What Do You Want?

Last week, I gave a presentation from The Leadership Excellence series for our Spring club open house. The Leadership Excellence series was developed by Toastmasters International as strength-training for building leadership and public speaking skills to take with you outside of the club meeting. Each speech is 10 - 15 minutes and there are 11 formats to choose from. During the presentation, I mentioned several kinds of goals you can achieve in Toastmasters and that I would list them here on the blog.

I developed my version of the presentation after having collaborated with the VP of Membership on programming ideas for the Open House. Our club has grown so much in the past few months and, conscious of the effort towards the previous Open House, I aimed to be strategic with the time dedicated.

"What Will You Achieve in the Next 6 Months in Toastmasters?" (thanks for that title, Isaac) was inspired by goal setting and planning format and an opportunity to appeal to both current and prospective new members.

These goals have been replicated and achieved. There is structure. There is built-in support to achieving these goals. Take your favorite, achieve it, and pass it on. Or take your favorite, and for today, write it down and post it on your phone desktop, on your wall (Facebook, office, home, etc.), on your calendar or wherever it will motivate you.

*Make your goal SMART and make it yours.

Tom Colicchio, professional chef, said this about the flow of restaurant cooking, "Working in restaurants you’re doing a certain kind of cooking and it’s more technical and it’s more about figuring out how to create a dish that you can put into a system, which you can replicate over and over again." For me, I walked away with the reason and focus for goal - setting and planning. Can you make accomplish what you want in 6 months without goal - setting and planning? I'm not sure. Is it likely? I'm not sure, either, but I would wager my willpower on the latter being no.

Did you get to attend the Open House and want to share the goal you put together during the presentation, or are a Toastmaster with a new goal for the spring? Please share with us what you would like to get out of Toastmasters in the next 6 months in the comments below. Are you not sure what Toastmasters can offer you in the next 6 months and want to ask? Let us know in the comments below or stop by our next Meetup.

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