Mysore Area Toastmasters Clubs for You...

Toastmasters International (TI) is a non-profit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help people learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking.

Toastmasters International is:

• A non-profit organization,

• Comprised of over 3,50,000 members in over 140 countries,

• Represented by over 14,500 clubs, and

• Dedicated to excellence in communication and leadership

• Most Toastmasters clubs meet weekly for 1-2 hours, and follow a pretty basic agenda:

• Prepared speeches – Members are given opportunities to prepare, rehearse, and then deliver presentations in front of their fellow members.

• Speech evaluations – Whenever you speak in Toastmasters, you receive helpful and supportive evaluations from your peers.

• Impromptu speaking – Members practice speaking “off the cuff” for one or two minutes by responding to general topics of interest (table topics).

About Mysore Area Toastmasters: 

Toastmasters is split into Regions, Districts, Divisions and Areas based on the geographical locations and number of clubs. India has 4 Toastmasters Districts, District 41 (Northern India), District 82 (Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka), District 92 (Kerala and Karnataka) and District 98 (Central India). In District 92, there are 9 Divisions A to I. Mangalore and Mysore together forms Division F. Mysore is Area F4 in Toastmasters International. So, that's the hierarchy.

Mysore Area (F4) has 6 clubs:

Community Clubs:

1. Mysore Toastmasters Club

And 5 Corporate Clubs (Only the people of the corporate can join as a member)

1. Oratorium Infosys Toastmasters Club

2. L & T Impact Toastmasters Club

3. Leaders' Garden Toastmasters Club, SPI.

4. SDMIMD Toastmasters Club

5. Myra Toastmasters Club

Although, only the corporate individuals are allowed to join the club as a member, any member of any club can walk-in to other clubs as a guest.

From the Diary of a Toastmaster – “Man & Machine” - TM Ugene Jude, Leader's Garden Toastmasters

"..for I couldn't harness my awe and fell into a guffawing spree, just at the wrong place with absurd timing”.

Toastmaster Scarlett always had this conflict of interest between her body and her emotions often. She always thought of the imbalance created within the most complex single autonomous machinery in the world – human body. She used to wonder why she fell asleep just when she thought the tragic incident is going to deprive her of sleep for days. She wondered why she felt hungry just hours after her German boy-friend dumped her when she thought it's going to remain heavy in her stomach for long. With much more instances lining up her experience sleeve, she concluded – we are not Master enough to saddle our own body. Do all the possible mess you can with your mind and your senses, it just doesn't matter, when you body wakes up and points a gun at you, surrender is the wisest and only possible option.

That's exactly what happens when you speak of something only prepared and not understood. Your mind, focus and all your sensory pals are zoomed in on the words while your body is experiencing something not familiar and out-of-sync. It trembles at those momentary pauses you take when you have no idea what to speak next. Well, the whole program of you standing out there looks much weirder now.  Your physical form which is supposed to help you with the gestures and postures part is now on its way to crash and now in addition to exploring words in your mind you have more things to handle now – your shaky feet, the what-to-do-with-these hands, the hard-to-look-at-you-folks eyes and an overall stiff stance.

Ever tried to sing your favorite song motionless? How hard is it? It's that weird musical waves and eye-lid movements you make that makes your song a much better experience to the listeners. So the key is, make your speech your favorite. Love what you've prepared and orchestrate it. Take for granted the fact that you got a stage and a decent crowd to listen to you. Roll it.

“..so, had a dusky evening tinted with Easter lights by the Tiber. My friend for a fortnight Nicoleta sang this beautiful song then. It haunted me of my long trip ahead but she graciously swayed to the song and I could feel her movements carrying me away.

                        Who can say where the road goes?Where the day flows?

                        Only time

                        And who can say if your love grows, As your heart chose?

                        Only time

                        Who can say why your heart sighs, As your love flies?

                        Only time.....................”

From the Diary of a Toastmaster – “Sorry, No” - TM Ugene Jude, Leader's Garden Toastmasters

“I should have written this on the first pages. But then I had better things to write than introducing me. It's my diary and I didn't want to explain the obvious. Now, I feel I must do it as my days are getting more interesting and I want it totally to my credit.

I'm Scarlett and I'm on this mammoth venture of spending out my heir-ed fortune on what I love the most. Traveling and Toastmastering. The two T's that never had a toll on me no matter how much I get engulfed in them. Raised in New York, I'm not closed with policies that prevent me from getting close with people and I love. I've been researching on cultural ethics, languages and acceptance perception of folks around the globe and hence by default I love Russell Peter quips. I speak 6 languages including my favorite marmalade like Spanish and the drizzle like French and is still amazed and eager to hear people interact in English as it is the only linguistic experience that tie you with no rules, gives you space to explore and invent and most likely to survive an apocalypse. I'm now on a time travel; of course, it's not all about different places, but about being there at different times during which one or many things might have changed, but with a purpose – a ToastMaster purpose. So there isn't going to be how I met my fiance scribbled somewhere in the next pages. It's not uselessly personal. It's...”

That's enough and more of a direct excerpt from our dear ToastMaster's diary. It is mind-anchoring, but you don't get to read as she has written it because I have the only copy and you'll have to follow me on what I inferred from it. Dibs.

It was 4 PM on a Saturday in the freezing January of 2010 that she had her first and only Parisian ToastMaster's with Tour Haut-parleurs on a green patch just yards from the Eiffel Tower. By this time she was used to being part of outdoor sessions – from right out in the day under the shades of their own sun hats to wrapped in elaborate sweaters in a black-and-white snowy day – quite uncommon in New York. All of Tour Haut-parleurs were below 40 clearly depicting a growing heed to English among the newer generations.

A good looking guy with a bold chin and stubbly face gave a speech there which taught her something that was since an add-on to her personality. He titled his talk “Sorry, No” and literally focused on the art of saying No. Ever come across a Jim Carrey movie(don't raise your hand it's neither The Mask nor Bruce Almighty) named Yes Man? Well, it's related, is all about Yes or No and like in the previous article I made a movie reference. Back to the point, in this hectic, scheduled world of the present, we deal more with colleagues, co-members, co-enthusiasts and co-operations than with friends, fiancées, and families and it has become increasingly significant to learn to say “No”. If you really want to impress someone whatever it might cost you, even your conscience, then “Yes” is always your word. But remember we are wired to question something than to answer to a question – talent by birth in a way. So most of the questions you face from your bosses and co-s are designed to pull out a Yes from you. The apt response 90% of the time to such requests or questions is a No and you surprise them with a Yes much to their relief. It's a valuable life lesson in a passive way unless you need Livingston the Seagull or the Alchemist to assert it to a higher degree.

Not to be understood as something coaxing to make you say No always, this targets on opening that blinds between you and a question which actually deserves a No. It's plenty that you'll have to face counter-productive, doubting, verifying, correcting responses from your listeners when you speak. Just like we blame the mother for the misdeeds of her kid, when you speak, the listeners and their reactions will not be judged and you alone will be. So, assess, give a sharp or relaxed No with clemency. Be a speaker of forbearance and absorb into you that anything between the start and end of a speech in no means can offend you, it's just about the speech.

A quote by Margaret Thatcher said, “If you want something to be said, give it to a man. If you want something to be done, give it to a woman.” Gender discrimination apart, say “Yes” when you want to, say “No” when you are supposed to.

From the Diary of a Toastmaster - TM Ujene Jude, Leader's Garden Toastmasters

Crisp, canny and catchy - well French fries are not the thing of focus. It's much bigger and intangible - Communication. From the rather candid description of communication in Wikipedia, the word literally means 'to share' in its parental language. Numerous other definitions from old school textbooks to wikis and web pages spamming the internet explains it as "a two-way process..."," the method of conveying..." and making it more complex "a channel of information exchange.." and what not.

From the vast complicating sub arrays of what communication is, let us settle with considering it as a verbal interaction or a chat between two sensible life forms which can think(that's what our species is right?)

The intention to broadly reproduce points on communication is almost zero and will very clearly be not welcomed. Then the option is to use the 'biographical' tactic which popular folks with good writing skills do - express their wildest imagination, their wackiest fantasies, their much-desired outcomes from events which actually dropped a hole in them as real time did-happen ed’s in their so-called autobiography. Following are few tips, in fact proved to be 'pointed' tips on relatively better way to speak (communication has now converged and shrunk to speaking) extracted from the long-lost(later found) diary of a Toastmaster who once decided to achieve this streak of attending a thousand different TM clubs traveling from Seattle to Auckland; of course through India. She coveted to see to the varying mix of listeners she would see and what imminent change that will bring to her way of vocabulating. To those who really love to ask questions let's assume all her TM sessions were in English and all those Chinese, European and African club members also knew English.(Got a question why we are not referring to Braille, sign language and other modes of communication? Just assume everything lives and breathes English)

Dreams are fast. Amazed to know that the dream that you had last night on dropping out of office with your gorgeous looking colleague, making it to a movie, topping it with a dinner and ending with that cute peck on your cheek was actually just crossing 50 seconds? Well your prepared speech can end much faster. Going in with a checklist of points to speak and devouring them within seconds will make you a feast for the hungry Ah-counter. It's a safe and efficient solution to wrap your honored points with witty intros, crafty endings, and interesting countenances. Your short list of points are now a full blown balloon. With one bread you are feeding many - a charlatan of words. It is always daring and creative to add these additional wrappers on the fly as it gets you accustomed to moderately risky situations and vacuum up those words deeply buried inside you. The best place to face such risk, make mistakes and still feel convivial undoubtedly is your Toastmasters' dais.

Well begun is half done. Are you the bloke of the 21st century who is still driven by this medieval old theory of negativity? A Toastmaster is never the one who falls back after a seemingly bad start believing one-half is already down the drain. Like the famous comparison goes, the battleground is for those who get back on their feet shaking off a fall. ToastMasters are professional listeners and have all ears on you and is not a gory battleground but a symphony where you, the vocalist, climbs the peak of those melodious notes gradually and winds up the performance with an ovation. If words are just not enough and you always need a Spiderman movie to believe spider webs are sticky, crash on your couch with some popcorn, a classy brain, and 'The King's Speech'. You all begin your speeches far better.

Few of every callow Toastmasters new to the arena have their yet to be disclosed primary fear, a savaging one - The first red carpet walk from their seats to the dais. There are expectations in abundance from our clique to pilot them through that red patch, which still demands a stir from the bloke. If you seriously think you are a tamed lion while there are wild, smart ones, those who dance, those who juggle around you, in the name of those who made it across the speech barrier, it doesn't really matter when we are facing the cross hairs of a nasty hunter. Pick yourself up, face those who walk around you daily and speak. It is the Next Big Thing in your life, only after you've done with it.

A Toast always rises above the head and a Master gains control over the least expected. What Stops You?

Importance of Developing Leadership Skills in the Workplace

What makes a good leader? The answer varies widely depending on who you ask, with researchers disagreeing on the critical components that go into the most effective corporate chief. But there are traits they do agree on, including personality components and acquired skills. Some believe even the situation for leadership itself has a bearing on the effectiveness of the leader.

Important Leadership Skills

Commitment, resolve and perseverance – driving every aspect of the organization toward a singular unified purpose.

Risk-taking – breaking conventions and developing new ideas to establish dominance and possibly even creating a uniqueness.

Planning – though a leader typically doesn’t get too involved in the details, he or she must achieve a high-level plan that drives everyone toward the unified goal.

Motivating – an effective leader must be able to encourage contributions from the entire organization, navigating the specific motivators of each individual or group to push the right buttons and inspire employees at every level to achieve not only their personal best but the best for the organization as a whole.

Communication skills that rely on active listening – far more than just being able to speak and write convincingly, leadership communication skills incite others to work toward the stated goal in line with the path the leader has chosen.

Possessing or obtaining the skills required to successfully achieve business goals – bringing a unique knowledge set to the table or acquiring it personally or through employees and other subordinates.

What Makes These Individual Skills So Important?

First, a distinction needs to be made: the difference between a leader and a manager. A leader is someone who does the right thing, whereas a manager does things right. Or to put it another way, management is an occupation, leadership is a calling.

As addressed in the list above, this calling demands a unique vision for success and the tools necessary to communicate and implement that vision. The leader must possess a set of clearly-defined qualities and the daring and skill to translate their vision into a reality. This is why many people believe, as seen in What Motivates True Leaders, that the most successful development of leadership skills takes place when the leader is geared toward the development of individuals or social constructs.