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‘LEADING A DISTRICT AND FIGHTING A BUSHFIRE HAVE A LOT IN COMMON’

Article by Euan Miller, Secretary and Director, Partnerships. Rotary Club of Norwood Inc

Our DGsE are now returning from the International Assembly enthused for the year ahead. At the
same time there is continuing commentary on whether or not our political leaders are indeed
effective in the bushfire crisis enveloping Australia.
So how do we measure effective leadership? Especially in Rotary.

One of the overwhelming aspects of being a DG is the amount of time it can consume. Most DGs find they have
never been as busy and never have travelled as much, any time before in their lives. This is why most DGs choose
to wait until they have retired from their working careers before they take on the role.
Busyness is clearly not a measure of leadership. In fact it is an impediment because it adds to the clutter which takes
the focus away from strategic thinking and decision-making. This is one hazard that needs to be minimised.
Command and control is another hazard that RI provides a DG by offering him or her supreme authority in the
leadership and administration of the district. This is never an effective strategy when leading volunteers, as our
bushfire commanders know well.

RI doesn’t help by not asking DGs to meet KPIs for their year. Instead most DGs follow traditions with individual
official club visits and reports on each duly recorded and forwarded to Parramatta. I’ll let you into a secret – these
are filed and hardly ever read! So why bother? Well they are very useful to your DGE and DGN.
Behaving like royalty swishing through the district going from function to function might make a DG feel important
but is it effective leadership?

RI only measures four aspects of a DG performance.
1. Membership growth
2. TRF giving
3. Number of club Rotary citations
4. RIPR’s report on the annual conference

So why don’t we set up some KPIs for these four and focus our year on achieving just these targets. Not only will
you enjoy your year but you will have the satisfaction of making a real difference to the clubs in your district and
achieve a vibrancy for Rotary perhaps never before seen.
Membership growth is hard work which requires month by month driving and monitoring of both growth and
retention. Many clubs will need hand-holding to make this work so membership committees and AGs need to be
selected carefully and strongly supported. Like fighting a bushfire - you can’t leave this for a minute or you will end
up with net losses.
TRF giving should have at the very minimum, a target of USD100 per member to the Annual Fund to ensure your
future DGs get a reasonable DDF. This doesn’t just mean personal Rotarian giving. Clubs should be raising funds
through their projects and encouraging the public to give as well. Charity Navigator in America shows TRF has more
integrity than Red Cross and World Vision in the way 100% of the money raised is spent on doing good in the world.
No percentage is creamed off for administration and marketing. We should be competing hard and selling this
feature to our communities. Why should we be putting our hands in our pockets when we can be promoting Rotary
to our communities and achieve a double benefit?

Rotary culture in our Zone tends to pooh pooh citations as self-promotion. They are not – they are the KPIs for
every club’s and district’s strategic plan. Your target should be 50%+ of clubs achieving a citation.

Conference KPIs are relatively easy to achieve and few RIPRs write negative reports. RIPRs are not compulsory
anyway. My suggestion is if you want to maximise attendance keep it short and vibrant (within a weekend, or just
a day is even better). No district gets more than 20% Rotarian attendance so why spend a lot of time and energy on
an event that does not appeal to the majority of your members?

Final comment for firefighters and Rotary leaders – work/life balance. Remember you have a family, maybe a job
and certainly yourself to nurture during the year. Don’t sacrifice this for Rotary –delegate and enjoy!

‘MORE BRAINS SOLVING PROBLEMS’
From Rotary News, Dec 2019

Rotarians’ ability to make a larger impact is hinged upon more people joining hands with them. RI President Mark
Maloney said that by making Rotary larger and more diverse “we tell a wider and more emphatic story and give
people hope that the world can change for better. This will create a continuous cycle where more and more people
will want to be a part of our amazing success and share our vision.” More members would not only mean more hands
doing service projects but also “more brains solving problems.”

Rotary on the Move February 2020 Page 4