Habit 2 of the 7 habits of highly effective people is ‘Begin with the End in Mind.’ This is the habit of personal vision.
Leading a team to success begins with creating a shared vision. If we can see it, we can achieve it.
From the beginning, we tagged this conference ‘The best District 94 conference ever’, and it remained our mantra until we obtained it. When the bank account didn’t look at what we had budgeted, we still maintained our mantra, believing we would achieve the vision.
Our members had barely recovered from the 2023 conference in Lome, which was all shades of amazing; we knew we had a standard to beat. However, I made it clear that this was not a competition but a continuance of the legacy of excellence, a core value that guides us as Toastmasters. We are all unique in every way, and our uniqueness as a country is determined by our culture, geographical location, people, and what we hold dear. Naija is known for hospitality, and we were once regarded as the happiest people on earth.
So, three months before the conference, when we barely had 20% of our budget, we still affirmed that this would be the best District conference ever. All hands were on deck. When we needed to strategize, we did. When we needed to restructure, we did. The goal remained one and the same. We turned every disappointment into an opportunity and solved every problem as they came without wasting much time.
Communication is a powerful tool in leadership, and it works magic when mutual. While I took the lead in communicating and driving the vision, they reciprocated by checking on my well-being and encouraging me with words that left me empowered.
Did we have itches, oh yes! We never expected perfection and acknowledged our limitations working around it at best. Yet it was many shades of beautiful, ‘beautiful imperfection’.
When the District Director met with the planning committee some days later to give us feedback, she said, “There was something about this conference, and I don’t know what it is.” “I have been receiving calls from delegates telling me about their Abuja experience, and they plan to attend next year’s conference in Niger with the hope that they will see their Nigerian friends again.”
For this reason, we shall be in Niger in our numbers come 2025. #ToastmastersDistrict130conference
