- RISE FROM THE ASHES – Sanjib Nandi - November 1, 2021
- साथ में मेरे दोस्त खड़े थे - August 1, 2021
- BenchmarkDotNet: Advanced Features - June 20, 2021
In this part, we saw the main benefits of being a Toastmaster but it is NOT limited to those 20. It has 20 more and all of them are based on my personal experience only.
1. Diverse Professional Setup
Toastmasters are from different professional backgrounds, industry and hence we get to connect to different professionals and, we can use this prospect in career progression.
2. Best Utilization of Time
If you are spending your time sleeping, gossiping with friends then better to join the Toastmasters and learn and grow yourself with fun.
3. Best Value for Money
Fee for Toastmasters membership is $ 45 for 6 months. If we compare, this is not more than one dinner in some restaurant.
4. A Platform to Show Creativity
This is a great platform to show your creativity in every part of our role.
- If we are Toastmaster of the day, we can have a creative theme
- As a Speaker, we can make it filled with humor, drama, twist.
- Table Topic Master’s role gives us a chance to conduct the session in an interesting way.
- Many VP-PR sends very creative posters about their club meetings and achievements.
5. Different Career Perspectives
Toastmasters International conducts International Speech Contest every year. Many winners from this contest emerge as a Motivational Speaker, Trainer, consultant, coach, TEDx Speaker, etc. These are a few examples but there are many other new career prospects as well.
6. Know your Limit
During performing several duties and assignments we get a very clear-cut separation of the assigned roles. For example – VP Membership and VP Public Relationships don’t interfere in each other’s territory and work together. Similar examples are applicable to all roles and responsibilities at any level.
7. Basics of Campaign and Running for Office
All club officers in Toastmasters are elected. They run their campaign and on D-Day, they get a chance to speak on why they should be elected. A similar campaign at a greater level can be seen at the district level as well, definitely, in front of a larger audience with a better strategy too.
8. Not a Rat Race
Once I mentioned, it is Office away Office, but it does not result in a corporate rat race. All members of the club support and help each other and grow together. This virtue makes everyone to help others grow and get the award, even if they are NOT able to achieve that.
9. Best Place to fail and learn
This a forum where we get ample chance to take risks, challenge ourselves. Even if we fail, we don’t have anything to lose and if we succeed it boosts our confidence by giving a sense of achievement.
10. Marketing Skills
As a Club level VP-PR we get ample chance to show and grow our marketing skills. We participate in many online campaigns using Facebook, meetup, and many other social media platforms. On this dais, we get a lot to learn about digital marketing and social marketing.
This opportunity is not limited to club VP PR only It also available to the Area, Division, and District level as well.
11. Rewards and Recognition
For all the assignments we complete in Toastmasters, they are associated with various awards. It can be an educational award or leadership award. Such recognition works as a token of acknowledgment of our hard work and dedication and helps to buckle up to reach the next milestone.
12. More Confidence
These awards may not help much in our professional life, but it gives a sense of achievement and confidence that I can do it. And, definitely, this confidence boosts up helps a lot in professional assignments. Leadership lessons learned from Toastmasters are instrumental in professional life and dealing with. It helps in delegating, motivating our team members.
13. Event Planning and Management
From membership campaign to various contests, gives a perfect grasp of event planning and management. There are multiple stakeholders are involved, and they all work together, and again we get this learning without paying any additional fee to toastmasters. Few such opportunities for this are –
- VP Membership organizes Membership campaigns with the help of a team.
- Area, Division, and district director plans and manages contests in their scope.
- Any special meeting called for specific or demo purposes.
14. Competitiveness
The Whole setup of Toastmasters encourages members to challenge themselves and achieve another new milestone. One member completes and helps and motivates others to achieve the same by setting up an example. Members help each other to grow by constructive feedback, it means that sharing and caring among members of toastmasters provide an environment for healthy and clean competition.
15. Entertainment and Fun
Believe me, Toastmasters meetings are fun and a stage for experiencing entertainment. Few club members go out and develop strong bonding with other members.
16. Personal Growth
Personal benefits from Toastmasters are enormous. These Few are very personal benefits for everyone –
- With better active listening we learn what are hidden feelings talks (especially spouse)
- With better evaluation skills, we learn how and when to praise our wife.
Other than these two, it helps in building confidence, adding senses of humor, organizing thoughts, and many more which can be directly used in real life.
17. Professional Growth
Leadership, presentation, impromptu speaking, giving feedback are some of the most sought skill sets and they are the main take away from the toastmasters. Learning from there and implementing that in our professional life could make someone a great leader. The confidence it inflicts is very vital for cracking the interviews.
18. Benefits of Corporate Clubs
Many clubs are corporate clubs, and they give an excellent stage for inter-department connection and getting good recognition and rapport in the organization.
19. Amazing Toastmasters Magazines
This is my personal favorite. Toastmasters magazines are free resources for any member. They have articles covering a wide spectrum of our life. Even, any non-toastmaster can also read them online and understand how useful it is.
20. Alliance with Rotary
Toastmasters let us groom our soft skills at the same time Rotary with a bigger network gives a platform to give back the society we are living in. Rotary gives us plenty of opportunities to help the community and get real happiness by seeing others smiling. Here is more about it
All the above-listed points are based on my personal experience. I am still new to the organization and learning a lot. If you feel, I have missed any, please don’t hesitate to comment. I will try to add them to this list and my bucket list of learning from Toastmasters because Toastmasters is the platform to learn and grow together.
I had to split up this in to Part #1 and Part #2 as single article was getting very big.