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In the last post, I described how to earn the basic level of leadership training in Toastmasters International, culminating in the Competent Leader award. In this post, I described the advanced leadership training program and answer some FAQs regarding the leadership program in general.

3. Advanced Leader Bronze

Once you have completed all the possible roles in the club, and fulfill the requirements for becoming a Competent Leader, the next level of leadership is that of Advanced Leader Bronze, and it requires you to train and then to serve as a club officer. Here are the listings of the various club officers.

Figure 5. Club Officer Roles and Rankings

To become a club officer, you have to be nominated at a meeting and then win an election of all nominated candidates at an election. After being voted in to office, you must attend a LACE or Leadership And Communication Education workshop to be trained in that new role. The final requirement is that you give two special presentations to the club on the subject of leadership.

4. Advanced Leader Gold

Once you have completed some of the roles in the club and have progressed to the level of being the Club President or Vice President Education, you can then go beyond the club level of organization and take a role in the wider world of Toastmasters. Clubs are organized in the following hierarchy: areas, then divisions, then districts, then regions, all of which are part of the worldwide organization of Toastmasters International. Below is a schematic diagram of the organization hierarchy starting from the club and going on up to the top level of the organization, using my own club as a reference.

Figure 6. Toastmasters International Organization Hierarchy

To qualify for the Advanced Leader Silver, you need to take one of the following roles outside of the organization:

Figure 7. District Officers

The area governor and division governor are considered to be district officers, because they meet regularly with the five district-wide officers.

Then the other two requirements are to complete a leadership program called High Performance Leadership program, and to take an entire club and be its sponsor, mentor, or coach.

5. Distinguished Toastmaster—putting communication and leadership together!

What do you get if you get the highest awards level for BOTH the educational and leadership tracks? If you get the Advanced Communicator Gold AND the Advanced Leader Silver award, that qualifies you for the highest award Toastmasters International can bestow to an individual at the club level, and that is Distinguished Toastmaster.

Figure 8. Distinguished Toastmaster achievement

6. Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best way to go about fulfilling the various roles for the 10 leadership projects?

Forget about doing them in order, like you normally would do for the speeches. Just take the agenda for the next meeting, and figure out whether the role you’ve been assigned potentially fulfills any of the 10 projects. As you progress and fulfill various roles, you’ll have a better idea of which ones you need to complete each project, and you can inform the Vice President Education that you would like to be assigned that particular role.

In our club, the Vice President Education sends out a master schedule for 3 meetings at a time, to give people time to do exactly what I’ve outlined in the last paragraph. In that way, if there are any “special requests” for particular roles, that can be done well in advance of the meeting.

How long does it take to obtain the Competent Leader award?

There are 21 or 22 roles needed to fulfill the 10 projects (see table earlier in this post). Given that there are on average 20 members to a club, which meets twice a month and has 10 roles that qualify towards a leadership project, that will mean it takes one month for each person to obtain a role. Therefore it could take close to 21 or 22 months or a little less than two years.

Can I shorten the amount of time it takes to obtain the award?

In a similar way to being prepared in advance for speeches, it is best to a develop a generic script for each of the major roles as you do them. Then if the Vice President Education says “so-and-so can’t be a Toastmaster; can anyone fill in for her/him?” If you have that script ready, you can easily update it and volunteer to do that role. That’s how I will be able to finish my Competent Leader award in two weeks after having started in the club a little less than a year-and-a-half ago.

What is the fastest way to get the Advanced Leader awards?

If you are a member of a club for one year, you will certainly have enough experience to be able to be a club officer WHILE you are finishing up work on the Competent Communicator and Competent Leader awards. Then if you are club officer, even if just for a six-month period, and you have completed the training, then the only remaining thing you have to do is give two leadership presentations, and you’re at Advanced Leader Bronze!

Then after going for one of the lower-ranking offices in your club, I would try next to be either the Vice President Education or President. This will qualify you in the following term to run for the office of area governor. This is the lowest-ranking district officer, but it still qualifies you for the Advanced Leader Silver award after you complete a High Performance Leadership Program and the club mentorship program.

As a rule of thumb, it takes about one-and-a-half or two years’ worth of work to complete each level, so to become a Distinguished Toastmaster, you are looking at a five-year commitment.

But, take it one speech and one role at a time, and be consistent—you’ll get there some day!

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