Speaking and Listening: Toastmasters Experience

 Today was "Dundee Day", an annual street festival in the neighborhood where one of my Toastmasters clubs meets.  As a part of the community, our club hosted a booth at the festival.  At the booth, many people (mostly kids) engaged with club members as we asked them to speak into a microphone and share their name along with a story, joke, or what they liked about Dundee Day.  In return, they got to pick a prize from our table. I saw a wide variety of reactions to this "ask" to speak up.  Some were excited to speak to speak; some needed encouragement before realizing it wasn't so scary; some outright declined the opportunity.  In all cases, though, we got to show people a taste of what Toastmasters is about:  giving people a platform to find their voice and helping them become better communicators in a positive and encouraging environment. When Toastmasters, or any organization, can go beyond our normal meetings and get out into the community, we can re...

Team Building and High Performance Leadership.  These are two projects that popped up in my Toastmasters Pathways curriculum that tied in very nicely with things I already planned to do in my work place.  Thanks to Toastmasters, I can get awards for completing these items, and I get access to additional resources to help me make my efforts more successful. Team Building is a requirement for me to complete Level 5 of my Motivational Strategies path.  An interested thing I saw in this project was that I am encouraged not just to organize a team building event on my own, but to work with a small team to organize an event with a larger team!  This "requirement" prompted me to seek out input from teammates in my workplace as we plan an event for the fall.  Thanks to Toastmasters, I have been encouraged to not just "go it alone" in planning something, but to work with others.  After all, a team building event is most successful if the team it is serving is bought...

 Happy New Year!  Today, July 1, marks the first day of the new Toastmasters year.  I have several "roles" in the year ahead, all of which I have some familiarity with, and all of which merit some goals.  Here are my current thoughts on my goals for my various roles: Treasurer of Club 229 :   Earn the "Early Bird" award both terms (at least 8 membership dues submitted 15 days prior to deadline) Make good use of the discount coupon we received for membership growth - Don't let it expire without use! VP PR of Rail Talkers Get at least one article about the club posted on the internal website of the company (Union Pacific) that supports the club Publish a newsletter summarizing club and member accomplishments at least once a quarter Promote the winner of "Rail Talker of the Year" (and make sure "Rail Talker of the Year", our annual award that we did for several years and stopped doing in 2020, returns!) President of Tech Talkers Complete our Clu...

 A fellow Toastmasters member asked me for tips on running a hybrid meeting and I realized:  What a great opportunity for a blog post!  So here it goes... In our "life with COVID" world, many organizations (including Toastmasters and its clubs) are seeking to offer flexible participation in events.  In other words, we give people the option of whether they want to travel to a designated location to participate in a meeting where fellow participants are also gathered OR join on their own computer, tablet, or phone from their home, office, etc.  This meeting with options for how to attend is often referred to as "hybrid." To run a successful Toastmasters hybrid meeting, you need to consider all four of the following types of participants: "In person" audience member "In person" speaker Remote audience member Remote speaker You will always have both "in person" and remote audience members.  Whether you currently have an "in person...

Last month, I was elected to the position of "Division Director" within Toastmasters.  In this role, I must recruit three "Area Directors" who will each provide insights and guidance to five Toastmasters clubs.  As I reach out to individuals and ask them to fill this role, I reflect on my experience as Area Director back in 2015-2016.  When I agreed to the role, I knew some basics of what was expected of me, but did not understand the whole scope of what I would experience until I was "on the job."  Fortunately, the surprises were overwhelmingly positive and I learned a lot.  What follows are some of my key experiences from my time as an Area Director. Leadership Skills Training .   Area Directors in my District get to attend training every month.  While this may seem like a "responsibility," I found it to really be a reward of the role.  The year I was Area Director, we all took an "Emotional Intelligence" test and reflected on our res...

When something matters to us, we strive for excellence .  Excellence is not perfection, but it is the outcome of continuing to do one's best over a period of time.  Even if an intermediate outcome is not something you would call excellence , you can achieve something closer to excellence  the next time by learning from what did not go well and acting on ideas for how to improve.  Excellence  is closely related to caring about something . When it comes to the development of any skill, you won't go far if you don't care.  Having  excellence  as a core value of Toastmasters reminds us of why most members join Toastmasters in the first place:  to improve their communication skills, leadership skills, and/or self-confidence.  Continuous improvement is the path to excellence  and you only advance on that path by caring  about the outcome, by giving it your best effort and learning from any mistakes you make along the way. There ...

When I joined Toastmasters, my focus was mostly on myself.  I considered:  What can I  gain from membership?  How will this help me  improve my skills?  What do I enjoy about the meetings?  I think this is common when starting any educational journey - we start the journey to grow our own skills and knowledge.  As the journey progresses, we gain knowledge, skills, and confidence.  And what do we do after  we have gained the knowledge, skills, and confidence we sought?  In addition to continuing to grow ourselves even further, we can start seeking opportunities to help others grow their knowledge, skills, and confidence.  This is where the Toastmasters core value of service  comes in. Toastmasters members can serve  fellow members in many ways.  One way is through mentorship , which includes helping a new member set and work towards their goals.  This is service  to another individual.   Member...