Ever since I did my VCDX I have seen the value of public speaking and the power of having good soft skills.
As many people reading this will be working in the IT area, we spend most of our days in front of a computer screen and the IT world seems to attract its fair share of introverts.
Now what I have learnt is that you can have all the ace technical skills in the world, but if you are unable to communicate all this info in a effective way you leave yourself at a massive disadvantage!
See the VCDX submission is your technical documentation and it gets you to the dance, but the presentation and workshop skills are what get you over the finishing line.
Throughout the mocking process I came to realise that my presentation skills needed some serious up-skilling and I manage to get them in order in time for defence day.
Now I have decided to get my soft skills in better shape, as I sense that for my career to go to the next level I am going to need them to be in top form!
This is one of the reasons I decided to join Toastmasters. Now if you haven’t heard of Toastmasters I seriously recommend you check them out!
Public speaking is scary for most people, even seasoned veterans get nervous before they do any public speaking engagements. As with many things in life…growth happens out side of your comfort zone!
Now Toastmasters run meetings every fortnight and they allow you to attend and check out how things are run and done. They understand that public speaking is daunting, esp for people who are scared of down to their bones. You will see people present who you would think were born to do it, but when you hear their stories you actually realise that some of them could barely talk in public before and it is a skill like any other and it can be honed!
Now Toastmasters has had a recent overhaul and now you have multiple different tracks to choose from (they are called pathways), all share commonalities but then they have other aspects aligned to that track.
https://www.toastmasters.org/pathways-overview
I had a look through all the pathways and as I was looking at them I thought what was the reason I got into this, and then it occurred to me that I got into it to get good at presenting.
So I decided to go with the Presentation Mastery
Hey if I can become a master at it…..why not!
You pay a one of membership joining feed and then pay a monthly fee to remain a member.
Toastmasters has a thing called Table Topics, where you have to talk for 1 to 2 mins on a topic that you have no idea about till the time comes to do the talk! I find it really interesting and you have to think on the fly!
https://www.toastmasters.org/membership/club-meeting-roles/table-topics-speaker
The first main presentation of any of the Toastmasters pathways is the Ice Breaker. This is where you spend 4-6 mins telling everyone about who you are and what makes you tick!
So I managed to get my Ice Breaker recorded, so if you have ever wondered what makes me tick….now you can find out!
Toastmasters: Ice Breaker – The Inner Workings of Bilal Ahmed
If you’ve ever met me or seen me chatting on twitter, you will know exactly what I will be talking about already!
I have to say the level of support and constructive feedback you get…….. is immense, and I cant see any downside to joining toastmasters based on my experience with this Leeds Central group! I realised and the evaluation watching me picked up on some key things that I can implement in my next presentation!
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