Why Toastmasters Works for Me

I want to start this by saying that the reason that I originally decided to join Toastmasters is different than the reason that I continue my membership. My journey began because I believed that I was better than anyone speaking in the club and I ended up staying because I realized that I’m not. My needs as a speaker and presenter have evolved as I strengthen my public speaking skills. The stories below are the real reasons that Toastmasters will continue to be important in my career.

My Current Role – In addition to the fact that I met my future coworker at a Toastmasters meeting, the skills that I was able to build were paramount in my ability to obtain my current job. In my previous role, I had some experience conversing with customers, but it wasn’t a large part of my work whereas in the role I applied for, it was a daily occurrence. By attending club meetings consistently, I was able to practice my impromptu speaking skills – read: interview and Q&A skills – in a way that enabled me to improve quickly. I have no doubt that this allowed me to not only leave a good impression during the interview process, but it enabled my interviewers to have confidence in my customer-facing skills.

The Safe Environment – My home club is a corporate club, which has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. One of the benefits is that it offers a safe space for me to practice my leadership skills without fear of having people judge my professionalism in the room. If I have a rough speech, I get the feedback from the evaluator and then I improve it next time. In that conference room, I can practice being motivational, inspirations, persuasive, informational, etc and make any missteps in that safe environment and not take any negative effects back to my desk. The meetings are built to be constructive and I have always found them to be just that.

My Next Goal – I have been able to practice a fair number of basic leadership skills: facilitating discussion, persuading a peer, handle detractors, set visions, etc. I was able to leverage these skills during multiple team brainstorms where I coordinated efforts in a room or over telepresence to keep conversation focused on identifying issues rather than trying to find a solution within the hour time slot. I have decided to put more focus in building my presentation skills to a larger audience. My comfort level expands as I work more and more with Toastmasters to build speeches in front of progressively larger audiences. I wanted to be an area director so that I could build that experience and get an exposure to leading a broader audience.

It’s amazing to reflect on my 4.5 years as a Toastmaster and be able to visibly see an improvement year after year in my skills. Toastmasters enables me to elevate my communication and leadership skills in a way that can only come from practice in a constructive, yet safe environment. It allows me to be able to pivot when necessary and improve my connection with a wide range of audiences. Not every tactic in Toastmasters is easily translatable to my career (you try using body language during a presentation to engineers and let me know how that goes), but most are in some capacity. Even tips around vocal variety become important with engaging an audience and conveying purpose. In a year or two, I know that my needs will change, but the one thing I can guarantee is that I will be trying it out at the next Toastmaster meeting.