Startup Kenya

The CL Series is a series of blog posts about my journey to attain the Competent Leader award in Toastmasters. Visit http://startupkenya.blogspot.com/2014/08/becoming-competent-leader.html to learn more about why I started this journey. Management consultants love using tools and techniques in undertaking assignments. A well outlined and well thought out "Approach and Methodology" section can give you the edge you need when your proposal is being compared to the next guy. I trained to become a management consultant, and I thought that while desire and commitment in achieving my Competent Leader (CL) goals were admirable; a good plan with milestones and resources needed were essential to ensure that I pulled it off. The Toastmaster year run from July 1 to June 30. If I was to get the CL award (and contribute towards my club's success plan), I wanted to do it before June 30, 2015. Luckily there were 10 projects in the CL manual, so I could easily plan for 1 pro

"If you want to know if you're a leader, look behind you and see if you have followers". I read that quote yesterday while browsing through articles on my LinkedIn home page. I can't remember who it was attributed to and don't remember much of the article but that quote stuck. It's a great quote: simple, catchy and easy to apply. But is it true? What makes someone a leader, and better yet how can you evaluate not just whether you're a leader but a good leader? Throughout history we've had all types of leaders - some who've led their countrymen to slaughter innocent thousands; others who got their followers to commit mass suicide; while still others milked their followers dry for personal financial gain. How do I ensure that I am a good and competent leader? Personally I have struggled with this question. As I get older, get assigned more responsibility, and have more people dependent on me to lead them - I need to ensure that I not only l