Andrea Righi – Nominated Candidate for Division A Director
Toastmasters member since 2019
Education :
-Post Graduate Master in HR Management and Development, Professional Datagest, 2014, Bologna, Italy
-M.Sc in Occupational Psychology, First Class, University of Padua, 2013, Padua, Italy.
-B.Sc in Psychology, 2:1, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
Toastmasters offices held and terms of service:
-Area Director, Area A62, July 2022-Present
-Tresurer, Bristol Central Speakers, July 2022-Present
-President, Bristol Central Speakers, July 2021-June 2022
-VPE, Bristol Central Speakers, July 2020-June 2021
-VPM, Bristol Central Speakers, November 2019-June 2020
Toastmasters honors and recognition:
N/A
Relevant work experience and how it relates to Toastmasters and your role as a District leader:
When I started to mature my first experiences as a trainer I started to wonder how I could improve my presentation skills and become really able to engage an audience. Toastmasters really helped me to improve my public-speaking skills and become more effective in my job.
At the same time, my knowledge of Self-Empowerment, Coaching, innovative management techniques as well as Behavioral Science helped me to be highly successful in all the roles I have filled in my Toastmasters Career, being able to build engagement, motivation and resilience even in the most challenging situations.
What experience do you have in strategic planning?
In all my Toastmasters roles this is probably the skill I have enjoyed the most. Particularly, in my year as a President at BCS I led Club Success Plan committee and we were able to set a ground breaking plan, that was involving also KPIs and a Balance scorecard. By implementing this Club Success Plan, our Club was able to become one of the strongest and fast growing in the District and it is currently going from good to great.
Similarly, I am practicing my strategic planning skills in my current role as an Area Director at Area A62, an Area that only one year ago was one of the most affected by the pandemic, and now is strongly recovering.
What experience do you have in the area of finance?
I am currently Treasurer at Bristol Central Speakers where I could learn how to draft an effective budget and forecasting, as well as using Concur.
What experience do you have in developing procedures?
In all my Club Officers roles, I have developed new procedure and improved the already existing ones, with a lean and agile management approach and helping the Club to become more effective.
For example, by introducing templates and scheduled emails as a Treasurer I have managed to increase the renewals rate and reached more than 20 rewed members with more than a month in advance on the deadline.
What lessons did you learn from previous leadership positions?
One lesson I have learned is that by empowering your team-mates and helping them to unleash their own potential, you obtained the best success.
I have also learned that sometimes you have to be able to make the most difficult decision and that it is not always possible to make everybody happy, but as a leader you have to look at big picture and at long term scenario.
Moreover, I have learned how important is having great Organizational skills and that is why is extremely important starting to plan a Contest or a TLI far ahead of time.
Why do you want to serve as a District leader?
My strongest motivation is that I have received a lot from the Toastmasters Community and I would love to give back. Moreover, I would love to to help Division A to fully recover from the Pandemic and embrace new challenges.
In addition, I believe this experience would help me to grow personally and professionally as well as to build new meaningful relationships.
In your opinion, what are the District mission’s major objectives and how would you work to achieve them?
The biggest objectives of the District are achieving:
-5000 Unique Members
– 1-21-100: 1 Award for member, all clubs with 20+, 100% Pathway enrollment and engagement
My strategy would be guiding and supporting the Area Directors, ensuring they can plan everything well ahead and enabling them run in the most effective and efficient way.
I would also empower them to find the most efficient solutions to their specific Areas and encourage their Club Officers to do same.
Furthermore, I would organize specific workshops on specific topics, such as Pathway in particularly strategic part of the TM Year and share with my Area Directors tools that can enable them to monitor the situation and act promptly in case of need.
I also believe that there is a strong potential for new Clubs in Division A, and I would work closely with the incoming Club Growth Director and my Division Director team to enhance the process.
A following step of multiplying the Clubs could be that one of create smaller Areas (i.e. A62) that would help to build engagement and promote a better sense of community.
Additional information about yourself: