Toastmasters International is a non-profit organisation founded by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley on October 22, 1924 in Santa Ana, California, USA. The objective was to train members to be better communicators and leaders through a self-paced programme. Members learn communication and leadership skills through peers’ feedback to attain the communication and leadership competencies.
From one club, it spread to Anaheim, Chicago, Canada, England, Asia and now Toastmasters members are present in 141 countries.
I joined a local Toastmasters Club in Kuching, on September 4, 1990 to improve my business presentation skills. My work then required me to do a lot of business presentations before an audience. Members of the audience came from different cultural backgrounds.
It was necessary to master the presentation skill as my business presentation success rate was less than 40% in the early 1990s. After a few months of learning and training, my business presentation success rate improved to 80%.
In addition to communication, public speaking, and leadership skills, I have enjoyed quite a few unexpected and amazing benefits. Following are my top three benefits:
CONFIDENCE
Speaking in Toastmasters Clubs provides new challenges and plenty of opportunities to be proud of your accomplishments. The more you develop your skills and talents, the more confidence you have in yourself !
Self-confidence builds trust in others. People want to listen to someone who is confident in what he has to say and how he says it.
FRIENDSHIP
Toastmasters provides a friendly environment where people are genuinely interested in helping each other. Toastmasters works because the members provide positive feedback and are supportive of one another, with every member playing a role in other members’ growth and success.
Join Toastmasters and you’ll find you’ve become friends with people you won’t know otherwise. You get to know members and they get to know you as you learn to appreciate and encourage the best in everyone you meet.
I have many friends in Toastmasters worldwide, people I spend time with outside the club that I consider true friends. Thus, when I travel overseas, I always enjoy the camaraderie of Toastmasters. We exchange ideas and seek always to move to the next level of communication and leadership.
ENCOURAGEMENT
Every Toastmaster receives heaps of encouragement and the best part is you are encouraged to be your best self. Every Toastmaster has inherent talents and a wonderfully unique perspective to share. Toastmasters is all about encouraging yourself and others to be as awesome as you can be.
As a Toastmaster, you share specific, positive, and constructive feedback and by doing so, invest in your fellow members’ success as much as your own. You celebrate the victory of every member’s accomplishments.
I have especially enjoyed helping my fellow members develop by encouraging them in their progress in the Toastmasters programme. It’s a wonderful experience to be part of something bigger than myself and watch my fellow Toastmasters grow!
I’m grateful for the confidence, friendship and encouragement that come with being a Toastmaster. In addition to these great benefits, there are many other awesome skills I’ve gained in Toastmasters such as:
• becoming a more effective communicator
• improving my grammar and vocabulary
• exercising time management skills
• being a great listener
• learning to give specific, positive, and helpful feedback
• speaking to inspire
• speaking to entertain
• speaking to inform (without being boring!)
• successful business presentations
• responding intelligently to impromptu questions
• leading meetings with authority and assurance
• being heard and understood when I speak
• leading by example
Due to members’ changing needs and corporate organisations employing competent staff. Toastmasters International has launched a competency based training programme to replace the current educational programme.
Under Pathway, the new competency based programme, a member can pick up 50 specific job related competencies. These job related competencies will enable the member to be employed competitively in the job markets.
The first Toastmasters Club was chartered in 1978 in Kuala Lumpur. Now Malaysia has more than 450 active clubs. Due to the rapid growth of Toastmasters Clubs in this part of the world, the then Toastmasters District 51 comprising clubs from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Macau and Hong Kong has been reformed from one District to the current six Districts:- District 51 comprising clubs north of Kuala Lumpur, District 102 comprising clubs south of Kuala Lumpur, District 80 comprising clubs in Singapore, District 89 comprising clubs in Hong Kong and Macau, District 97 comprising slubs in Thailand and District 87 comprising clubs in Sabah. Sarawak, Brunei and Indonesia.
The then District 51 was a role model District for Toastmasters worldwide from 1998 to 2003, when the District was the Champion District in the world.
The District Governor was Datuk Adeline Leong from 1998 to 1999, Ibu Maimunah Natasha from Indonesia from 1999 to 2000, Christopher Teo of Singapore from 2000 to 2001, the late Lilian Lau of Singapore from 2001 to 2002 and John Lau from 2002 to 2003.
In August 2003, when we went on stage to receive the prestigious award of President’s Distinguished District award in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, from the then International President, Gavin Blakely from Australia, many members gathered around us wanting to take pictures with our team. Everyone wanted to know how we maintained our growth, inspired and encouraged our members to sharpen their communication and leadership skills.
They wanted to know how we promoted Toastmasters benefits to our friends. Our team was treated like gold.
Toastmasters is still growing in Malaysia because every Malaysian wants to master the English language. It is our hope that in 30 years’ time. Malaysia will have 2,000 Toastmasters Clubs grooming members to have better communication and leadership skills.
This article is contributed by Datuk John Lau, a Past International President of Toastmasters International.
