Dale Carnegie's extensive research proved, ‘One’s financial success depends on two types of skills – technical
skills & people skills. The share of technical skills is just 15
percent and the rest 85 percent is contributed by human skills.’ He further
said, ‘two most important people skills
are - communication & leadership. These are the mother skills of all other.’
Still, how many days or hours do we spend on developing these two skills in our
jobs or Businesses?
We all will vouch, from beginning to end Steve Jobs was not the best technology guy at No#1
Fortune 500 company – Apple Computers.
Steve Wozniak was the
engineering brain behind Apple’s success in initial years and then there were
100s of other people who were smarter than Steve Jobs in technology &
engineering.
It was Steve Jobs’ leadership & communication skills (ability to see a vision & being able to communicate the same) which made all the difference. Just think of any great personality s/he was a great leader & communicator
for sure. Let me remind you of blind, deaf & dumb Helen Keller who said,
‘the most pathetic person in the world is the one who has sight but no vision’.
What a powerful communication!! Just imagine people with eyes, ears and voice
get a feedback from their manager that they are not good at communication. Even
worse, they keep on hearing this year after year, every appraisal cycle.
It is not only the
performance rating at work which suffers but lack of good communication skills
also impacts our personal lives adversely. I did a secondary research and found that miscommunication or poor communication or
communication gap is the biggest contributor to getting fired from jobs,
getting poor ratings and poor increments which lead to dissatisfaction,
frustration and many other negative emotions. Deserving people do not get their
right of getting promoted and end up being underemployed.
Weakness in communication
skills also leads to disasters in personal life. It may lead to fights between
spouses, friends and family. At times it
may even lead to divorce between a sweet, lovely, made in heaven couples. And we say, ‘najar lag gayi inke pyaar ko’ (their
love has attracted some bad omen) or the other very famous excuse which is
popularized by the movie Raaz-3, ‘someone
has applied black magic on their relationship’.
‘Na toh
kisi ki nazar lagti hai aur na hi ye koi kaala jaadu hai’ (neither it attracts bad omen nor anyone applies a black magic).
Most of the times, it is -
lack of proper communication.
The good news here is, with
preparation and practice; we can perform exceptionally well in these two areas – communication & leadership.
On behalf of my employer
organization I underwent one classroom training on ‘Communications Skills for
Operational Excellence’. At the end of the training, I went to the trainer and
said; ‘Mam, you have been an excellent trainer throughout the day. However irrespective
of the greatness of the trainer or trainee one day’s training is not enough to
improve communications skills. Tell me what shall I do to further enhance and
improve in this area on consistent basis?’
Her answer was, ‘Mukesh, if you are really interested in improving
your communication – join Toastmasters’. That was the first day I heard
about Toastmasters. She was absolutely right.
I am a proud alumnus of an
Indian Institute of Management. Some of
the professors there; were really world class. Especially the ones who taught
us communication were truly Sachin Tendulkars of their field. But the fact is;
no amount of teaching can help us when it comes to communication &
leadership. These skills are like bicycling or swimming which we learn only by
doing.
George Bernard Shaw once
said, ‘If you teach a man anything, he will never learn. Learning is an active
process. We learn by doing.’
Toastmasters is an
incredible organization (spread across 15000 clubs in 116 countries) and
provides superb platform where you learn ‘Communication & Leadership’ by practicing
in a healthy, happy and motivating environment. Here we truly, learn by doing.
Toastmasters International
helps people learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking – vital skills
that promote self-actualization, enhance leadership potential, foster human
understanding, and contribute to the betterment of mankind.
These meetings happen in
the form of clubs where a group of people (Toastmasters) get together and
conduct the meetings in a predefined protocol.
Some clubs meet on a weekly
basis, some meet biweekly and a few others meet once a month. The meetings
usually go on for 90 minutes.
A Toastmasters club,
essentially consists of a very supportive and encouraging group of people who
get together to help one another improve in the areas of public speaking and
leadership.
Generally, the meetings have following three sections:
- There is a host for each meeting who is called the
Toastmaster of the week. The host runs the show for the entire duration of
the meeting.
- As the meetings begin, usually Toastmasters clubs
have three speakers scheduled to deliver a 5 to 7 minutes of prepared speech. As they complete
the speech, they receive constructive feedback from the members on their
performance at the end of the meeting.
- After the prepared speech section, impromptu
speaking section begins. Usually this section is called, “Table Topics” and the person who
conducts this by giving topics to members is known as Topic Master. In
this section, previously not known topics are given to volunteers to speak.
The talk is of 1 to 2 minutes.
- At the end of the Table Topics section, there comes
the evaluation section where
all the other role holders of the meeting such as the timer, the
grammarian, the ah-counter and the designated evaluators provide their
feedback.
- In the end, there is a networking opportunity and
then everyone leaves excited to meet next time.
Toastmasters Education Programs
Attending
a Toastmasters club meeting doesn't cost anything. You can attend a club
meeting as a guest as long as you desire. Toastmasters clubs love to have
guests and have them participate in their meetings.
However, the Toastmasters
International does provide a facility where anybody can choose to become a
member of the club. Members can participate in the Toastmasters International’s
educational programs and get certified as below.
The
certification programs are usually on two tracks:
- Leadership Track
where you get certified based on how many different roles you play during
the meetings over a period of time.
- Communication
track where you are certified based on how many speeches
you delivered as per the curriculum of Toastmasters International.
DTM stands for Distinguished
Toastmaster and is the highest award Toastmasters can confer. This means you
have completed all the Communication and Leadership projects; you are truly
distinguished in public speaking and leading groups positively.
My Toastmasters experience
has helped me know the fundamentals of public speaking. It has helped me
immensely in becoming effective in front of any audience. I am VP Education of
my club and this role has taught me many things about leading a group.
As you begin your personal
development journey, you can benefit from Toastmasters in following areas of
your life:
1. Reduce fear of public speaking.
2. Increase self-confidence.
3. Make some new friends.
4. Network with other leaders from various industries.
5. Become better speaker / trainer / teacher / manager.
6. Learn the power of discipline and intentional
listening
7. Improve your existing leadership skills and learn a
few new skills.
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, manager,
a marketer, a life coach, sales coach, seminar leader – Toastmasters is a great
platform to help you hone your skills. Other than this, if you want to become a
better husband, wife, mother, father, friend – Toastmasters is the place.
How
to find a Toastmasters Club & Join?
You
may have a club in your area. You just need to look for it from the
Toastmasters International’s website (www.toastmasters.org), and pay them a visit. They will love to have you and you will have a lot
of fun.
You don’t have to join any
club to merely attend the meetings. So, my sincere suggestion is you visit a few club
meetings, get to know the members, ask questions until you feel comfortable
before you make a decision to join.
How
can a normal barrister who was not even allowed to travel in a train coach with British people even when he had a valid ticket and was thrown out of the boggy go on to become father of a nation
like India – Mahatma Gandhi?
