The greatest gap in life is the one between KNOWING AND DOING!

As I am typing my last President's message for our Rotary Club's weekly bulletin, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to each and every Rotarian in our club for carrying out the critical tasks needed by our communities in these challenging times. Each of you is an extraordinary example of commitment, professionalism and teamwork.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered many facets of life. The masks, the disrupted and re-arranged working environments and the ongoing collective need to monitor and safeguard against virus transmission, all testify to this. But there's one very important thing that the virus hasn't, and dare I say, can't, touch: Rotarians' willingness to pull together and do what is best and right to ensure the health and wellbeing of our communities.

We can all be proud of our ability to adapt and unite and continue to live our motto each day: Service Above Self. We have continued to deliver support to the most vulnerable in our communities, as well as address the many additional needs that have surfaced due to the pandemic.

We also excelled in membership development and engagement with our local community. What a wonderful Rotary meeting we had last week. Four new members were inducted, and each new member brought new energy, joy and belongingness to our Rotary Club. It was great to have two of our sitting members of parliament, Sally Sitou, Federal Member of Reid and Jason Li, the state Members of parliament for Strathfield. Both their acknowledgement speeches were great testaments to how Rotary has become an integral part of local leaders and community champions.

Last week, we also welcomed a young lawyer, Chandi Gnanaratnam and a social media expert, Ranjan Ratnam. I am sure all these four new members will be a great asset to the Rotary Club of Strathfield.

It is also pertinent to note that more than half of our 17 new members who joined this year are females. Strathfield Rotary is moving in the right direction when it comes to gender equality, inclusiveness and diversity.

This is the second time that I have gotten the opportunity to serve as a Rotary Club president since I joined Rotary 25 years ago. Our incoming Rotary International President, Jennifer Jones, once said, "When you think of what Rotary gives us, it is that opportunity for leadership, growth, and development."

It is relevant for me to share with you all what I learnt as the club president during the last twelve months. I always ask myself this question, what sets significant Rotary leaders apart? Finding answers to my own questions, I would like to demonstrate four specific traits that prove critical for a Rotary leader to excel:

1. Deciding with speed and conviction.

We stand out for being more decisive. We make decisions earlier, faster and with greater conviction. We do so consistently - even amid ambiguity, with incomplete information and in unfamiliar domains. Good leaders also realise that a wrong decision may be better than no decision at all.

2. Engaging for impact.

Once leaders set a clear course for the club, they must get buy-in among their members and other relevant district officials community leaders and partners. I find strong leaders balance keen insight into their community's priorities with an unrelenting focus on delivering remedies and solutions; we also align them around the goal of value creation. One of the four priorities of Rotary International is increasing the impact. THE GREATEST GAP IN LIFE IS THE ONE BETWEEN KNOWING AND DOING!

3. Adapting proactively.

For evidence of how important it is for Rotary clubs and leaders to adjust to a rapidly changing environment, I firmly believe that it's dealing with situations that are not in the playbook. As a CEO and a Rotary leader, I am constantly faced with situations where a playbook simply cannot exist. Adaptable leaders also recognise that setbacks are an integral part of changing course and treat their mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow. As we got into the 51st year at the Rotary Club of Strathfield, our club leaders became change-makers to prepare our club for the next 50 years. Henry Ford once said, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

4. Delivering reliably.

Mundane as it may sound, the ability to reliably produce results was possibly the most powerful of the four essential Rotary Leader traits. Leaders ignore the importance of reliability at their peril. A key practice here is setting realistic expectations up front. They set a high bar and focus on performance relevant to the role rather than personal comfort and personal recognition - two criteria that often lead to bad calls.  'Service above Self' is our Rotary motto.

Before concluding my message for this week, I would like to thank our bulletin editor, Bradley Ayres, for delivering our weekly editions for the last twelve months. We really appreciate his professional approach, attention to details and patience till we submitted our messages in the eleventh hour.

I also would like to thank our web master for putting together all the online publications, including my President's Message online. Everyone loves Raymond for his can do attitude and hours of work, which makes our club look good in the virtual world.

Finally, PDG David Croft, I sincerely appreciate all your encouraging words and guidance. As you and your lovely wife, Margret wait for my column to be published every week, I also eagerly wait for your feedback every week. Thank you.

 - Ken Blanchard (Leadership and The One Minute Manager)

 Rotary Service to You