How to make self-development a habit?

This is a copy of the script that I used to deliver a workshop on "How to make Self-Development a habit?"

Introduction

It was 5 o’clock in the morning. The alarm clock went off. “Should I wake up from the bed … or not?” This is the decision that I had to make every week on Friday mornings … for nearly 3 years in a row. However, every single time, I made the decision to wake up from bed… because, I had to attend a Toastmasters meeting on Friday mornings at 7 o’clock.

It was the year 2007. I was in USA then. Those were the days, when I was finding it difficult to speak in English. When someone asks me a simple question such as “Hey Saro! How was your weekend?” I’ll be frozen as if I was struck by lightning. I’ll smile… say “Good” and immediately walk away from that person.  I was afraid whether that person will ask me additional questions. I had about 10 years of working experience, then… but I still was a Software Engineer. I never grew beyond a Technical role, because of my poor communication skills.

Today, if someone asks me “How was your weekend?”… I’ll say “Wow… I had a fantastic time during the weekend… You know what… we went to a conference in Bangalore and had an amazing time there. I don’t even know how the two days went”. Today, I’m a Director Technology in a MNC. I got 3 promotions in the last 4 years. That transformation was made possible through my continuous self-development.

All of you know that I have been a very ACTIVE toastmaster for the last 7 years. How did I create time for writing my speeches? How did I learn to balance between family, work and Toastmasters? How did I make self-development a habit?

In this article, I’m going to share with you some techniques that I learned & followed to make Self-Development as a habit.

Let me define what Self-Development is. Self-Development isn’t just about just developing your communication skills. You may be having the goal of reducing weight and becoming fit; you may be having the goal of completing your PMP or Java Certification; you may be having a goal of doing part-time MBA – anything that you do to improve yourself … anything that you do to prepare yourself to perform things faster/better comes under self-development.

You might’ve heard about the story of the wood cutter who takes regular breaks to sharpen his saw. The wood cutter who sharpens the saw regularly will be able to cut more trees than the wood cutter who works hard, but doesn’t sharpen the saw. Self-development is improving yourself… making YOU a BETTER YOU!

This article describes 5 techniques that you can use to make Self-Development a Habit.

1. Make it URGENT

"I don't have the time to write my next speech!"

When you ask someone "It has been months since you gave a speech in our club meetings. What happened?" Immediately they’ll say “I don’t have time”.

Everyone on this planet has the same 24 hours in the day. The question is: What do you choose to do with yours? All of the self-help books tell the same thing and the chances are, you might've already tried some of those things and given up already!

• Get up early in the morning
• Maintain a to-do list
• Time each and every activity
• Review your time usage regularly
• Yada ... Yada... Yada...

I want to challenge the toastmasters who say ... "I don't have time to attend the club meetings... or I don't have time to write a speech script". You have the time with you. You just have not PRIORITIZED toastmasters in your life. You just have not PRIORITIZED your need for becoming a better speaker. In your packed day-to-day life, if your dear ones get sick... you manage to find time to take them to a hospital; if a relative/friend drops-in to your home and spends an hour or two, you are able to engage them; if your vehicle or home appliance breaks down and needs a repair, you are able to find time to take it for service; if you get some illness and the doctor advices you to come for weekly check-ups, you manage to find time to go to hospital. How are you able to find time to do these activities?

The next time you say "I don't have time for doing this... or doing that", think whether you have really PRIORITIZED that activity in your life.

You may be interested in developing a daily exercise routine – however you would continue to postpone it until it becomes Important & Urgent. One fine day, your doctor is going to say “You’ve high cholesterol or you have high diabetes” and you will automatically get up early in the morning to do exercise.

To start with, allocate just 15 minutes every day to spend on self-development – may be reading books, doing a quick exercise, or reading newspaper. If make an activity URGENT, you’ll naturally find ways to schedule it in your day to day, life.

2. Change Small, Change Often

“Change Small, Change Often” says, Craig Valentine, the World Champion of Public Speaking.

What do we do when we set self-development as a goal? Let us take for example, a simple habit of exercising every day. The moment we want to develop a habit like exercising, we tend to overdo it. We’ll get up early at 4.30 in the morning to do Yoga. Then you’ll go to gym for another 2 hours. You’ll do this for a week and give up because it is practically unsustainable. Who in the world would find 2 hours every day for exercising – unless your full time job is to maintain your body like athletes.

In the year 2001, I read the book “My experiments with Truth”, by Mahatma Gandhi. Immediately, I got inspired and wanted to become a pure vegetarian like Gandhi. However, I didn’t become a “pure vegetarian”, the next day. At first I stopped eating meat – I continued to have eggs & sea food. It went on for a year or so. Then I stopped eating eggs and sea food… but, I continued to have milk and other dairy products. Later, I stopped eating Pizzas, I stopped eating cake, I stopped eating curd and ice creams - I became a pure vegetarian (aka Vegan). It took me about 5 years to transition from a non-vegetarian to a pure-vegetarian. If I had tried to stop eating meat, eggs and Pizzas on day one, I would’ve soon given up my quest to become a Pure Vegetarian.

Whatever you want to achieve in life, try to “change small, but change often”. This will help you to develop and sustain a new habit.
 
3. Make it Public

Whenever you want to develop a habit, make a public disclosure. It will help your environment and friends/family members to understand your goals. You won’t believe how much support you would get from them.

In the year 2005, I wanted to reduce my weight. I shared my New Year resolution with my wife. I told her that I want to go for a brisk walk every day in the morning. She religiously got up at 5.30 in the morning, woke me up for my morning walk and she again went back to sleep. I'm not sure if she did that to help me to achieve my goal or she wanted to sleep comfortably in the bed. The reminder system helped me to accomplish my goals and make self-development a habit.

Find out mechanisms to make a public disclosure of your habit, telling your family/friends, putting it as a backdrop in your monitor, pasting posters at home/workplace, writing blogs, updating your status message in Skype/Facebook etc.,

A good friend of mine introduced me to Toastmasters because I had told everyone that I wanted to improve my communication skills. Had I not made a public disclosure of my self-development needs, I wouldn’t have ended up in Toastmasters.

4. Substitute Bad Habits with Good ones

Most of us here are addicted to bad habits. It all would have started with just one bad habit. Take for example - you may be having a habit of "watching TV in the night". When you spend more time watching TV in the night, you’ll go to bed very late. You won't be able to get up early in the morning. You won't have time for a regular exercise. You'll start to gain more weight and become obese over a period of time. You’ll go to work late and since you’ve gone to office late, you may end staying late in the night to complete your work.

Having spent a lot of time at work, whatever little time you get over the weekends will be spent in relaxing - mostly by watching television, or movies. You will not find time to read good books. You'll start to assimilate hundreds of other bad habits.

I was no different from you folks until 7 years back. But, I found that people who lead a balanced life were able to excel in their career as well as on personal front. I decided to bring-in a change into my life.

The first thing that I did is to come home 1 hour early from work. Instead of spending 12 - 14 hours at work, I started to spend just 8 hours. I did a better time management during the day, assigned proper priority to tasks and avoided all the unwanted activities. This helped me to complete the work in time. Having come early from work, I wanted to spend that time usefully. Instead of dining outside, I started to prepare my food every day at home. I had more time left out after I was done with the cooking. So, I started to go to the fitness center. With a balanced diet and regular exercise, I became more fresh & active. I could do more things in less time. I realized that I had more time left out in a day.

For quite some time, I had a passion to do a management degree. I enrolled for a part time MBA program. My whole world changed after that. In my classes and during various networking events, I got opportunities to meet new people from different industries. But I found it hard to initiate or participate in conversations. I hardly had any topics in common, to discuss with them. I started to keep track of the current events, tech-industry, economy, and stock market. This gave me a wealth of knowledge to participate in any conversation with strangers.

Bringing a change into your life isn't very easy. Especially, the habits that were cultivated for a long time, take a long time to get rid-off. What happens when you go to the battle field with a wooden stick, and your enemy has a machine gun in hand? The mechanism that you use to bring in a change has to be much more powerful and persistent.

Stephen Covey, the author of the famous book "Seven habits of highly effective people" says "substituting a bad habit with a good habit" is an easy way to get rid of bad habits.

Many a times New Year Resolutions fail because “People try to desperately RUN AWAY from their bad behaviors”. Instead of RUNNING AWAY from something, focus on RUNNING TOWARDS something. The only time RUNNING AWAY FROM SOMETHING works is when you are chased by a hungry dog.

When you try hard to UNLEARN your bad habits, you focus too much on the BAD than focusing on the GOOD. For example, when delivering a speech, the more you focus on getting rid of nervousness, the more nervous you become. Instead, you should focus on how you would feel if you deliver the speech successfully.

Substitute your bad habits with good ones.

Conclusion 

Fellow toastmasters, life is too short to be wasted in doing things that are mundane. The story that you want to tell the word tomorrow, is getting created today. If you continue to do what you do, you’ll continue to get what you get. You cannot be an extraordinary person by just doing ordinary things like everyone else.

I'm sure you have a passion to follow in your life - may be becoming a better speaker, doing exercise, or starting your own company. From President Obama ... to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam... all of them have the same 24 hours. If you want your dreams to come true, make self-development a habit.

10 things that I liked about Reveberation 2013, District 82 Conference

Reverberation 2013… it was really a BIG BANG. When I ponder about Reverberation 2013, one thing that comes to my mind is the passion and dedication of the volunteers from Bangalore who had put together a fantabulous show.
District conferences always provide an excellent opportunity for Toastmasters from various clubs and divisions to connect, communicate and cross-pollinate. Reverberation 2013 wasn’t an exception. I felt as if I had gone to a totally new world for 2 days – a world filled with fun, education and togetherness.
Here is the list of top 10 things that I liked the most about Reverberation 2013:

1. TM Sujith showed up at the Bangalore railway station at 4.30 am in the morning with a charming smile on his face to pickup the delegates. I was amazed by his dedication and passion to serve fellow Toastmasters. 
2. The proximity of the conference venue to the hotels. We paid just Rs. 35 to catch an auto to reach the conference venue from the hotel. The hotels were neat/clean and within the budget.
3. The "grand" inaugural / opening ceremony. The simplicity, diversity and the elegance was unmatchable. Especially, I liked the Panchatantra group’s performance, very much. 
4. The educational value – many Toastmasters come to the conference to gain knowledge. If attending club meetings is like taking a bus to reach your destination, attending a conference is like taking a jet to reach your destination. In Reverberation 2013, the organizers maximized the educational value by arranging parallel educational sessions and by lining up high profile speakers/trainers.
5. Smooth check-in procedure at the Registration desk in the conference venue. One notable thing is that volunteers were there at the registration desk almost throughout the day on both the days
6. Quality of the food was unbeatable. In addition, there was a wide array of food choices for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. 
7. The space for networking around the meeting halls (there was enough place for people to hang around in groups and take pictures/chat) - TATA Auditorium venue was ideal for networking.
8. Being the Chief Judge, I want to highlight the remarkable job done by Sunny & his team for the spectacular coordination and meticulous planning in the last one month for the contests. During the contests, whenever I reached out to Pearl Fernandes, Natasha, Mala Mary Martina, Kavya or Ajay for help... they offered help immediately. 
9. The quality of our contestants has exponentially grown this year - both humorous and evaluations contests. The contestants gave a tough fight and made the job very tough for the judges 
10. Last, but not the least… a very young team managed to pull off a huge conference like Reverberations 2013. Simply... unbelievable. This is a DREAM conference team.

I will cherish the memories of Reverberations 2013, forever.

7 ways to prepare for Table Topics Contests

"It usually takes me more than 3 weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech" said Mark Twain, the famous author. It is really true. Fluency in English alone is not enough for you to become a great impromptu speaker. When you get a topic during contests and if you don’t know what to speak, your brain will start spinning rigorously like an empty grinder... making a lot of noise without any useful output. You should feed the grinder with something to reduce the noise and to get useful output. How do you go about feeding the empty grinder? This article outlines some simple techniques that you can use to prepare for Table Topics contests.

(Also read: 9 ways to prepare for Table Topics & Impromptu Speaking)

1) Create a personal stories catalog – I’ve seen many people getting into the habit of writing blogs to document their life events. If you don't like to write and share your thoughts publicly through blogs, you can even begin the habit of writing diary. This will also help you to document your important moments & experiences which will eventually help you in creating stories from your own personal life. Diary will become your personal stories catalog.

2) Prepare for standard topics - Most of the table topics are around common subjects such as success, failure, most memorable event, greatest achievement, most happiest moment, leadership, hardwork, friendship, forgiving, happiness, sadness, goals, vacation, professional life, career, family, kids, education, determination. If you can prepare a short paragraph with some personal anecdotes on each of these subjects, you can easily talk about them in your speeches.

3) Read newspapers - Reading newspapers will help you to stay current with the day to day events that are happening in the country/world. Staying on top of current events will help you to relate to the audience and connect with them quickly. For ex., if you get a topic such as "Value of life in India", you can immediately relate back to the recent fire accidents happening in trains/buses because of not following norms.

4) Offline practice using Quotes – Most of the times, contest topics are quotes. So, take a printout of some 50 or 100 quotes from Internet. Cut the paper into smaller chits - each chit with one quote. Fold them, shuffle them and put them in a bowl. Now, take 1 chit from the bowl, open it and start talking about it for 2 minutes. Record what you speak. Then, play back and see how you could've handled the topic better. Be your own evaluator and write your "strengths" & "areas for improvement". Redo speaking on the same topic again, if you want to. Record it again and listen to it. Whenever you find time during the day or weekend, do this exercise. I have done this during my early days of Toastmastering and it has helped me to think instantly and talk on any subject. You can even play Table Topics (http://www.tabletopics.com/) games with your friends.

5) Treat it like a “mini” speech: Table Topics should also have a clear introduction, body and a memorable conclusion. You can use all the techniques that you normally use in the prepared speech for handling Table Topics – eye contact, vocal variety, structured thoughts, transitions, stories etc., Always end your Table Topic with a memorable or strong conclusion.

6) Tell a Story, don’t give a gyan – If you are a novice Table Topics speaker, you’ll start giving a gyan about the topic. For ex., if you get a topic such as “You booze, You cruise, You loose”… you can go on & on to talk about the effects of drinking liquor and driving. On the contrary, you can tell a story (even a fictions one) to convey the message. Personal incidents and stories help you to sustain the flow during Table Topics.

7) Volunteer for Table Topics - You cannot learn swimming by standing on the shore - you'll have to jump into the water to learn swimming. Similarly, you can sharpen your impromptu speaking skill by constantly participating in Table Topics sessions. Whenever the Table Topics master asks for a "Volunteer" to speak, raise your hand immediately without a second thought.
If you practice the suggestions given above, Table Topics contest will no more be a Terror Topics contest for you. Happy contesting.

Beyond the Speech Contest Rule Book

Hurrah! It is contest season, again. This is the time of the year when clubs, divisions and districts prepare their members to organize speech contests. Speech Contest rule book gives a broad framework to prepare for contests. This article provides some information which is not covered by the Speech Contest rule book and may help Toastmasters who are planning to organize contests.

Also read: 10 things that you should not do in Speech Contests

1. There is nothing Taboo

Sex, Religion & Politics are considered as Taboo in most of our clubs in District 82. However, some judges do not realize that they aren’t considered as Taboo in the context of speech contests. Technically, you cannot disqualify a person for touching upon such Taboo topics during the contest speech. But, you can definitely reduce the points for the speaker – if you think that the speaker used vulgar content which was not appropriate to the audience. Judging form has a section called “Appropriateness to Speech Purpose & Audience”. You can allocate lower scores to the speaker under that category.

2. Originality of the script

Speech contest rulebook says that the speeches should be substantially original – which means 25% or less of the speech can be from external sources. How do you go about calculating whether the speech script has exactly 25% or less from external sources? If the speaker has the written speech script handy, you can calculate it easily. In the absence of a written speech script, you can go by the time duration of the speech that is from external sources. As always, judges can jointly decide whether the speaker was within the 25% limit or not and give an opportunity to the speaker to express/substantiate his views.

3. Too much of drama isn’t great delivery

“Will the content of the speech appeal to a general audience? Will the speech delivery make ordinary people to enjoy the speaker’s performance”? When you carefully watch the videos of World Champion of Public Speaking contests, you’ll realize that the winning speeches would make an impact NOT only on Toastmasters but also on the average Joe. As judges, we shouldn’t get carried over when speeches are overdramatic and shouldn’t confuse them with great delivery.

4. 30 seconds grace time isn’t for audio or light failure

There is a common perception that speakers should be given an extra 30 seconds during a power failure. However, the speech contest rule book says “In the event of technical failure of the signal or timing equipment, a speaker is allowed 30 seconds extra overtime before being disqualified”. A humorous contest speaker even made fun of this statement, “if there is a timing equipment failure, how would you time the extra 30 seconds”. Well, the extra 30 seconds is used for switching from one timing device to another. The contest organizers are expected to give two timing devices (such as stopwatch) to the timers and they are available with the timers, handy.

Also read: 11 mistakes to avoid in Humorous Speech Contests

If you want to pick the right contestant as the winner, you need to have the right judges. Right judges are the ones who are trained and knowledgeable on the Speech Contest Judging rules. Together, let us pick the BEST contestant as winner, to represent District 82.

Inner Essentials of Communication by Preethi Srinivasan

Division N Toastmasters conference happened in Chennai, last month. Preethi Srinivasan, founder of SoulFree, a public charitable Trust was invited as a guest speaker to address the gathering. She delivered a speech on "Inner Essentials of Communication". Preethi couldn't resist from motivating people about the larger purpose of life, though her speech was about communication. In fact, a girl who was sitting near to me was very emotionally moved during the speech and she was crying for the most part. Preethi was able to appeal to the hearts of several toastmasters.

Here are the key points from Preethi's guest lecture, that are related to communication:

1. You can have brilliant ideas, but if  you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere - Lee Iacocca
2. Make yourself vulnerable instead of giving up. You've nothing to lose, but everything to gain.
3. Communication is the ability to look within and express yourself with words. It should be an understandable and authentic representation of truth.
4. Unless the audience knows the speaker, the speech will not be clear
5. There is no shortcuts to improving communication. You should master Vocabulary, Cadence, Pronunciation, Grammar, Usage
6. If you want to learn new words, use them at least in 3 different sentences as you learn them
7. Go down to the level of audience to communicate
8. You won't be afraid when you know everything or when you are a stupid
9. 4Cs of Communication - Connection, Clarity, Conciseness, & Confidence
10. 4Cs of Mis-Communication - Confusion, Compartmentalization (disconnected thoughts), Convolution, and Code (Cryptic or inppropriate gestures)
11. The single biggest problem in Communication is the illusion that it has already taken place - George Bernard Shaw
12. Come out, speak and be willing to be judged. The world is going to judge "no matter" whether you are scared or not
13. We are as small or as big as we want ourself to be - our body is our own prison.
14. Reacting out of needs makes you an animal
15. Core concepts of Communication - Empathy (looking from others' point of view), Self Knowledge (thoughts), Vision (larger perspective), Connection, Conquering fear, Humility (knowledge/respect to others), Listening, Equipose, Consciousness
16. When you think "I'm separate from you", communication is needed.
17. If you can't explain something simply, you simply don't understand it well enough.
18. Communication to a relationship is like oxygen to life, without it... it dies - Tony Gaskins

11 mistakes to avoid in Humorous Speech Contests

Why are some speeches more humorous than others? Why do some speakers make audience laugh, while others don't? What are the common mistakes done by our speakers in humorous speech contests?

Also read: How to spot a judge in a contest?

This is the contest season in Toastmasters. I see a number of new members participating in Humorous speech contests. Some of the contestants may be still wondering "Why am I not able to make audience laugh?" or "Why was my humorous speech not a winning speech?". I'm not an expert Humorous speaker, yet! I'm still trying to master the art by delivering humorous speeches. So, I cannot write an article on "How to make people laugh?". This article is a summary of my notes from the various Humorous Speech Contests that I attended recently. This article provides some insights about the common pitfalls to avoid when crafting and delivering a speech in humorous speech contests:

1. Don't forget to pause before the punch

Pause is a powerful tool used by great communicators to persuade the audience, to make them think and to arouse their curiosity. A pause when used effectively can bring in humor in your speeches - especially before delivering the punch line or before breaking the surprise.

"Take my wife .... please" is a classic example of "pause before the punch". Pause increases the curiosity and lets the audience's imagination buds to do some homework. Then you surprise the audience with the punch line. If you give away the surprise too fast without the pause, audience aren't going to laugh.

2. Don't make the audience to feel uneasy 

Normally, speech contests are attended by at least 20 or more people. When you make it too uncomfortable for the audience, they aren't going to laugh for your jokes. Instead, they are going to be thinking "Why did this guy include this line in his speech? Can't he think of something better?" Speaking about things such as Farting, Sex and other vulgar/discriminating topics are going to create uneasy feelings for the audience. To give you an example, one of the speakers had this line "She had BIG eyes, She had a BIG smile, She had a BIG ... BIG... Car". This line didn't bring any humor. So, consider avoiding such phrases.

3. Don't laugh for your own jokes

I've seen novice contestants laughing for their own jokes. If you carefully observe stand-up comedians, they keep their face straight when cracking jokes. What happens when you laugh for your own jokes? You may be breaking the surprise for the audience too fast. Your face starts reacting even before  the audience starts to laugh for your jokes.

4. Don't forget to use the right words/phrases, to bring in humor

You don't have to be an English professor to be a humorous speaker. However, at the same time, you should use the right words to bring humor. For ex., "One year into the married life... I realized, men are from mars, but my wife isn't from venus". If somebody delivers this line as "After a year of marriage, I realized men always come from mars and women always don't come from venus", the humor effect will be lost. There are some speakers who may not be good at English - I would recommend them to rehearse the speech/delivery several times until they get comfortable with the word choices. Even the champions of humor does that.

5. Don't get carried away by the laughs - Stay focused on the script

There are times when contestants get carried away by the audience's laughter. All of a sudden, they go out of the script and start doing a free flow speech. For example, I've seen one of the speakers doing this - the moment audience laugheed, he said "From your giggles I can make out what you understood" and he started to talk about things that were not planned in the script. Since he went out of the script, it became very difficult for him to come back to the mainstream flow. So, always stay within the script - especially if you are just beginning your humorously speaking career.

6. Don't pick Internet jokes

Facebooks and Googles have made jokes very accessible to users now. In addition, people get a zillion forwarded emails every day.

Today, most jokes are morphed, modified and massaged into several forms and it reduces the laughter quotient. There are multiple reasons why you shouldn't use Internet jokes - first of all, it is not your original content; second of all, the audience would've already heard/read the joke and hence, they wouldn't be surprised when you deliver the punch line.

7. Don't ask a question and lose control

One speaker started the speech with the question, "Do you hate cockroaches, lizards and rats". The immediate response from the audience was "No". However, the speaker expected a "Yes" response to follow-on with the speech and deliver a punch line. He wasn't prepared for a "No" response and he wasn't able to make audience laugh with the punch line.

(Also read: Beyond the Speech Contest Rule Book)

8. Don't miss to exaggerate real life incidents

Many speeches fail to bring in the humor, because situations aren't exaggerated. Speakers narrate incidents from their life as it happened. However, if you have to learn from the movie directors, they create incidents that are not "real" to increase the entertainment value.

Recently I delivered a speech about "Why you shouldn't be a Toastmaster". I exaggerated an incident to convey the point that "Toastmasters don't get to the point". Read the paragraph below:

A Club officer would go to the stage and make an announcement… “Imagine it is 24th Aug 2013… a bright sunny day… you are attending the Toastmasters International convention at Cincinnati, USA…. the finals of the World Champion of Public Speaking Contest… the hall is filled with people… people are busy talking to each other … you can smell the coffee brewing … your name gets called on the stage… Contestant #1, Rajeev  Nambiar… Rajeev Nambiar, Contestant #1… the crowd starts to cheer… Rajeev… Rajeev. All of a sudden, the Chief Judge walks to the stage and stops you from talking “Rajeev… You are not eligible to contest. You haven’t paid your membership dues for this term”. Fellow members, if you don’t want to lose an amazing opportunity to participate in WCPS contest, pay your membership dues now”. All that the club officer wanted to say was “Dear Members… the last date for membership renewal is Mar 2013. Please pay your dues before that to be eligible to participate in the contests”

If I had just said "The club officer always goes to the stage and threatens us to do our renewals for us to participate in the contest", instead of the above paragraph it wouldn't have been humorous enough.

Sharing real world incidents as they unfolded in your life may bring-in some laughter at the club level because the club members know you very well and they can visualize the sequence better by putting you in that incident. When you move to the area/division/district level, your audience may not know you much and hence your simplistic narration may not bring much laughter.

9. Don't narrate incidents where you give feedback using "Toastmasters Evaluations" technique 

This is a beaten to death technique in Toastmasters circle to bring humor - narrating incidents where you give feedback to people using Toastmasters Evaluation style. For ex., Husband giving feedback to wife, Boss giving feedback to team member, Boy friend giving feedback to girlfriend etc., To the extent possible, avoid such narrations. It may help you at the club level contests because you have extraordinary connection with your audience. However, it will fail to work at the area or division / district level contests where audience would've already heard 100s of such speeches.

10. Avoid too much drama

Again I would like to refer to stand-up comedians. They don't even move a single bit to make audience laugh. So, don't try to include artificial gestures or stage movements in your speech. One of the toastmasters drove a scooter "drrrr...." and he moved around the stage like a kid driving the scooter. It looked too dramatic at Area contests. I'm not saying that you should deliver the speech by standing in one location. However, use the stage when it is needed, use gestures when they are appropriate.

11. Get permission from people before you use their name

There are some characters (sorry people!) in Toastmasters community - where just mentioning their name would bring-in laughter. However, before using their name in your speech please do get their concurrence/permission. Even toastmasters who look jovial during the club meetings, do not take things lightly when you make fun of them on the stage. I've unknowingly offended people by referring them in my impromptu speeches, to bring-in humor. I had to face the heat, later-on :) You can use self-deprecating humor as much as possible. However, try not to make fun of others. Even if you are going to refer to someone, get their permission first.

CC Manual - Tips for coming up with Ice Breaker Speech Content

Recently, we conducted a Youth Leadership Program. Many of the participants called me up to find out how they should craft the script for their Ice Breaker speech. I jotted down a few items which can be part of an Ice Breaker speech. I thought I would share it in my blog - so that, it can benefit the new members who join Toastmasters. The objective of the Ice Breaker speech (i.e., Competent Communicator Project #1) is to get to know the speaker better. The duration of the speech is about 4 - 6 minutes. You can choose to include one or more of the items given below in your speech:

1. Where were you born?
2. What is so special about the city in which you are born? 
3. What is your name? What is the significance of your name?
4. Who are in your family?
5. What are some memorable incidents from your childhood days? Why? 
6. Which school did you go to?
7. What is the most memorable incident from your school days? Why?
8. Who is your favorite teacher? Why?
9. Which college did you go to?
10. Who is your favorite professor or lecturer? Why?
11. What is the most memorable incident from your college days? Why?
12. Who are your friends? What do you and your friends enjoy doing?
13. Are there any events (sports, competitions or exams) in which you participated?
14. Are you employed? If so, how did you find your first job?
15. What is the company where you are currently working?
16. What is that you like about your current company & current job?
17. Are you married? How did you meet your spouse? Has married life changed you in any way?
18. Do you have kids? What do they do? 
19. How do you spend time with your family? 
20. What is your hobby? How do you spend your spare time?
21. What is your future goal / dream?

The questions given above can help you in crafting your first speech in Toastmasters. When you finish crafting your speech, you can send it to your mentor for a quick review. You can look at my sample Ice Breaker speeches in the following location:

CC1 - My College Life (Ice Breaker)

CC1 - My journey so far (Ice Breaker)

Wishing you all the best with your Competent Communicator journey.

Wanted to improve your public speaking skills?! Toastmasters is the way to go.

This is an article that I wrote for publishing in MMA (Madras Management Association) newsletter during April 2012.

Would you like to be a leader in your community? Perhaps, your ambition is to be promoted in your work, to feel comfortable while speaking at social gatherings or to improve your interpersonal communication skills. Have you thought about how you can reach these goals? 

Like most young people, I was not sure how I was going to reach my goals. Despite having completed several courses on communication and public speaking, including a Masters Degree in Management, I was aware that I did not have the communication and leadership skills needed to lead my team effectively, and I wanted to learn these skills.

One day a friend told me about the Toastmasters Program. He enthusiastically explained and emphasized the communication and leadership aspects of the program. He spoke of the “learn by doing” workshop approach and how he had the opportunity to practice leadership skills by taking leadership roles in his club. This was exactly what I had been looking for.

My friend’s advice, and his enthusiasm for the communication and leadership aspects of the program, appealed to me. Within two years of joining Toastmasters, my previous dread of speaking at the roll-out of new programs and at training sessions had vanished and such occasions became enjoyable and enriching experiences. I saw the change in my private life too: I was now willing to lead discussions in my office and do presentations in front of my customer, without being nervous. My dream to break free from my terror of speaking in public had come true.

Like me, your dream of being a leader in your community, feeling comfortable before an audience, taking a leadership role with confidence or improving your communication and leadership skills can be realized. As a first step towards achieving your goals and realizing your dreams, I urge you to consider visiting and hopefully joining your local Toastmasters Club.

Is there any evidence that the Toastmasters Program really works? If proof were needed, let me advise you that many of the top companies in the world, as well as leading professional bodies, have in-house Toastmasters Clubs to support the personal and professional development of their employees or members. For most of us, however, it is the Community Toastmasters Club that helps us to develop those skills and competencies that we so greatly admire in other people. We have 32 different toastmasters clubs all over Tamilnadu. To find a club near you, you should go to www.toastmasters.org. We would love to have you join us.

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches communication and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. The organization currently has more than 260,000 members in approximately 12,500 clubs in 113 countries. Since its founding in October 1924, by Ralph C. Smedley, the organization has helped more than 4 million men and women lead and communicate with poise and confidence. Today, organizations around the world recognize the value of incorporating Toastmasters training to help employees improve their communication and leadership skills.

For more information, and to find a club near your place go to http://www.toastmasters.org

10 ways of promoting Toastmasters outside your club

"If you build it, they'll come" a famous quote that highlights what Steve Jobs have done by creating a demand for smartphones and tablets in this world. However, can the "If you build it, they'll come" principle be applied when growing your Toastmasters club?  How do you promote your community toastmasters club to the public? Our VP Public Relations (PRs) will say "If you promote it, they'll come". Here are some ideas: (Also read: 10 ways of finding role players for your club)

Also read: How do you find guests for your meetings, online?

1. Conduct special meetings regularly and invite Toastmasters families & friends. This will provide an opportunity to promote toastmasters to fellow toastmasters' family & friends.
2. Get permission & stick a A3 or A4 sized poster in the local gift shops or book shops.
3. Send flyers or posters to nearby Colleges. College can display that in their notice boards. This will help you to attract the local students community. Colleges prefer hard copy to display on the notice boards.
4. Local media are always friendly to clubs and local social initiatives (for ex., In Chennai, you can approach T.Nagar Times, Nanganallur Talk etc.,). You can get a free coverage there. 
5. Members of a club can contribute articles to newspapers (such as Hindu, Indian Express etc.,) on the subject of communication & leadership. Newspapers crave for content. They are more willing to publish such stuff on the supplementary... such as Education Plus, Metro Plus etc.,
6. Conduct free workshops or contests for the community... for ex., Speech Craft program is a brand promotion initiative. Clubs can organize their own Youth Leadership or Speech Craft programs. Clubs can also raise sponsorship and conduct contests for college students. This can get free media coverage too. 
7. Drop in to the local Rotary or Lions club and promote toastmasters. You can sign-up to do free keynote speeches or educational sessions for them and promote toastmasters along with that. 
8. Join Facebook groups in your locality and promote toastmasters. However, you've to keep the noise level low. May be one flyer a month - otherwise, you'll be considered as a spammer and removed from the group. 
9. Encourage members to display Toastmasters mementos / trophies / certificates / best speaker ribbons at work place. When colleagues ask them about the trophy, they can give their colleagues a mini pitch about Toastmasters and invite their colleagues to the next club meeting.
10. Members can include a line about Toastmasters in their personal email signatures. At least, the club officers can do this. This will help them to promote toastmasters to their friends/contacts. Members/Officers can also leverage online mediums to attract guests to their club meetings. update their LinkedIn profile / Facebook profile to include toastmasters. Anyone who sees their profile would know that there is something called Toastmasters.

Story of Chennai Speakers Forum

This is the story of Chennai Speakers Forum... a community club that was born from the light house club of Chennai - the Chennai Toastmasters Club. I wrote this article for a newsletter in the year 2012 - however, the newsletter was never published :)

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Breaking a log of wood makes it lose its strength ...
Breaking a glass makes it unusable ...
But.. splitting an atom produces enormous power !

... and, thats what happened when Chennai Toastmasters Club was split into 2 - Chennai Toastmasters (CTM) Club & Chennai Speakers Forum (CSF). The need for splitting CTM into two clubs, was realized approximately 2 years ago. However, there was no time, energy or drive to get the job done. Because of this, CTM started seeing a sinusoidal membership pattern ... the membership goes up in summer and comes down during fall. A number of new members join during July to December time frame. The membership reaches 70+ during July to December time frame and will come down to 45+ during January to June time frame. One simple reason was, not every member got an opportunity to play a role during the club meeting. There were a few other reasons that forced us to seriously consider splitting the club :

- members wouldn't get speaking slots
- club officers wouldn't be able to spend quality time with members
- mentoring new members was a challenge
- leadership opportunities were limited (only 7 get to play the role of club officers in a group of 70)
- only 12 speakers could be accommodated during speech contests (due to the lack of time)
- we had several great speakers in the club, however only 2 could represent the club in the speech contests at area level

Also read: Steps involved in chartering a new club

DTM Kartik Srinivasan, who was the Area Governor then, spearheaded the initiative of splitting CTM and creating a new club. We received enormous support from the leadership team of CTM - TM Rajesh Natarajan (IPP), TM Prabakaran (President), TM Sadayappan (VP Education) and their team. Kartik Srinivasan and I were able to inspire the leadership team to initiate the split. However, the challenge was "Who can inspire the 70 odd members of the club - which includes founding members, veterans and a number of other passionate toastmasters". We got a helping hand from our most popular DTM Aditya Maheswaran. DTM Aditya Maheswaran became the chairman of the 'cloning committee'. Once you give a job to DTM Aditya, you don't have to worry about the results.

A task of this magnitude is expected to have some resistance and it did have some resistance. Toastmasters who were really passionate about the success and growth of CTM, raised their genuine concerns. I won't claim that we addressed all of the concerns - but, we shared our honest views / thoughts with them. In principle, everybody agreed on the decision to split - however, there were 100 different views on 'how the split should be done'. For a major activity like this, if we wait for consensus from all the people, the job would never get done. We did what is right for both CTM & CSF, following Toastmasters International guidelines. The club cloning committee created a membership roster for both the clubs based on seniority of the members in toastmasters, age group, sex, educational accomplishments, contest worthiness etc., Members were then given an option to decide which club they really want to be part of. Some members decided to change their club. Some members decided to maintain dual membership. A final roster was arrived in a weeks time.

Also read: How to conduct a demo meeting?

On 4th Sep 2011, right after CTM meeting, we completed all the paper work. The new incoming officers of CSF, helped in completing the paper work. We sent it to Toastmasters International on 5th Sep 2011 and the club got chartered. The first meeting of the club was conducted on 11th Sep 2011 - a new community club was born ! TM Arna Chugani, TM Pravin Mani, TM Mohammed Mustafa, TM Jananee Ramakrishnan, TM Gurumurugan, TM Vivekanandan, and TM Nijil Chandran became its incoming officers. If I had one concern about Chennai Speakers Forum, it was "Will the new leadership team rise up to the challenge and help the club succeed?! Can these youngsters pull it off?".

"Never underestimate the power of a small group of people to change the world.  In fact, it is the only way it ever has.", is a famous quote from Margaret Mead. Today, I can proudly say that the leadership team took the club to great heights - beyond what anyone can imagine. With their hard work, dedication, team work and creativity the leadership team scaled the club to unimaginable heights. In TM Alex's words, they've raised the bar high.

Chennai is now gifted with two community clubs operating in the same place, at different times ... providing opportunity to more members in the community to get benefited by toastmasters. The journey continues ... :)