Valuable Toastmaster Skills

A few years ago, I realised that the biography I had written about Yvonne Rust, QSM (Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit – David Ling, 2011) would eventually be published, and that, logically, it would be launched and I would be required to speak at that launch.

I was  concerned about the prospect of having to speak one day and decided to join  Toastmasters so that I might make a less complete fool of myself when that day arrived.  There was a  lunchtime club in Whangarei which met every Wednesday from 1:05pm sharp to 1:55pm and I went along to see what it might be like.  On that very first visit I was invited to speak to a table topic about what I would be doing on the coming weekend. Having something to say has never been a problem with me and I was doing plenty enough on the coming weekend to deliver an interesting 60 seconds on the topic but….my knees knocked, I backed as far away from the audience as I could, my heart pounded, a green light came on at the back of the room which had me stop mid-flow to inquire if I should now leave the floor, and I repeated my desperate request twice more as the orange and then red lights came on.

Thinking in a structured manner to speak on the instant doesn’t come naturally to most people, and it didn’t to me.  My speech finished mid-sentence, my fingers still clutched at one another, my eyes refused to address anyone in the audience addressing instead the air above me, the ground below or the back wall. I went back to my seat, shattered.

At some point later in the meeting the table topics speeches were evaluated and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the evaluator had thought me both brave for accepting the challenge of speaking on my first visit, my topic of great interest, and my voice well projected.  The evaluator also thought I would be helped if I could just unclasp my hands and keep them at my sides from where I might naturally use them to gesture. The evaluator then addressed the Table Topics Master with a recommendation for improvement by alerting newcomers to the purpose of the lights at the back of the room.  A one minute speech sees a green light at 40 seconds, an orange at 50 seconds and a red at 60 seconds.  This evaluation was quite positive considering how badly I’d felt about my own performance, and I’d learnt something.  Unclasping my hands meant they could be free to gesture.

I signed up.

What possible use could table topics be, apart from the entertainment of the moment – they’re usually a lot of fun and the Table Topics Master of the day generally has some interesting topics. Imagine if a TV reporter suddenly thrust a microphone under your chin as you were walking in the shopping centre, and wanted to know what you thought about a particular issue.  Imagine if you found yourself in the situation of unexpectedly meeting someone you have longed to meet – perhaps an idol, or a potential employer. Imagine if you’re suddenly it at a wedding when the MC is taken ill.  Many situations call for on-your-feet-speeches.

Table topics are but one aspect of the Toastmaster experience.  Ostensibly people join Toastmasters to learn to speak in public.  That is the stated main purpose of Toastmasters and it is certainly the most obvious thing that happens when you are a regular attendee at a club.  But there are other valuable benefits which are not immediately obvious and are perhaps not obvious at all except in retrospect.

All Toastmasters take on each role within the club at some point – less complicated roles in the beginning and as familiarity comes, the more demanding roles from the Toastmaster of the day, to General Evaluator, to Table Topics Master, to Grammarian, and so on.  Each meeting offers an average of 20 speaking roles – even the timer gives a brief report at the end of the meeting – a short, not too taxing speaking role and often a good first one for newer members.  Perhaps the greatest benefit is that of learning to evaluate.

Evaluation requires several skills, the most important of which are those of observation and listening. Once you have observed and listened, then it is time to make your observations known.  Toastmasters has a standard, particularly valuable evaluation system.  It’s simple: commend, recommend, commend, CRC.  This means that whenever someone is evaluated, they learn about what they already do well, as well as an area in which they might improve.  Criticism is not welcome at Toastmasters.  All of us have been nervous beginners – we know what it feels like, and the knowledge that you will never be trashed for your efforts within Toastmasters is critical to growth and improvement.

Growth and improvement is what happens when you evaluate someone – when you must give your  personal opinion and observations out loud to a group of people.  When you do this using the CRC  method, you learn to help others grow in a non-judgemental and constructive fashion, but you cannot  help but also grow in the doing.  For me, this has been the greatest value in Toastmasters.  Yes, I have learned to deliver a speech and continue to develop that skill, but more than anything, I have learned to help other people to grow, and that is a gift beyond wealth.

©Theresa Sjoquist