The world needs leaders. Leaders head families, coach teams, run businesses and mentor others. These leaders do not only accomplish, they communicate as well. By regularly giving speeches, gaining feedback, leading teams and guiding others to achieve their goals in a supportive atmosphere, most leaders emerge from the Toastmasters club.
Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. Beyond that, Toastmasters members are a diverse group, spanning countries and cultures, and all socio-economic backgrounds.
Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development. Our organization has more than 345,000 memberships in over 142 countries, dedicated in excellence in communication and leadership. Members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending any of our clubs in various countries that make up our global network of meeting locations. Every Toastmasters journey begins with a single speech. During their journey, they learn to tell their stories. They listen and answer. They plan and lead. They give feedback—and accept it. Through our community of learners, they find their path to leadership. Focusing on public speaking and leadership skills, Toastmasters is one of the largest organized systems of personal development in the world.
Many people who have labeled themselves ‘introverts’ or lack social skills can find Toastmasters to be a fantastic place to rapidly improve their communication skills. Even if you are currently a very sociable person, Toastmasters can teach you to improve your skills and give you the confidence that comes from being a competent speaker. As in capacity to join Toastmasters, anyone over the age of 18 years can join toastmasters, provided they have the desire to improve their communication and leadership skills while having fun too.
The Mission of Toastmasters International is to empower individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders. We provide a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth. If you are in a foreign country and don’t speak the native language, Toastmasters can be a great place to learn. Many members have noted it was a great place to learn English (or whatever language your club speaks). “We learn best in moments of enjoyment” Ralph Smedley, founder of toastmasters.
Toastmasters International Values
- Integrity
- Respect
- Service
- Excellence
There are many importance of joining Toastmasters, but here are a few of the most common:
- Become a Better Public Speaker
The good news is that speaking in public is a learnable skill. Members of Toastmasters club work through a chain of educational programs designed to train them and improve their ability to write speeches, plan presentations, and deliver them. Good public speaking skills are important in other areas of your life, as well. You might be asked to make a speech at a friend’s wedding, give a eulogy for a loved one, or inspire a group of volunteers at a charity event. Joining Toastmasters helps you attain different styles of giving presentations such as; Instead of standing behind a podium, you will walk around and use gestures to engage the audience to make your presentations lively. This movement and energy will also come through in your voice, making it more active and passionate.
- Overcome Public Speaking Fears and cope with your nerves.
The most positive and supportive audience in the world is a Toastmasters club audience. With this, you shall realize the source of your fears. Your fears may be that you don’t know what will happen when you step to the podium or table to deliver. Speaking regularly in front of a group helps you calm your nerves and communicate effectively. Time will be given you to stand in front of the audience (us) to give speeches or presentations. Fear makes it all too easy to slip into a cycle of negative self-talk, especially right before you speak, while self-sabotagingthoughts such as “I’ll never be good at this!” or “I’m going to fall flat on my face!” lower your confidence and increase the chances that you won’t achieve what you’re truly capable of. You shall gain training on controlling your breath by using deep breathing exercises to slow your heart rate and give your body the oxygen it needs to perform. This is especially important right before you speak. - Gain the Confidence and Courage to Lead
Leadership and communication skills are intimately bound. Some might argue that leadership is nothing more than the ability to effectively communicate a vision. At another level, the weekly Toastmasters meetings teach you basic management skills on how to organize a team and run an efficient meeting. Things happen at every meeting and they have to be dealt with by the Toastmaster – that’s management training. Speaking in Toastmasters provides new challenges and plenty of opportunities to be proud of your accomplishments. “The more you expand your skills and talents, the more confidence you have in yourself!”- Chrysta Bairre. Self-confidence builds trust in others. Our leadership core skills are mastering public speaking and communication. As your communication skills improve, your ability to lead will improve as well. - “Practice” Presentations for Other Audiences
Everyone has different motivations for wanting to speak better. Maybe you want to improve your presentation skills for your career. Perhaps you want to be able to speak out in your volunteer organization. Maybe you want to complement your portfolio as an author, manager, or other professional with speaking gigs? Whatever the case, Toastmasters is a wonderful laboratory for you to practice your presentations and gain valuable feedback. Indeed countless public speaking coaches and trainers shall coach you to practice your speech/presentations. Whether you shall be practicing in your hotel room or in the car, you will be trained on how you will visualize that as if you are on the stage and can see the audience. You shall visualize doing well. By the time you take the stage, you’d have given your presentation successfully in many times. - A great place to meeting new people and friends
Toastmasters club is somewhere where the situation breaks the ice for people and naturally gives them reasons to talk to each other freely through learning and having fun. Sometimes people have lots of potential friends in their lives and they just need to do more to try to hang out with them and start a relationship. But the opposite is just as often a problem, when they don’t have many friendship prospects around. In that case they will meet up new friends, socialize to initiate good relationship. It allows you to reliably see the same people several times, so you have a chance to get comfortable with them and gradually get to know them. It’s not that you have one five minute chance to make a good impression and then you may never see them again.
Moreover, it allows you to meet people who are similar to you, in terms of your hobbies and values.
To make mention of the toastmasters club at Ministry of Foreign affairs, Airport City, Accra; Munnira Sheikh being the President (Toastmasters MFA) may be contacted on info@munnirasheikh.com.
Mr. Papa Arkhurst is the DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) Ghana
Executives for Toastmaster-MFA January 2017 – June 2017
President – Munnira Sheikh
Vice President Education – Marilyn Quarmor
Vice President Membership – Godwin Adjatey
Middle from left to right:
Vice President Public Relations – Albert Sarpong
Secretary – Richard Aggrey
Treasurer – Saana Nyarko-Dabie
Sergeant at arms – Amma Serwaa Frimpong
If you decide to join a club with a high volume of new members, be trained meet sociable friends, leaders and other resource persons, I have found this to be even truer as everyone is trying to learn at the same time. For more info on Toastmasters, go to our website www.toastmasters.org or visit http:/4518315.toastmastersclubs.org
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