The Official newsletter of Chennai Wordsmiths Toastmasters Club All of us dream, a lot of us have explored our interests, experimented with both the leadership and communications track and some have even given up. Some of us believe that no one can shatter our dreams, except us. So we continue to follow along. Follow our dream. Ever since the dawn of Toastmasters in Tamil Nadu, we have grown from strength to strength. We have explored frontiers that have not just helped us set records but set examples. Today when you are reading this article, you would have been proud to see one such example that will go down the history of Toastmasters in India – Aditya Maheshwaran, a fellow toastmaster from Chennai, who made us proud by bagging the 2nd Runners up at the Semi Finals of the World Championship in KL in August 2014. Today, I want to remind you that it’s important to choose the dreams we want to follow and pursue them relentlessly. Aditya Maheshwaran and I are the proud pedigree of PSBB, Chennai. We joined Toastmasters around the same time and we were both at that time very young but had different interests. While I wanted to explore the leadership track, Aditya chose the Communication track. Despite moving away from his home club in Chennai and being a part of another District in India, his passion and commitment for Public speaking never stopped him from reaching out for excellence. We as a district are proud today that he is originally from D82, his home district, he was just an ordinary member like all of us, but because he believed he could dream, today he is a man who made us proud at the Toastmasters International convention at KualaLumpur, Malaysia. An example that will remind us to remember to follow our dreams no matter how old, how long or how far away we go. ‘‘Follow your dreams Because they know the way’’ Dec 31,2014 Follow your dreams. Because they know the way INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Lead Every one And Perform Follow your dreams by DTM 1 Delegate to inspire by DTM 2 Inspiring leaders every week 3 Be the egg broken from inside 4 Leadership has transformed 5 Let us grow and make others 6 Ace in Leadership 7 From the Editor 8 Best Articles 9 Happy memories 10 About TMI 11 By Sastharam Ravendran DTM EC Members for Jan 2015 - June 2015 : Suresh G - sgt @ arms ,Ramyaa - Secretary ,Kumar - VP PR, Ganeshan - VP Membership,Paul Baskaran - VP Education,Samuel W - President
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Chennai Wordsmiths newsletter December 2014 edition
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The Official newsletter of Chennai Wordsmiths Toastmasters Club
All of us dream, a lot of us have explored our
interests, experimented with both the
leadership and communications track and
some have even given up. Some of us believe
that no one can shatter our dreams, except us.
So we continue to follow along. Follow our
dream.
Ever since the dawn of Toastmasters in Tamil
Nadu, we have grown from strength to
strength. We have explored frontiers that have
not just helped us set records but set
examples.
Today when you are reading this article, you
would have been proud to see one such
example that will go down the history of
Toastmasters in India – Aditya Maheshwaran,
a fellow toastmaster from Chennai, who made
us proud by bagging the 2nd Runners up at the
Semi Finals of the World Championship in KL
in August 2014. Today, I want to remind you
that it’s important to choose the dreams we
want to follow and pursue them relentlessly.
Aditya Maheshwaran and I are the proud
pedigree of PSBB, Chennai. We joined
Toastmasters around the same time and we
were both at that time very young but had
different interests. While I wanted to explore
the leadership track, Aditya chose the
Communication track. Despite moving away
from his home club in Chennai and
being a part of another District in India,
his passion and commitment for Public
speaking never stopped him from
reaching out for excellence.
We as a district are proud today that
he is originally from D82, his home
district, he was just an ordinary
member like all of us, but because he
believed he could dream, today he is a
man who made us proud at the
Toastmasters International convention
at KualaLumpur, Malaysia. An
example that will remind us to
remember to follow our dreams no
matter how old, how long or how far
away we go.
‘‘Follow your dreams
Because they know the way’’
Dec 31,2014
Follow your dreams. Because they know the way I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :
3) Identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts etc. of
someone; sympathy (noun) Root PATH = feel, suffer
P A T H
Lead Every one And Perform Page 4
“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value” - Albert Einstein
Be the egg broken from inside
By Gopi Ramal ingam CC,ACB,Pres ident
Have you ever wondered volunteers do a fair
and good job than employees? This is
applicable in all sorts of life. Be it in your
workplace or be it in your home or be it in
toastmasters, this is the same. Think about this
situation where a new promotion for the Team
Leader is open at your work place. The manager
has asked his favorite employee to apply for this
position and a few employees volunteered to
take up that challenging role, where one of the
employees who has volunteered for this role and
the one who is the favorite employee of the
Manger was selected for the position of Team
Lead, whom do you think will do the job best?
Obviously the guy who has
volunteered for the position will. He
will put his heart and soul to strive
hard and excel in that position. If
you take Toastmasters as an
example, during my experience with
toastmasters, I have observed that
people who volunteer for the role
would do a better job than the
people who have been assigned to
do a role. Be it a small role play in
the club like TAG roles or club
officer roles or any big roles during
the division or district conference, it
is evident that volunteers have
delivered an exceptional job.
Always remember the egg broken
from outside becomes an omelet
and the egg broken from inside
takes a life form. Always try to be an
egg broken from inside rather than
broken from outside, to be a great
leader.
WORD PUZZLE
4) Uncompromising adherence to right moral and ethical conduct or principles;
honesty (noun)
Root TANG = touch
T E G
5) Confident or trustful dependence; something or someone on which one has
confidence(noun) Roots: RE (prefix) = back; LIGA = tie, bind
R E
Lead Every one And Perform Page 5
“Leadership is influence.” - John C. Maxwell
Leadership has transformed
By Samuel W hitef ie ld CC,ALB,VP-Educat ion
Leadership has transformed! Leaders today
need to believe in engaging and empowering
people around them and not just guard their
position with fierce authority. In order to
succeed, now leaders need to fully
understand the dynamics of effective
communication and interpersonal skills.
Leadership in the present times transcends
task and job orientation, it is about
developing the ability to create an inspired
culture through the skill of agility and
adaptability. Leadership is evolving into a
partnering relationship that echoes the
elements of continuous learning and
transferring of knowledge that just does
not permeate through hierarchy but
seeks genuine talent and skills. Leaders
are now termed as coaches, who have
the vision and strength to lead varied
array of people through customized
leadership styles and are able to
achieve more and more with less.
Leadership is beyond a concept, it is
about living the qualities of a leader on a
day on day basis…
Chennai Wordsmiths Toastmasters Club meeting @ Pondicherry
Did you know : the longest one syllable word in the English language is 'screeched'.
Let us grow and make others grow
Lead Every one And Perform Page 6
“I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?- Benjamin Disraeli
Fellow Toastmasters,
Do you want to:
• Be comfortable in your own skin
• Develop your communication skills
• Spend quality time crafting your
speeches
• Practice, practice and practice in
anything for that matter
• Deliver with passion
• Connect with the external source
• Stick to the change we need
• Get far with a great team
• Learn more by listening
• Know that yesterday’s competitor is
today’s collaborator
• Know that lead is nothing but to deal in
hope, as said by Napoleon
• Narrate your own story
• Influence the surrounding
• Use the CHANGE to reach our
supporters
• Empower others and release
followers to make impact
• Be able to stay calm under
pressure leading to great quality
Leadership is the only answer for
above............. Isn’t it a good time to
take leadership..................................
“Let us grow and make others grow”
both of them have inspired me with
their commitment to serve the club
and its members and they are true
Servant Leaders. I want to mention
about TM Prabhu who had happily
done this role whenever he got an
opportunity. I bow to these Inspiring
Leaders.
By P.Baskaran, Vice Pres ident (Educat ion) e lect .
Did you know : 'Bookkeeper' and 'bookkeeping' are the only 2 words in the English language with three consecutive double letters.
Lead Every one And Perform Page 7
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” - John F. Kennedy
Ace in Leadership
By Pr imrose Jasmin CC,ACB
There are three A’s which brought about a
tremendous change in this world. The first ‘A’ is
Adam’s apple, the second ‘A’ is Steve Job’s
Apple iPhone and the third ‘A’ is the great
leader “Abraham Lincoln”.
What is it that makes Lincoln a seminal figure in
history? How did this man, born in the
backwoods of Kentucky - with little formal
education had so much to offer to the society?
His rise from poverty, self-study, his capacity to
overcome personal loss and remain determined
in the face of repeated defeat, in all of this is
seen a fundamental character “The belief that
we can constantly remake ourselves, to fit our
larger dreams”.
With the axe in hand and the frontier of hope
and possibility, here’s what separated Lincoln
from the other great men in history, he was not
a perfect man. Lincoln suffered from color
blindness, malaria, depression and small pox.
Irrespective of all the odds, he stood tall and
made history. “A man is great by deed, not by
birth”.
Friends, “Your life is your
responsibility. God is not the sole
author of your destiny. You are the
co-author of your destiny”. My
fellow co-authors, birth was never
your choice and neither will death
be your choice, but the way you
live your life between these two
terminals will be absolutely your
choice. Come, let’s make history
together
Candle light meeting @ WORDSMITH - 6 Sep 2014
From the Editor
Lead Every one And Perform Page 8
We have heard many people say that they
are inspired by famous personalities, I do
agree with them and I would like to share
my thoughts about the leaders who
inspired me as well. In our day today life
we meet many people but only few of
them leave their footprints in our heart. My Dad is one such person. There
is no Wikipedia link about him which I can share with you all. I like his
leadership in many ways. He cares to listen to me though the answer was
No to most of my requests, but listening is an important quality for
leadership. I have always admired the way he spoke to his friends and
colleagues as it always aimed at a win win situation. What I understood
from this was that, “A leader never asks others to follow instead will make
the others to follow them with their actions”.
Every leader may have some positive and negative qualities; my father was
no exception to it. His negative trait was anger. He always tells me when
you get angry you lose something. He tries his best to keep a friendly
environment which leads to positive thinking. Positive thinking leads to a
happy and successful life. There are many inspiring leaders who come in
our life but my Dad will always remain as a unique leader in my heart
forever and forever..
By Kumara Muniasamy, TM
Dear Readers,
I am privileged in serving as the editor of the
December edition of Wordsmiths newsletter- Lead
Every one And Perform. I am happy that this
newsletter is going to be released during the 325th
meeting of Wordsmiths. Also this will be the
Second edition for the year-2014. The theme of the
newsletter is “Your Inspiring Leader”.
I would also like to mention, that this newsletter has
taken its shape not just by my efforts but also by the
efforts of our editorial team, by the Toastmasters
who contributed the articles and most of all the
efforts of you- the reader.
I hope you will have a wonderful time reading this
newsletter!
Editorial Team >>
TM Kumar
TM Jasmine
TM Ramya
Lead Every one And Perform Page 9
PagePage 3
3
3 Everyone, given an opportunity, would like to lead others. But not everyone is capable of holding the baton of leadership. Some leaders are born and some are made – depending on their individual circumstances. Just by having the tag ‘Leader’ does not necessarily make one a leader; rather, it’s the inherent or visible qualities and character that make one.
Leaders are to be exemplary characters. The world has seen many great leaders; and oft times the greatest or the most inspiring ones are not those who have become prominent or famous. Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, the former President and also known as the missile man of India, may have got inspired by a particular teacher in his younger days or maybe his father to pursue his dreams. Likewise, there would be many personalities who would have played a role in the life of those who would have later become leaders.
Hence, it is not necessary to hold the mantle of leadership to be a leader. As we pursue our daily routines and given tasks, however small or large, with a morally conscious mind, we are building a stronger society; which is the responsibility of any great leader.
Best articles from the contest
TM Jacob Cherian Ooramvelil
To become an inspiring personality, one has to look inside oneself. It is a process of
evolution and takes years and years of dedication, courage of conviction and most
important of all, an ability to win over the hearts of the people. The question arises as to
WHAT IS INSPIRING LEADERSHIP? The answer is when multitude of people want to
emulate and follow the leader in a natural way without any force or persuasion.In our
country, a true leader like Mahatma Gandhi had innate qualities based on trust, affection
and pure love. Despite his frail personality, he was still able to win over lakhs of people,
leading the country to freedom. At the same time, dictators like Adolf Hitler, Mussolini
were authoritative but not inspiring. One has come to a natural conclusion that lasting
leadership is possible only when the leader accepts and upholds the philosophy of
Dharma. As the popular adage in Sanskrit goes, Dharmo Rakshathithi Rakshathiha. It
emphasizes the basic fact that if one upholds Dharma, Dharma will protect him forever
.Therefore, for an inspiring leader upholding the principles of righteousness is not a
prerequisite but a sheer necessity.
TM Preethi Kameswaran
TM Subramaniyan
When human race evolved, man had a nomadic life. There was no specific way to live life
and people lived their lives in their own ways. There was one wise man who could envisage
the dangerous future of human race if there were no changes in the system. The predictive
analysis of that one man resulted in families, groups and society. The group accepted him as
the head and various such heads were created. As the heads lead the group, show the right
path for the people to walk through, they were called the leaders. As the human race
progressed good leaders were chosen to be the kings who ruled the kingdom. We had
leaders who protected our country from the rule of the East India Company. We had leaders
who formed the Government to rule the State and the Center. There are few leaders who
rise to heights and always stay in the hearts of people due to their leadership style. The
basic quality which is required for a person to be a good leader is the care for fellow human
beings, a pragmatic and analytical mind which can foresee future. Do you have these innate