Candidate's Name: Robin Guo

Candidate's Office: Division Director

Toastmasters member since:2017

Education:

Master of Geographic Information System, Remote Sensing Institute of Peking University, 1997

Bachelor of Electronic and Information Engineering, Radio Electronics Department of Peking University, 1994

Toastmasters offices held and terms of service:

Jul. 31, 2017 - Jun. 30 2018 Treasurer of Dedupers TMC Jul. 01, 2018 - Jun. 30 2019 President of Dedupers TMC Jul. 01, 2019 - Jun. 30 2020 Area Director of D88 Area D1

Toastmasters honors and recognition:

N/A

Relevant work experience and how it relates to Toastmasters and your role as a District leader: 

I'm currently working in Dell EMC (IT industry) as a product owner, which belongs to product team. My responsibility is leading a small-size team focus on functionality development and verification of storage I/O area.

Part of my work is leading my team align with fast-pace software development cycle, conduct planning, define the feature and acceptance criteria, supervise progress and make decisions while facing the change, ensure the delivery well-match our expectation. Another part is to reach out across different teams and stakeholders, build up relationship and look for collaboration, to solve the impediment we encountered.

This role needs strong communication and leadership skills, either for team inside and outside, in addition to the capability of project management. I have gained a lot of benefits from Toastmasters experience, and I try to utilize them in my working environment. Such as how to lead a team grow, how to make development direction by different perspective, how to plan and split tasks and implement them by delegation, how to communicate with people, prioritize work, represent proposal, resolve conflict and achieve consensus. On the other hand, my working experience also teach me that the quality and customer satisfaction are crucial. I'll bring these all experience, learning, and commitment to the member when serving as Division Director.

What experience do you have in strategic planning?

During the year when I served as Club President of Dedupers TMC, I have a strategic plan to change the style of staff-oriented club to be more open, take more challenges, seize more opportunities. By leverage the executive experience from other clubs, we started to involve more guests from outside to join our meeting, conduct more events open to community and guests, encourage members to attend district activities, and set up a series of programs within club follow the guidance of TM manual. These changes significantly improve the quality of the club, and the club achieved historical accomplishment it hadn't ever reached.

In this year while I'm serving as Area D1 Area Director, I also have a strategic plan to build D1 with flourishing clubs and growing people, our goal is to pursue open, connection and transcendent. Currently we’re working hard to fulfill this goal, with one club achieved President’s Distinguished Club, two clubs on member recruitment toward to Distinguished, and two new clubs are under-constructed.

What experience do you have in the area of finance?

To be honest, there're not too much. When I was Treasurer of Dedupers TMC, I spent the money on some area I believe it could help motivating members, with limited budget. Then the following year as President of Club, I started to make budget plan with our Treasurer, applied sponsorship from company, and control cost according to the budget plan. All these actions kept our club finance always in health state.

What experience do you have in developing procedures?

When I served as President of Dedupers TMC, I introduced two procedures to club. One is Mentor program, the other is renewal fee reimbursement for active members.

For Mentor program, I drafted a proposal based on the program manual of Toastmasters Mentor, established Mentor team with formal and intern mentors, then built mentorship according to two-way selection. As a result, each club member has assigned a mentor since then on, and it had gradually improved club internal connection and education quality.

And for renewal fee reimbursement, we set up a spreadsheet to track all meeting role-takers through every half year. The reimbursement contains three levels, and the amount is based on the number of times the member has served as meeting roles within the period, count more on prepared speaker. This program has effectively motivated active members pursue on public speaking and meeting attendance. Now the club has more than 4 members who completed Pathways L2, which enabled them qualification of contestant for international speech contest or as judge.

What lessons did you learn from previous leadership positions?

As an Area Director, the lesson I learn from this position is that, empower others is always the most crucial things for success.

For leadership of Club President, lot of things could be done by myself or through help request from club members. But the role of Area Director is totally another kind of leadership style which I have barely developed before. To achieve my goal, I have to leverage the capability and willingness of team members and club officers. That means, to build up close relationship with key individuals, take care of their needs, and empower them timely and effectively is much more important than any other of my responsibilities.

Why do you want to serve as a District leader?

The first reason is gratitude, I have gained a lot of benefits from three years Toastmasters experience. It has changing me to be a more confident and positive person in the real life, by offering me numerous practice opportunities on communication and leadership. I'm appreciate for this given. And I want to give back to TM community by serving more people.

The second reason is obligation of leadership inheritance. As a leader in Toastmasters, I deeply understand that, leadership is the cohesion power which keep the organization run through hundred years. From club executive, to district management; from individual growth, to membership connection. Inside or outside Toastmasters, everything rises and falls on leadership. As a member who has learned many leadership skills from TM and working environment, I'm eager to share my knowledge and experience with more people, inspire them and find their potential, help raising more leaders.

And the third reason is for self-development. Division director is a position which is a good chance for me to develop and practice my skill on high level leadership. I’m eager to extend my ability and awareness, especially on strategic thinking and planning, empowering and developing members, coaching and mentoring, and analytical skills, through this special experience. This will no doubt benefit my career path development.

In your opinion, what are the District mission’s major objectives and how would you work to achieve them?

I plan to work on below areas to align with district mission, build new clubs and support all clubs in achieving excellence.

First, focus on member's achievement. We'll listen carefully about member's needs and willingness, provide variant opportunities for their development.

Second, strive to popularize Pathways. By incorporating communication and leadership education with real scenarios, to demonstrate the value of Toastmasters.

Third, seize the chance and embrace the challenges of online meeting, build up connection between online and in-person mode, explore the possibility of sharing and communication.

Fourth, increase leadership development, raise more leaders and trainers. Combine with training, coaching and practicing, promote leaning through teaching. As the result, we will uplift the quality of education, and all leadership resource and experience could be inherited.

Additional information about yourself:

I have wide range of interests, good at learning, and diligent in thinking. The experience in Toastmasters enrich my vision and open a new window to my middle-age life. My family fully understand and support me spent time on toastmasters, in addition to run for the Division Director election this time. Influnced by me, my wife has also become a Toastmasters member, and my daughter also enjoy practicing in Kid’s public speaking club and has achieved excellent performance.