Lessons I learned from Toastmasters

I have always been a good speaker having been on the debating teams both school and college. I had won the national debate championship in 2007. It was then when I joined Toastmasters.

Despite my earlier skepticism, I soon realised there was more to communication then I formerly believed. The competent communicator manual itself is a journey towards self discovery for any individual who wants to excel in communication. For me personally there was a constant process of unlearning and re learning.

I want to elaborate on a few aspects which have defined a significant change in my approach as a Toastmaster.

The projects except the first and the tenth one have a time limit for 5-7 mts; this was particularly useful in my work as a Business Development executive where an opening cannot simply last beyond 5 minutes.

The use of vocal variety, to raise and lower the pitch and the tone depending on the speech content is a very valuable tool. This can be used very effectively, during seminars and training.

To add to above, effective use of body language, using hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate more effectively. This aspect clearly helps one utilise one of the most important aspects of communication which are non-verbal.

Finally I tried to use personal content for every project, this helped me explore the various aspects of my own life which previously I had forgotten, to relive school, college memories was very therapeutic in most cases as it clearly defined where I had come from.