By ALFRED G DEREDZI
How Toastmasters Works
At Toastmasters, members learn by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment. A typical Toastmasters club is made up of 20 to 30 people who meet once a week for approximately an hour. Each meeting gives members several opportu-nities:
Conduct meetings Members – learn how to plan and conduct meetings.
Give impromptu speeches – Members present one to two-minute, impromptu speeches about assigned topics.
Present prepared speeches – Members present speeches based on projects from Toastmasters’ communication and leadership program. Projects cover topics such as speech organization, vocal variety, language, gestures and persuasion.
Offer constructive evaluation – Every speaker is assigned an evaluator who points out speech strengths and offers suggestions for improvement.
Toastmasters Tools
Upon joining a Toastmasters club, each new member receives resources about how to become a better speaker and a more confident leader. Members also have access to a wide variety of educational resources. In addition, they receive the award-winning Toastmaster, a monthly magazine that offers the latest insights about speaking and leadership techniques.
Toastmasters and Leadership
Leadership takes practice. In Toastmasters, members learn leadership skills by organizing and conducting meetings and completing projects. The projects address skills such as listening, planning, motivating, and team building and give members the opportunity to practice them. Just as Toastmasters members improve communication by speaking, they learn leadership skills by leading.
Company Benefits
A company’s success depends on communication. Employees interact with their colleagues and customers to exchange ideas, messages and information. How well they communicate and
share their ideas can determine whether a company grows into an industry leader or is mired in mediocrity. At a very reasonable cost, Toastmasters teaches employees to become better presenters and leaders:
- Give better sales presentations
- Hone their management skills
- Work better with fellow employees
- Develop and present ideas more effectively
- Offer constructive criticism
- Accept feedback more objectively
Toastmasters produces results. Around the world more than four million men and women of all ages and occupations have benefited from Toastmasters. Thousands of corporations, community groups, universities, associations and government agencies currently use the Toastmasters program.
Community Benefits
Toastmasters helps many members in their community-service activities. Using the skills devel-oped in Toastmasters, members have become more active in business, church, service and charity organizations. Toastmasters are able to organize activities, conduct meetings and speak in public as their organizations’ representatives. Some even become active in local, state or national govern-ment.
Alfred Deredzi is the Current President of Diplomatic Corps Toastmasters Club. He can be con-tacted on diplomaticcorpstoastmasters@gmail.com or alfredwaterwell@gmail.com mobile +263773400421
