As I have begun to advance a little more in my career, I have noticed my ability to speak and communicate with clients has a direct impact on my success at work. As things are starting to get back to “normal” after the lockdowns, I have noticed that my social skills diminished a bit during the course of the pandemic. Socializing seems a bit more exhausting than it did in 2019, and I feel like there is a wall of awkwardness that I need to get over to more effectively progress in my career and make new friends. After doing some research online, I realized that Toastmasters could be a great way to develop and rebuild my speaking skills while meeting some new people in my community. I have been regularly attending Toastmasters meetings for about 4 months now, and I can feel myself becoming a better communicator. In the following article, I am going to discuss why I think every professional should consider joining a local Toastmasters club.
What is Toastmasters?
Toastmasters is an international non-profit organization that helps people practice public speaking, improve their communication skills, and develop leadership skills in a safe and supportive environment. Your experience in Toastmasters will be very dependent on the club you join. There are over 14,000 Toastmasters clubs around the world. Some people choose to join multiple clubs.
How does it work?
If you have heard of Toastmasters before, you may think it is a club where people practice speeches. Speeches are a big part of Toastmasters, but it is much more than that. In the following sections, I will break down how much it costs to join Toastmasters, give you an idea of what you can expect as far as the time commitment, and I will describe what you can expect during your first meeting.
Cost of Toastmasters Membership
You can attend a few meetings to see if you like Toastmasters before becoming a member. Although Toastmasters is very affordable compared to many coaching programs, it is not free. The following table is a breakdown of what it costs to become a Toastmaster.
New Member Fee – $20
Membership Dues – $90/yr (all members pay $45 twice per year – dues are prorated based on the start month)
Pathways (online training where you access your speech project instructions) – $20
When I started Toastmasters in November, I ended up paying $95 to start my membership.
Time Commitment
Toastmasters clubs meet for an hour or two every week. My club meets for an hour early in the morning before everyone has to be at work. However, Toastmasters will take up more of your time when you are preparing your speeches. It is important to be diligent when preparing your speeches because you want evaluators to focus on identifying what you can improve rather than focusing on your lack of preparedness. With that being said, I would encourage engineers (or others) to join Toastmasters even if they do not have time to make all of their speeches absolutely perfect. Most people join Toastmasters because they want to be better business owners or advance their careers. As you can imagine, the kind of person who joins Toastmasters to better themselves in that way tends to be quite busy. Toastmasters is a safe environment full of people who are working on themselves together. Nobody will be “judging” you if you mess up on a speech.
What to Expect at a Toastmasters Meeting
The flow of a Toastmasters meeting can feel a little daunting if you are not used to it. Meetings move quickly and efficiently because there are several parts to complete in a relatively short period of time. My club meets in the morning, so we have to move through the meeting quickly because most people need to go to work shortly after the meeting ends. My club’s meeting opens with the pledge of allegiance. Then the presiding officer will introduce any guests in attendance, and the Toastmaster of the Day will briefly describe the theme of the meeting and the various meeting roles (e.g., ah counter, grammarian, evaluators, vote counter, and speakers). The next sections describe the various parts of a Toastmasters meeting.
Speeches and Evaluations – This portion of the meeting is what people typically associate with Toastmasters. A couple of people will give speeches, and two people will evaluate the speeches. The speeches are typically between five and seven minutes in length, and evaluators have one to two minutes to provide their evaluations. As I mentioned previously, Toastmasters meetings are supportive environments, so feedback is given in a helpful and supportive manner.
Table Topics – Table Topics is the portion of the meeting where we have the opportunity to work on our impromptu speaking skills. The “Table Topics Master” asks various people a question, and the person gives a response that is between one and two minutes long. The questions asked during Table Topics are typically related to the day’s theme. Most people find Table Topics to be challenging because you cannot practice for Table Topics in the same way as a prepared speech. I recommend watching this video if you want to excel at Table Topics.
Voting – After the speeches and table topics portion of the meeting, attendees will vote on who they thought did the best. This process is anonymous, and the only person who sees who you vote for is the vote counter (at least in my club).
Reports – After the speeches, table topics, and evaluations portion of the meeting is complete, the grammarian, ah counter, and vote counter will give their reports. During this portion of the meeting, the day’s “best speaker” and best “table topics speaker” will be announced. This is also a good opportunity to evaluate how many filler words you are using when you speak.
Roles for the next meeting – After everyone gives their reports, the meeting closes with everyone picking roles for the next meeting.
Benefits of Toastmasters
So far, Toastmasters has been a very positive experience. Some of the benefits I have realized through Toastmasters are as follows:
Benefit #1 – Enhanced Communication Skills
I expected that Toastmasters would help me improve my presentation/speaking skills. However, I did not expect that it would have such an impact on other aspects of my life. For example, I have found that I am more effective during meetings and am less awkward in conversation. The opportunity to simply practice talking/communication once a week in a low-risk environment is invaluable.
Benefit #2 – Improved Self Confidence
Because my communication skills are improving, I find that I have more self-confidence.
Benefit #3 – Comradery
Over time, you do develop a sense of comradery with your club. The Toastmasters environment is very positive because everyone in attendance is there to improve themselves and help each other. This can be very refreshing if you work with a difficult person (or people) regularly.
Final Thoughts
Communication is the most important aspect of anyone’s career, including engineers. Toastmasters give professionals the opportunity to improve their communication skills quickly. Depending on what club you join, Toastmasters can also be really fun! I highly recommend that all engineers give it a try. I have yet to hear anyone be disappointed with their decision to join Toastmasters.