Articles

These are two articles which I wrote for a magazine that the toastmaster club in my company is going to publish. Read them if u have time. Enjoy maadi. :)

My journey with MyInfy

I remember the first time I heard about toastmasters. It was during my induction session when I joined Infosys. They talked about toastmasters as a venue for people with weak communication skills. Toastmasters seemed to be the last thing I would join. I immediately forgot everything about the MyInfy toastmasters. It appeared there was just too little time.

But there was a curiosity about toastmasters that I could not hide for long. Those tempting posts on the bulletin-board created a desire to attend a meeting but something or the another kept cropping up at exactly the wrong times.

So finally I went to a toastmasters meet and I simply had no doubts that toastmasters offered something special. To those who struggle with speaking skills toastmasters offered a chance to improve. To those who were already conversant toastmaster offered the chance to be better.

So putting my money where my mouth was, I joined toastmasters. And it’s been a great journey. The toastmaster projects allow me through their goals to each time focus on one aspect of public speaking. From words, structure of speech body language to voice modulation it appears toastmasters encapsulates everything. I have slowly seen my speeches and my communication skills get better. I was never a weak speaker as such but toastmasters has helped me polish my skills.

Also a big advantage of toastmaster is its visibility in b-schools and other companies. We all want to say that we have great communication skills. In that b-school interview toastmasters credentials as a CC or even an aspiring CC can vouch that you are a skilled orator.

The tablet topics section in the Toastmasters meeting helps sharpen on the feet thinking skills. So often do we feel after an interaction that we could have done it better. The table-topics ensure that such regrets come less regularly as the speaking on the feet skills rub off everything.

Toastmasters till now has been a wonderful journey.

It’s been a journey of self discovery and continuous improvement.

I hope you also get to walk the same trail and have as much fun as I have if you decide to take the Toastmasters journey.

My Area B1 Contest Experience

“We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be a contest, and we must win.Or at least aspire to win because we all think the best man has won.”

Toastmasters International endeavours to improve the speaking and leadership skills of its members. While projects help people sharpen individual facets of their skills, only a contest can test the mettle of people. Toastmasters International organizes fours contests over a year which are organized in groups of two every six months. So while during the first six months of the year we have the “International Speech” and the “Table-topics” contest, “Humorous speech” and “Evaluation” contest follow in the next six months.

As a toastmaster I have been involved in representing my club in the various contests for the last one year. I have been a participant in all the four different contest at different times. Unfortunately I haven’t won any of the contests even one time. Infact I can proudly say, I haven’t been even close. No special mention or even third or fourth runners up for consolation.

However while people and even I see failure at times as an indication that it’s time to give up, I am still as enthusiastic about contests as the time I first tried my luck. Maybe the fact is that contests have given me so much new to learn that I am still pining my chance. Here are my major learnings-

Sh** Happens- I normally consider myself as pretty good at table-topics. However the first contest I went to had a topic like-“My parents are in the iron and steal business. My fathers steals and my mother irons it.” The announcer announced the topic and I started speaking. Unfortunately maybe I was too scared or something as its only when I sat down after the speech that I realized the hidden pun. There was no reason why it had not clicked to me earlier except the random factor called luck.

Competition Helps-At times I have realized that my ego tends to get the better of me. After a good speech when people congratulate , I start to feel happy about myself and think I am very very good. Competition tells me there are better people. It allows me to set higher goals.

Practice helps- This international speech contest I saw someone steal away the top prize as he just had prepared too well. The speech of nearly each contestant was very good but this guy comes as if in a movie and simply blows us away with his body language, gestures , voice modulation. Practice allows even an average speech to touch greatness.

Never Give Up- I have seen giants(in terms of their earlier track record) ousted by people who were just members for a few weeks or those who had no prior record. Basically in the David versus Goliath battle the underdog wins. And that tells me why I should keep at it.

There is no limit to perfection- It is important to set high goals. You may be good but there is no reason why you cant be better.

Very few win by a wide margin- The margin of win and defeat is mostly very slim. Maybe better practice could have made the difference or a better modeled speech. Or maybe it just was not your day. Defeat is perfectly natural. You went and tried and that itself speaks a lot. Never forget there is always another contest six months down the line.