicates that most leaders receive their first ever leadership training at age 42 on average, about 10 years after they were promoted! These volunteer leaders in my audience are gifted an opportunity to receive training, exercise leadership skills, and develop further.

Within the theme, I took the audience through the situational leadership model, which is always relevant to any group of leaders, and the work of any leader. I also included material on managing team dysfunction and then offered a simple speech structure that any leader can use at anytime, even spontaneously.

 

Planning

To begin designing my speech, I usually create a draft presentation drawing on existing slides and material, and I did so in this instance.  As a result of many years of presentations, I have a quantity of stories and assets I can use to speak about leadership and communication.   

 

Refining

After reviewing the draft presentation, I scanned the draft to consider what was missing and what new material I can find that is pertinent and interesting.  In this case I found some recent material on the future of work from McKinsey, which is excellent, and is now a new asset for my future presentations.   Here is a link https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/defining-the-skills-citizens-will-need-in-the-future-world-of-work

 

A subsequent review of the draft helped me realize I could remove some material that I believe is too basic for this audience, and spend more time on the most pertinent material.   

 As the date of the presentation grew closer, I continued to scan and review, consider and write down key points for reminders during the presentation, and think about flow and transitions from major point to major point.  I never know precisely what I will say, but I know precisely what I’ll speak about, and the mental rehearsal embeds transitions and key points. I always print a 9-sllde horizontal view of my PowerPoint where I can jot notes on key points and sometimes transitions, and so I can glance and preview what is next.

 

Managing Chat Function

I decided to add a couple of skill testing questions to engage the audience. In doing so I recognized that I would ask those offering answers to type them in the chat, as this presentation was online only.  I usually avoid watching the chat as I find it distracting to my thought process, so I usually ask someone to monitor and advise me if need be.  So, I engaged a chat master in advance and armed her with the answers to my skill testing questions.   The two winners were mailed a copy of one of my books, of their choice.  

 

Result

The keynote proceeded swimmingly, and was well received.  Most of the questions were submitted in advance with time for a couple more from the assembly.

I hope you find value in this description of my approach to developing this keynote.

 

 

 

 

A Spy Story: Protective Behavior By Team Members

You have likely seen many instances where people are struggling exercising new skills, but are afraid to ask for help. Then once their skills and confidence grow, they realize that it was always ok to ask for help.

What is the role of the leader when people are developing new skills? A review of Hersey-Blanchard’s situational leadership is well worth some study for a brilliant, yet simple, framework that offers guidance on the role of a leader in developing people and their skills. There is much material available on situational leadership. This link provides a brief overview https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hersey-and-blanchard-model.asp

 

A Book Titled “I Was Never Here”

I found an interesting example of avoiding asking for assistance in a book I recently read.  The book was written by a former spy. The story is about his past work in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which is Canada's primary national intelligence agency. The book is titled I Was Never Here and is written by Andrew Hirsch.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60288495-i-was-never-here

The Book and Behavior in Organizations

The book was less exciting than I expected considering the author was a spy, but it is an interesting read regardless.  It’s interesting because it’s about people, and individual and team behavior in organizations. 

The book jacket makes clear that the book isn’t a James Bond thriller, but instead offers insight into his former role in CSIS. And CSIS is a large federal agency that does great work, however it is a typical organization with battles for resources, and protective behavior amongst teams within the organization. 

An interesting section describes surveillance of a car which belonged to a person of interest.  A mistake is made which slows the surveillance work, and the CSIS technical experts are very protective of the team member that made the mistake.  This slows the work.  The protective team behavior complicates the greater goal of the organization to the frustration of the other teams involved and senior leadership.

Embarrassed to Admit It

My main interest is in public speaking and leadership skills and there is often reluctance by people to address gaps in these areas. Considering this reluctance, I enjoyed this passage on page 76 of the copy I read. He described moving from a desk job in the agency where he managed various data reporting needs, and then the difficult move to more dangerous field work.  

“When I didn’t know what I was doing I was embarrassed to admit it. As my confidence grew, so did my willingness to admit when I needed help.”

It's common that people are reluctant to acknowledge a skill gap or ask for assistance. The situational leadership model provides a framework to help leaders in the art of assessing skill development of team members and responding appropriately.

A Couple Who Met on Partridge Island

About ten years ago I learned about a couple who met on uninhabited Partridge Island, which sits at the mouth of Saint John Harbour. The couple were married for 60 years. 

One day in 2012, I was sitting in a coffee shop when two long time friends, David and Marlene, came into the shop. I hadn’t seen them for a couple of years. We chatted and David mentioned that they were just returning from his mother’s wake. He then mentioned his mom and dad had met on Partridge Island.

No one lives on Partridge Island.  I was puzzled.  David read my puzzled expression, laughed, and said his parents met during WWII when his dad was stationed on the island with the military.

I’m still amazed at this, and thought the story had to be shared, but I’ve never been able to flesh it out to my satisfaction.

 

Partridge Island

Partridge Island is uninhabited. Access is by boat, or by foot over a breakwater that is constructed from very large rocks.  Access is restricted, somewhat. Although I’ve not made the trek, I have been told that crossing the breakwater is difficult, and made even more so when the largest tides in the world from the Bay of Fundy reach their highest levels daily and then splash across the rocks. Sometimes people need to be rescued from their attempt to cross the breakwater. The tides in the Bay can reach 16 metres, or 53 feet. More information is available on the Bay of Fundy here https://www.bayoffundy.com/about/highest-tides/

Historic Site

Partridge Island is designated as a provincial historic site and a national historic site. Oddly, it’s not a provincial or national park. Flights arriving at Saint John Airport (YSJ) usually take a path that offers a good view of the uninhabited island.  

In the 1800s, the island served as a quarantine station for arriving immigrants. In the 1840s there was a large influx of immigrants from the Irish Potato Famine, which killed millions of people. At the time, a hospital was constructed to service and quarantine the arrivals. 

Local historian Harold Wright has written extensively on the history of the island and its military history. The island served as military fortification protecting the city during the wars of 1812, WWI, WWII and the Fenian raids from the south, when incursions extended into what was then British North America, before Canada was federated in 1867.

It was during WWII that Charles Kinley met Dorothy Small.

Charles and Dorothy

I was curious to learn more about David’s parents, and about Saint John back in the day including restaurants, theaters, and other local details. So, in 2018 David arranged for us to visit his dad who resided in a care facility in Halifax.

Unfortunately, Charles had little memory of Saint John, as he didn’t grow up here, and didn’t spend a significant number of years in the city.  David said that his mom, Dorothy, had tremendous memories of Saint John, and their life on Charles Street. Dorothy was born in Grand Bay, New Brunswick, and Charles in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia before moving to Halifax.

 

A Family Story

For David and his family, the story seems a curiosity, but not significant. Everyone’s parents meet somewhere. However, I was very curious about the circumstances of their meeting, and what life was like when his dad was stationed on the island.

 

When David and I visited Charles in January 2018, I was interested to capture stories about his time on Partridge Island. We spoke for 90 minutes, all of which I recorded.

 

David Charles Kinley was born in 1917 and died April 29th, 2018 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. One hundred years old.

Daily Life on the Island 

 

Charles estimated that during WWII, approximately 200 soldiers were stationed on Partridge Island guarding the city of Saint John.  We asked him what a typical day was like for a soldier.  Most soldiers started their day at 6:30 a.m. with the morning parade when the available troops would be assigned daily duties, which included maintenance, military drills, and tasks such as food preparation. 

 

Part of the daily routine was recording the passage of vessels in the harbour. These days there is regular passage of a passenger ferry between Saint John and Digby, Nova Scotia, and much cruise ship traffic during the warmer months of the year. As well, there is significant container traffic including crude oil delivered to the Irving Oil refinery, which is the largest in Canada, and petroleum products then exported from the refinery. 

 

During WWII Charles said that the ferry operated between Saint John to Digby, and additionally a ferry ran between Saint John and Grand Manan. 

 

During the evenings some soldiers would be on guard duty, as protecting the harbour was a 24-hour operation. For leisure some would play cards, or shoot pool.  There was a recreation building where they could hold dances. That’s where he told us he met Dorothy.

 

Meeting Dorothy 

 

He indicated that some of the soldiers on the island had formed a band, an orchestra and they would hold dances on the island. Groups of women with the Red Cross auxiliary would visit the island to teach the soldiers to sew buttons, darn socks, and make general clothing repairs. Charles told us he was an officer, so he didn’t have to darn his socks.

 

Dorothy was a Lieutenant in the auxiliary. It was at a dance on the island where the couple met. Charles wasn’t too forthcoming and simply offered they ‘made contact, dated, (and) it went on from there.” Charles said they were married about six to eight months after their initial meeting. 

 

When the war ended the couple moved to Halifax where Charles attended Dalhousie University for three years and then two years at the Nova Scotia Technical College where he graduated as a civil engineer. He remembered an apartment on MacDonald Street. 

 

The family then moved to Shawinigan, Quebec where Charles served as Chief Engineer at Shawinigan Chemicals Limited, retiring in 1981 with 30 years of service.   

 

WWII

 

Charles described drills and exercises on the island. There were two 6-inch guns and one 9.2 inch gun.  He said they were ”fairly sizable weapons. When fired, if you were up close, (it was) almost as if you were picked up and placed down. It was quite an experience.” 

 

He told us the weapons were never used in combat, but drills were performed three to four times per week. A couple of times per year the weapons were fired and tested but afterwards the cleanup was significant.

 

The Story

                      

As much as I enjoy the story, I have not been successful in fleshing it out further.  It would have been amazing to speak with Dorothy before she passed, as David indicated she had a great memory of the city at that time. History and historical research are not my strength. People like Harold Wright have invested much time and energy into such research.

 

I love the story because it somehow makes more real the local circumstances of WWII.  The soldiers stationed on the island were prepared to defend.  It didn’t turn out to be necessary, but they didn’t know that at the time.  I love the story too because of the happenstance of two people meeting on Partridge Island and sharing life together. 

 

Some further information on the island is available here

https://mynewbrunswick.ca/partridge-island/

CTV News Atlantic Interview 2016

 

Back in 2016 I was interviewed for CTV News Atlantic on the topic of public speaking. Interviewer Bruce Frisko touched on several good, common questions such as why many people fear public speaking and on the effect this fear has on career progression.

As I watch this interview again, I notice I used quite a few filler words, although I don’t think they were terribly distracting for the audience.  Nonetheless, I like to limit these filler words.  If I use filler words, the audience needs to work to filter them.

In responding to these questions, I drew from my core tenets for public speaking such as helpful structures, and the need for knowledge, practice and feedback.

You can see the interview here https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=803613

 

Timing is Everything

There was an interesting timing element to this interview. I was elected to the position of Toastmasters International President in August 2015, and in early September I was asked to visit and complete this interview in the local CTV studio in Saint John.  However, I was involved with a family commitment in Sydney, Nova Scotia at that time, so I suggested that I complete the interview at their Sydney studio.  They responded that instead, they’d prefer I let them know when I was back in Saint John.  A couple of weeks later I was back in Saint John and contacted the local studio. Then nothing happened.

Toastmasters public relations staff followed up with me as they were interested to see this PR work completed.  I followed up with CTV but nothing happened, and the story about my election became less and less current.

Then, finally, on a Tuesday evening in February, six months later, CTV must have needed content and contacted me to be in their studio the following afternoon, and this interview was recorded.

I share this because the that’s the way media works.  They like current stories, and work to find the most compelling stories at any point.  I’ve pitched stories to media before and I like their honesty when they say something like “Great.  We’re aware of your event, and if that’s the best content we have available to us at that time, we’ll be in touch.”  

Ottawa

One time I was scheduled for a CTV morning show in Ottawa on a Friday, but on that Friday there was funeral for Herb Gray, a prominent national politician, and in addition the body of a murder victim had been discovered in a river.  Public speaking took a back seat and my appearance was bumped.  

I share this experience not as a complaint, but to offer some insight to the reality of working with media requests.

2021 Presentation for The University of New Brunswick

Last week I received a comment about a presentation I made 20 months ago for the University of New Brunswick Associated Alumni Office. A friend had stumbled upon the video and I don’t recall sharing it, so I will do so now. In 1993, I completed a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, and then a Masters in Business Administration in 2013,  both at UNB. I’m proud to be an alumni of UNB.  

Ukraine

When I completed my Bachelors degree, another student and I were invited to assist a professor who was advising post-Soviet countries as they worked to transition to market economies. That summer I spent two months in Ukraine, primarily in Kyiv, with a weekend in Odessa, on the Black Sea. This was a tremendous experience. I look forward to the development of an ever stronger and prosperous Ukraine, and a sustainable and peaceful future for their resilient citizens.

Past Presentations

As a speaker, it’s helpful to watch past presentations. This presentation contains much of my core material, although usually when I present, I work to add some new content to see how well it lands with the audience, or to meet a specific need of an organization. Sometimes the pertinence of new material becomes clearer when I present.  This feels odd to state, however I do find that when I work the speech plan, the audience engagement and act of presenting sometimes reveals new significance.

“Tell them what you’ll tell them. Tell them, Then tell them what you told them” 

As I scanned through the video, I was pleased that I mentioned the business structure of “tell them what you’ll tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.”  This is a bit of a cliché, but the structure is helpful for audiences. This structure asserts a brief table of contents, followed by core material, and then a brief recap. In this presentation, I did use that structure. This structure helps because audiences are distracted. This approach increases the odds of more audience members receiving your message.

Video

If you care to watch the video, please visit here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XObo__ETXI

If you’d like to support the UNB Alumni association with me, please visit https://www.unb.ca/alumni/

 

 

GYCZ Ski Day. Ego Gets in the Way

On Friday, March 17^th I enjoyed a glorious ski day at Poley Mountain (https://www.poleymountain.com/)  in nearby Sussex, New Brunswick.  The sky was clear, the temperature hovered around the freezing mark, and the sun was strong. Often when the sun is strong and temperatures relatively warm, the snow conditions deteriorate quickly and become slushy, but conditions this day were still very good when I left at 1:45 p.m. It was a dream ski day.  So much so that I shared some photos on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp5oW0BO2yp/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D

Learning to Ski and Ego

The next day I bumped into a friend, Matt, at a coffee shop.  I had seen him Friday from afar in the ski lodge.  He had also enjoyed the great conditions at Poley. We chatted about ski experiences, and I mentioned that I had lived in Sussex, the ski town, for four years when I was in my 30s and that’s when I learned to ski. He had learned while he was very young. I found in my 30s that I was quite slow to learn, and I’m convinced that the main reason for that is my ego got in the way of my development.

For example, I remember one day when I was on the hill, quaking in my skis, my legs aching, and gripping a small spruce tree to steady myself while I avoided pointing my skis down the hill and just giving it a go, learning to control my speed, and learning to ski. 

While I stood there pulling on that poor little tree, a group of kids roared down the hill past me laughing, screaming, and flying past without even the aid of ski poles. They were having a great time and learning quickly. They were unconcerned with my plight.

Two of the kids fell. They laughed uproariously, and then continued down the hill to catch up with their friends.

I didn’t want to fall in the snow. And worse, I didn’t want people I knew to see me fall and then see me struggle to get back on my feet. Getting back to upright, on a slope, wearing skis, is an accomplishment in itself.

In time, I did learn to ski well, but not as quickly as I could have had I pushed my ego out of my way.  

Ego in the Way of Skill Development

I reflect on my development as a skier because I believe that ego gets in the way of much adult learning, for example with the skill of public speaking.  Many people feel they are supposed to be competent and confident at preparing and delivering speeches. Most of these folks have achieved other significant successes, but avoid public speaking of any sort.  I view public speaking as a skill, just like skiing is a skill.

Few professionals need to be competent skiers, but most professionals should have reasonable public speaking skills. I’m sure there are some people who are naturals at public speaking, but for most of us, it’s a learned skill developed through observation, some acquisition of knowledge and techniques, practice of the skill, and supportive feedback and coaching.

If this resonates with you, I encourage you to contact and then visit a local Toastmasters club (www.toastmasters.org) and observe the learning atmosphere.  There is no obligation to join and I expect you’ll be impressed with the structured, yet friendly and supportive experiential learning environment.