This year’s Golden Gavel recipient at the 2005 International Conference
in Toronto was Marcus Buckingham, author of First, Break All the Rules; Discover
Your Strengths; and The One Thing You Need to Know. The common thread throughout
his books, and his presentation at the Golden Gavel Luncheon, is based on a
survey that revealed that 59 percent of respondents in the United States say
overcoming weaknesses is more important than building on strengths, while 41
percent say the proper approach is to discover and build on strengths. Obviously,
Mr. Buckingham prefers the latter, minority approach.
Those of you who have heard me encourage you to look for problems and then set about solving them may be surprised to know that I was very impressed with Mr. Buckingham and tend to agree with him. Having said that, however, I should point out that the two approaches are not mutually exclusive; they are often two sides of the same coin. For example, for at least the past two years, our biggest weakness in Founder’s District has been member retention. We are forming new clubs and adding new members at exceedingly high rates, and yet, each term, many, if not most, of our clubs have fewer members than when they started.
So what to do? Should we work on our weakness or build on our strength? The answer is obvious; we do both. Our greatest strength is our members. By focusing on building up our members, we will overcome our weakness.
If we instill in our members the sense that Toastmasters is not just about
public speaking but about continuing personal development and life enrichment,
we will
keep them forever. To do that, we must plan and present programs that convince
them that they couldn’t possibly be doing anything more valuable with their
time.