I noticed that some people have been clicking on the web site of the Australian Toastmasters Champion, Darren Fleming, who recently commented here on my blog. Well, he has his own blog called the Executive Speaking Weblog. If you guys are interested in further refining your public speaking skills, I think this is a good place to look for continual updates.
For example, here’s a particularly interesting article on persuasive speaking. While I doubt that our class will be as unwilling to listen to your viewpoints as a 2-year-old is unwilling to take her medicine, I think it does merit the point that there is generally a “doubting Thomas” in the crowd who needs some extra convincing (or sometimes just someone who wants to impress the rest of the audience by taking the spotlight from the speaker and trying to get one over on the speaker to show how smart he or she is). Sometimes that is just an unavoidable part of public speaking, but adept speakers can turn them around and use them for their benefit.
One of the topics that we’ll be talking about next week in class is what your next step will be to utilize the skills you’ve (hopefully) learned in class in other situations. I think that good communication and the ability to speak in front of others can help us in many situations, from job interviews to business presentations to training events. One of the places I would consider looking into would be one of the many Toastmasters organizations in the area. You might want to check with your employers, because some of the larger companies have their own speaking clubs that have been organized by employees (Lilly, Raytheon, BMG, Rolls Royce, Roche are some of those).
I don’t belong to Toastmasters, so I’m not getting a referral fee from them or anything, but they are internationally recognized as a great organization, and I think if you’re interested in furthering your education in public speaking, Toastmasters would be a great place to do so.
