Archive for March, 2009

Advanced Communication Specialties

Author: rebecca

Mar 30

Now that I’ve finished my Competent Communicator (CC), I’m enthused to get on to the specialization manuals… but what to choose? I feel like Carrie Bradshaw, trying to select between numrous fabulous pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes. 2 manuals come free, and with the rest at $4.00 a each, I am tempted to just acquire them all.

  • The Entertaining Speaker
  • Speaking to Inform
  • Public Relations
  • Specialty Speeches
  • Speeches by Management
  • The Professional Speaker
  • Technical Presentations
  • Persuasive Speaking
  • Communicating on Television
  • Storytelling
  • Interpretive Reading
  • Interpersonal Communication
  • Special Occasion Speeches
  • Humorously Speaking

On second thought, perhaps I will just order the ones that I’d have the most fun with. Although I have found Toastmasters to be extremely beneficial in terms of professional development, my original reason for joining was for professional entertainment!

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Inspire Your Audience

Author: rebecca

Mar 23

My mission for today: Inspire My Audience. My final (and 10th) speech in the Toastmasters CC (Competent Communicator) manual has the purpose of inspiring my audience.

My objectives:

  • Appeal to noble motives and challenge the audience tp achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievement
  • Appeal to the audience’s needs and emotions, and use stories, anecdotes and quotes to add drama
  • Avoid using notes, since they may cause the audience tp doubt your sincerity and conviction

One important lesson that I’ve learned in the past is that my topics are best selected if they have a personal nature. Hence, what better way to inspire my audience than with my new yes challenge! (And, as an afterward: I believe it was delivered fairly well, although my ending was a bit weak.) 10th speech completed :)

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Toastmasters Goals

Author: rebecca

Mar 16

With one speech left to do to finish my CC (Competent Communicator) manual – and I’ll be presenting this speech next week, I’ve going to start focusing on my CL (Competent Leadership) manual. Completing 10 speeches in a year for my CC was fairly easy, but the CL designation is going to be quite a challenge. There are a great deal of projects – some I want to do, some I have no interest in doing, and others that I downright loathe the idea of doing, simply because they look rather time consuming. Being a PM, I recognize that some projects just may take longer than the original scope given to them, and that sometimes the plan just needs to be adjusted a bit and communicated effectively to the client. In this world, both the plan maker and the client is myself :)

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On Becoming a “Yes” Person

Author: rebecca

Mar 9

I need to become more of a “yes” person! When I found out that today’s Toastmasters meeting would be a speech-a-thon and I had not volunteered to participate, my initial thought was that I’d just skip the meeting altogether and save myself 2 hours. However, when the call went out for volunteer evaluators, I decided to step up to the plate and say “yes”. Mind you, I will not be the Jim Carey in Yes Man and arbitrarily agree to anything for the sake of saying “yes”, but I am going to step up to the plate more when I can.

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An Attitude Readjustment

Author: rebecca

Mar 2

I need an attitude readjustment! Having found myself experiencing some lethargy towards the time involved in preparing and attending meetings, I found my enthusiasm waning towards a fantastic group of people who’s company I enjoy and value. I realize that I have become impatient as opposed to mindful, somewhat resentful as opposed to enthusiastic. These are not the sort of emotions which I care to embody. I think I need to “re-inject” my enthusiasm into the group; I need to simply learn how (once again) to enjoy the meetings for what they are, and to perform whatever role which I am assigned to 100%, rather than plodding through acceptably, with some lethargy. In other words, my club deserves my full participation and effort!

Today, I am the “Ah Counter” – my role is to count “ums and ahs” and all of those pesky little filler words that sneak their way into our conversations (but, and, etc.), and to report on it with the intent of helping others become more mindful in their speaking.

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Filed under: Miscellaneous