Toastmasters provides a safe environment to build the skills and confidence to stand in front of an audience and deliver content. And the Toastmasters experience also offers the opportunity to learn and develop interpersonal and leadership skills.
At the beginning of the eighth grade, I went to live with my dad. He had retired from the Navy as a Chief a few years early. He had taught navigation to pilots. Perhaps you’re not aware, but a Chief is enlisted personnel (non-management) while pilots are officers (managers and executives).
He convinced me, or more accurately bullied me, into signing up for the speech class. Unfortunately, as scared as I was of my dad, I was more terrified of standing in front of my peers. The teacher told me that if I didn’t get up and give a speech, she’d have to fail me.
Luckily, my father moved us to another town before the end of the school year. I signed up for typing at my new school.
At the beginning of one semester, a professor gave an optional assignment. A successful submission would mean an A in the class regardless of other grades. I completed the task, but then he asked me to present the work. Again, I couldn’t face my peers.
After I graduated, a large company hired me. The hiring manager recognized my timidity at getting in front of an audience. He took me aside and suggested that I look into Toastmasters. I did.
Through Toastmasters, I built the skills and confidence to stand in front of an audience and deliver content. It took my mentor a while to cajole me into giving my Ice Breaker. And it took several years to complete my first Toastmasters certificate. But, along the way, I developed the confidence to get in front of an audience. Fewer and fewer elephants stomped around in my stomach.
Members progress at a speed set by them, their mentors, and the club officers. I have known members to complete the program in under two years. Others have taken over thirty. Some never finish. It’s up to each member to set their pace. The club and district officers are more than willing to help members achieve their goals.
Later, employers hired me to: give presentations to prospective customers, provide instruction to new customers, present materials to management and colleagues, and give presentations at conferences. None of this would have been possible without Toastmasters.
Through the Toastmasters experience, I also improved my interpersonal and leadership skills. After a particularly challenging project, I was rewarded with a trip to Singapore, where I taught a two-week class at their major public university. The classroom was a semi-enclosed auditorium open to more than a thousand students.
With the confidence I gained through experience with Toastmasters alongside my employment, I eventually became a professor. That required me to give daily presentations to classes with fifty or more students.
What do you want from your career? Consider how Toastmasters help.