Why Bucket List - Persuasive Speech Toastmaster Old Path CC#9.

 I delivered my CC#9 after a long time in InSteel Toastmasters club, Jamshedpur. 

And Voila - it was club level best speech! 

I too, enjoyed the speech writing and delivery. 

Purely a labor of love! 

It's quiet a while that I haven't yet posted on the blog. 

I certainly worked hard on this speech, applied Manroe's persuasive formula, practiced lot and I could see that it had impact on audience whatever was expected. 

So here are the details of the speech in Google Document. 

Please feel free to use the format and revert in case of any clarifications. 

Check Below Hyperlink for All Speech Details. It has everything structure, logic, references etc.

CC#9 - Santosh Toastmaster Speech 

Speech Delivered: Sept-2016

Speech Title: Wanna Fun, List Your Life! 

Objective: 

1. Persuade listener to adopt your point of viewpoint or ideas to take some action.
2. Appeal to Audience interest
3. Use logic and emotion to support your position
4. Avoid using notes

I will post CC#10 soon. 

There too I practiced lot, but it was fiasco! 

10 ways to contribute in a (Virtual) Book club!

3 Minute Quick Read.

Few toastmasters have come together and formed a small book club “Books for Self-learning. Its a virtual book club. Generally, we talk and post about non-fiction books. But what is true about most of the online or virtual community applies here too. Few members contribute posts or interact (what experts call producers) and others are spectators (consumers). For a thriving, and learning community members should contribute more and more. Here are 10 ways anyone can contribute to the virtual community.  

1. Post photo/image/Amazon or Goodreads link of your current reading. This can be done weekly or monthly.
2. Post book-review, summaries, or comments on the completed reading. Or just link from your blog/linked-in/Facebook etc.   
3. Post simply a quote, paragraph, graph or something that appealed to you from the book.
4. Post interesting stories/articles about authors, books, and publishers.
5. Post Cartoons, humorous jokes, events about books, authors in news.
6. Post lists in news. For instance Bill-Gates summer book list, Obama’s reading list, or Shashi Tharoor’s.
7. Post a question/request about something in the group. That will trigger discussion.
8. Post about book-related events in the group. Like BDB Bookclub, or Jaguar-naut online lit-fest.
9. Post about author events, or book-day, library-day or any other events related to books.
10. Post about your writings. If you are writing or planning to write a book, blog, or article, share it in the group. That will inspire others to write.
11. (Bonus tip) Post opinion poll, survey, or quiz on books, member's habits/views or attitudes. 

So what are you posting today? Post and continue Posting in future too! 

[ Image Source: https://www.pexels.c om/photo/gray-mug-on-top-of-piled-books-3150547/  ]

Learning's from Japan!

This is my Project-8 or CC#8 of competent communicator manual in toastmasters.
(Though this is posted on blog on 27-Sept-2016, I delivered it in club on 30th-Mar-2013).

Project 8 is about getting comfortable with visual aids.

It's objectives are:

• Select visual aids that are appropriate for your message and the audience.
• Use visual aids correctly with ease and confidence. 

I leveraged on my stay in Japan, used "before-after" images to demonstrate it's "resilience" & articulated possible reasons of  resiliency. I used power-point slides  as visual aids.


Speech content is

Toast-masters Konnichiwa.

Konnichiwa is Hello or good day in Japanese.

After spending close to 8 years in Japan, a frequently asked Question is what’s learning for us – Indians!  I kept on thinking on this and came to conclusion that the Resilience is what we should learn from Japan.

Resilience is ability to find inner strength to bounce back from a set-back or challenge.

More resilient you are, faster you will bounce back.

Let’s understand This.  Japan is country prone to natural disasters. Earthquakes, Tsunami, & Typhoons – you name it and they have it.

For example this 11-th March 2011, Tsunami triggered by 9.0 Richter scale EQ.  This is third largest EQ every happened in this century.

It triggered Tsunami of 133 ft. high, and almost 30 ft. high waves hit the shores.

Disaster was telecasted almost all over the world. The damage was exorbitant.

This is just nothing. But Hiroshima-Nagasaki Bombings were worst!

When that “Little Boy” hit Hiroshima – The city was literary wiped off!

This is image of before and after the bombing.  Absolutely everything was wiped off.

Scientists said the radiation was so bad, that nothing will grow for 100 years there.

Damage to country and psyche of people was so bad, that they said, “Japan will never stand up again”.

But they were wrong!

This is Hiroshima today, the bustling city.

This garden that you see is just walk-away from the centre – where Bomb was dropped. See the greenery today.

One may claim that it is miracle; it is if it is happening only in Hiroshima.

But it works every-where in Japan.

Look at this, these images of Tsunami places – just one year after.

Look at this – not only roads, but even business are also functional.

Think – how the place will be after 40 or 50 years!

That’s Resilience – You bounce back from ashes!

This resilience is all about citizens and communities.

Citizens and communities are nothing but the Culture!!

What’s the culture of Japan, that’s making this possible!

Culture is really a complex thing to study & has long list of areas to think.
But let’s consider only 3 of them due to paucity of time.
First is Punctuality.
Can you see this man; he is actually setting his wrist-watch based on the train-timing.  Imagine this in India!
Here is 1920 poster that shows how much time each of this hair-style takes; within that time how long will you reach by train! It’s in 1920.Here is a late pass, which they issue to passenger in case the train is late by few minutes. You can hand-over this in your office and then office won’t mark you late! It is said that all such small efforts really counts and national inventory of Japan has dropped. That means to secure a critical item in Japan you need to plan only for 3 hours, this period is 3 months for India. !
2^nd is Discipline. It’s phenomenal in Japan. See this first image, its train station in Tokyo. Compare to any station that you know. And you see that Yellow line – It is textured line – so that even blind person can catch the train without any assistance. See those Station-Masters are struggling to close the crowded train and others are calmly waiting.  Here is another image of escalator. Can you see only one side is occupied neatly. Another side is kept vacant – so that someone who is in rush can run along. The real acid test of discipline comes when disaster strikes. See these both images are taken just during 11-Mar Tsunami incident. See how disciplined citizens are. There is absolutely no Chaos. I have an incident to share. It was pretty late night, I was returning from office. There was hardly anyone on the road, not even cars. A very drunken man was coming towards me. And it was still some distance, and he suddenly stopped. I could not understand what happened. I was still walking. And then I realized he stopped for road signal. That’s the discipline – it is ingrained in their blood.
Lastly it is cleanliness.
See this road; this is near to station towards school. It’s absolutely clean. I used to make a fun – by saying that their Public Toilets are cleaner than our kitchens.  See this inside of train. And the dust-bins – separate for burnable/unburnable/kitchen waste etc. You may feel this is inside premises and hence clean. See this. Cleaning products is multibillion $ industry in Japan. 600+ antibacterial products. They have some crazy things like touch less toilets, or virgin money. I will suggest checking this more on internet.
But what I feel that these three things punctuality, discipline and cleanliness will not make any country only a resilient but also a best place to live – what do you think?
It is not wonder that this great patriotic saint Vivekananda found this in his brief visit to Japan. He said this in 1897 in his interview to Hindu, that “I would wish that every one of our young men could visit Japan once at least in his lifetime”.So Toastmasters – when are you visiting to Japan?  Over to MOC. 

Disclaimer: Figures, images etc. are taken from online resources purely for learning purpose only. 

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Importance of re-writing speeches

Speech re-writing is very important condition for successful speech.

Toastmasters Competent communicator manual also emphasizes the drafting of the speech.


Andrew Dlugun ,a famous toast-master also emphasized this point in his multiple blog posts on speech writing.

Inspiring and motivating speaker , A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, who won the hearts of millions of Indians by his visionary speeches had following comments in his recent publication Turning Points.  This also underlines the importance of draft versions of one's final speech. (Emphasis added)

... Preparation for the speech normally began well in advance. We would generate a theme, then would seek information from multiple departments and also try and get the international picture on the subject.  We would send a questionnaire to experts. Then we would collate the information. The speech would go into numerous drafts. It was not unusual for there to be ten or more drafts. The R-Day speech in 2004 ,for instance, had its theme on smiles on billion faces and went through ten drafts. The focus was on values. On 14th August 2005, the theme was energy independence. The speech went through fifteen drafts. One of the highest number of drafts was, of course, for my speech to the European Parliament on 25 April 2007. This went through thirty-one drafts.

No wonder that Kalam's speeches enjoys not only popularity but also coveted place in the heart of Indians. This really makes one to think on the efforts that we are investing in our own speeches.

Reference:
 1) Image : Wikimedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AbdulKalam.JPG
 2) Quotes : Turning Points, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam , 2012, Harper Collins, page 45, 

How to sale yourself ?

The following speech I made for my toastmasters project-7.  Project was targeted at research skills and using the relevant data to drive , convince audience about your point of view.

Objectives of Project as mentioned in the toastmasters manual are :

• Collect information about your topic from numerous sources.
• Carefully support your points and opinions with specific facts, examples, and illustrations gathered through research. 

As I was working on use of Social media for personal branding for newcomers at my b-school. I decided to use the same subject for the research. And here is my speech.

Toast Masters good evening. 

So let’s talk how to sale  oneself in the market. 

Confused? Oh sorry, I am not talking about Slavery of 18-th century, but about the Job-market.  

This talk is about Personal branding.  Personal branding is all about standing out in the crowded, tough and difficult job market. It’s all about placing yourself in the better bargaining position. 

We know corporate brands like Apple, and we have product brands like i-phone, similarly there are personal brands. For example look at Amir Khan. (Talk on grape vine says he received  3 Cr/episode of Satyamev Jayate). See how carefully he had nurtured his persona, image and how he is cashing on it – in the job market of celebrities.  What you see there is Personal branding at work. 

But it’s not only celebrities; anyone can use personal branding.   Today’s talk is about two aspects of the personal branding.  One is why you need it and second how to use social media in promoting yourself. 

Even in the booming Indian growth story, Job market is really tough. Given our 1 Billion plus population, it is going to be that way always. One rough estimate says that for every job posted, sometime there will be as high as 45 applicants.  Naukari dot com, India’s most popular job site and 5^th most popular website has as high as 25 million users  (May be active/inactive) and another data points they have around 9 Million active users  and everyday 14,000 resumes are uploaded on Naukari.  Irrespective of the real figures, facts remains that Job Market is really crowded. 

You may think this is true for fresher’, but things are more difficult at top.  We have this typical pyramid structure in organizations. So as you go higher, number of job openings will reduce, further there will be more/tougher scrutiny of your profile.  One blog posting mentioned some top-notched firms’ rejects as high as 94% applications.  I know a friend of mine, a unit head – had taken a break and now searching for a job for almost one and half year. And he is no-where even near the selection process. 

Surely the picture is very challenging – as it is really difficult to even cross screening and reach the interview stage.But don’t be afraid, one way to increase your chances passing the screening process is Personal branding and using Social media. It’s all about self-image and self-promotion. 

For example FB – Face book has almost close to 47 Million users in India, 4% of total India’s population but 35% of total online population is on FB.  Another site Linked in has 13 Millions of Indians on line. It is 2^nd largest online popular site in India.  FB has more concentration of youngsters (18 to 24 group), but its sheer size compels your potential employer to look at your profile on FB.  That is not the case with Linked in – which is purely professional hang-out place.  Employers not only check your educational and workplace background. But use it judge your network, asses your references and understand feedback on you. 

So how do you really use them? 

First and most important thing is – use your good quality, professional head-shot as a profile picture. Not some funky avatar.  Research shows that visitors are more likely to dig at your profile if it has a photograph.  A step closer to your dream job. And if you want to leverage brand - use same photo on your FB, twitter, Google profile.  More face time is likely to lead them to hear you.  And get a call for Interview.

Leverage your strengths, by contributing to the groups, discussions. Follow the thinkers, leaders in your area of expertise. Join the professional groups/clubs.

If you are eying for a top job, you surely need expertise in the functional area and in your Industry. 

 The best way to showcase your expertise, your work, achievements and contributions in the area is to use Blog.  Well developed blog will have a good and importantly relevant readership. For instance you can show-case your communication skills by posting your Toastmaster achievements; you can keep writing about your strengths in presentation skills, you can keep writing, critic great presentations and public speeches of TED on your blog. And People will start recognizing you as a sincere follower in your area of expertise. They will follow you on twitter, connect with you on linked in and will be your friends on FB. This doesn’t happen over night.  It is the whole ecosystem that matters.  You need to keep working at it slowly, diligently.  Amir Khan hasn’t developed his brand in a day – nor can you do it.  

 So start at it early and Toastmasters you will reap the benefits of personal branding in the job Market.

Image Source :  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sale_Tags.jpg 

Disclaimer: The data or figures I have used in this speech is just figurative, though I have used online , web-based resources for collecting the figures, I have not verified the figures or claims. I simply used them to support the relevant parts of my speech.

How three year old can teach you something ?

The following is the speech I made for my 6-th Project in Toastmasters .

Project was targeted at "Vocal Variety". It wasn't easy to come up with the topic. I toyed with different ideas and then set on following one. I wrote the speech many times, by focusing on start and end. And then ensured that it is sprinkled with "Vocal variety".

Response , smiles, feedback and evaluation told me that I was successful at this project.

3 LESSONS LEARNED ON A NEW JOB.

Good Evening Toastmasters. I got a new job.

It's mission critical , demanding & 24X7 job. But ..it involves a girl. She hugs me, kisses me on cheek & also puts a big hole in my wallet. Yes – she is 3 year old & incidentally my daughter.

I got the job of father , when she was born in Feb-2008.

As I told you this is very demanding job.

I am early morning person & she sleeps very late.

When it is about 10:30 or 11:00 at night, I start pursuing her & she has excuses.

Papa , This pajama doesn't have Mickey mouse on it ? And no anpanman on shirt !

I grab her, Look it is 11:00, (she doesn't understand but still looks at clock), it is dark outside & Baikiman will come. I switch off light ,& put her on bed, and it is silent.....!

but just for 5 minutes !

And she tweets Papa, Chocolate Milk ! (Common sleep time habit in Indians).

I am bit irritated . I wake up , warm a cup of milk – add Complan and give it to her.

She touches her mouth ,sips some & turns away... . No I don't want …

Now I am angry – Drink it ! ,

She sips some ,slips some .Half in , Half out. Half the dress is wet . I am boiling with anger now, & even wish to hit her .

But I breath deeply, cool myself & keep telling myself – oh it is just my little ,cute devil.

I change her dress & again put her on bed by 12:00. And pat her to sleep.

Sleepy cutie, wraps her hands around my neck, & says – papa suki desu ne. (Papa I like you). And I learn my first lesson :

Be patient ,Control your anger & you will be happy with your loved ones at the end of the day.

But a natural doubt will be in your mind. What keeps this 3 year old awake.

It is her two friends – Tom & Jerry, some-times Mickey mouse too.

She watches them intently , with 100% focus, as if she is a statute.

Only sound you will listen : Ha ,Ha , Ha ….

I call her , Aarushi , come for dinner.

She says : I want here , with Tom & Jerry.

Mumma wants to see some TV serial , Aarushi replies with big No!

Please Aarushi , NO.. ,

Please Aarushi ,Again reply is No ,

Please – and you try to switch over ,And a big cry...

So now a days – I too watch Tom-n-Jerry. Believe me I actually enjoy it.

And we both keep laughing. And I learned my second lesson:

Change your hobby as your loved ones & you will have happy moments at the end of the day.

But you know as a adult , we make people around us unhappy. I also loose my temper.

And I know there is no point in arguing with 3 year old ,she is too smart.

So I turn to my wife.

Why can't you make her sleep by 10:30 at-least ?

And gender equality strikes back – But you can do it too !

I try to push my case – But you are Mother !.

What ! She bounces back – did I complained through out the 9 months..

Oh (sigh!) - Ultimate argument , which no man can ever win.

And I learned my third lesson:

If you want a happy life ,respect a motherhood and never argue. That’s lesson for Father.

Toastmasters – Once a girl was asked ,how old is your father. And she replied 5 year old.

Wrong ! No !! right. Person becomes a father – only when a child is born.

One has experience in a job ,only when one starts doing the job.

Toastmasters – that was bonus lesson , Thank you !

What is the most important sign of Yoga Practice ?

I have completed my fifth project in Toastmasters , half the road is covered to reach first mile-stone!, Feels good.

Fifth project is "Your Body speaks" ,it is about using body language to enhance the delivery of speech. I struggled for topic for this project & then realized that it is not the topic , but how one fills the details in the outline. Hence I choose the subject familiar to me, Yoga. I approached it from the misconceptions about yoga & emphasized that one of the most important aspects of yoga is being aware of "breathing" & Hence the title :

Breath in ,Breath out !

Toastmasters good evening ,

Have you heard of DOGA , D-O-G-A , DOGA is yoga for dogs !.

Is it surprising for you ? It was certainly for me !.

Like this – there are many misconceptions about yoga. Yoga is a sport ,It is a exercise ,work-out . Some says it is just a acrobatics – like standing on head ,or placing your toe on your shoulder , which requires rubber like body , bone-less flexibility !.

These all are misconceptions. It is not real yoga , then what is Yoga ?

General purpose of this talk is to inform you about yoga & specific purpose is to clarify what the real yoga means . I won't go in intricacies of philosophical & theological discussions. But in its simplest form, yoga is “Controlling the mind”.

For instance , you may want to focus on this speech , but get distracted by mail on mobile, phone or voice from next room. Or another example is you get angry with sight of some people, may be your Boss. You get irritated , agitated & gyrating with the idea to kill him !.

This all is originated in mind, a mad monkey like animal , always flickering, wondering & running in all directions.

Yoga is concern of this , how can it control this mad monkey !.

Lets see how it tries this. When you get angry , what is the first visible change ? Your breathing changes its pattern , it looses its balance !.

Lets understand this breathing connection with a example.

Suppose you have gone for trekking , it is hot simmering sunny day. In the scorching weather , you had to walk long, you are sweating , thirsty , your throat is dry ! And suddenly you see the vending machine. Oh what a relief !.

You take out your wallet , insert a 100 yen coin, buy a cold coke or lemon, feel its cool touch, wet your lips , & touch your mouth to it !.

What happened ? Next time observe it carefully , your eyes are closed , breath almost stopped , & mind is super-quiet & calm.

Yes that is the link – your mind & breath are closely connected. Breath is your door-way to your mind. When you loose focus , loose concentration or get angry : you loose your breathing balance.

Breath-n-mind is the greatest contribution of yoga .

Whether you are poor or rich, day-n-night, work or home ,your breath is always with you. If you get in touch with breath & you get in touch with your life.

Yoga teaches that , step-by-step, systematically , methodically & diligently it teaches to monitor your breath-in & breath-out.

Master your breath , master your mind & your destiny too.

Are you convinced now that one of most important element of yoga is breath-control. Dogs can not control breath , hence DOGA can not be yoga. Real yoga is not acrobatics, nor work-out is .

Yoga is beyond that . It is becoming aware of your breath-in & breath-out .

So toast masters - next time someone boasts of yoga , check if he is aware of breathing !!.

Best Place to work !

This fourth toast-master project is my most memorable one.

First I had already committed the date . Before due date, even after toiling with two three ideas , I was not ready with the speech. Then I decided to take a short-cut. I used my Organization Behavior assignment of book review Maverick. I reviewed "Maverick" - a story of turn around of Brazilian business. I rewritten my assignment to suit 6 minutes speech. At that time I followed all project-4 requirements. I could finalize the draft after 4 to 5 revisions in the Starbucks.

Now only one day was left for rehearsal. So I practiced from early morning, while having breakfast , along with commuting, & during lunch hour . Finally I practiced it mentally while going to venue in train, and I delivered my speech. In spite of Anxiety , delivery was confident, smooth and free flowing. Practice helps !. I could feel the "Positive feedback". Later evaluator also gave good feedback.

Surprisingly speech won the best prepared speech award for that day. For me it become memorable as comparatively with less preparation , it gave more rewarding results.

Here is the draft of speech.

Best Place to work!

Fellow toastmaster , which day you like more - Friday or Monday ?
If you are cheerful , happy , and excited on Monday morning ,than Friday evening - then you belong to the better work place.

And How is this workplace - all employees reach at dot 0900 , all wears starched ,spotless suits and shiny shoes. Your idea will change - Mine also got changed after reading this book Maverick . Purpose of this speech is to introduce you to this book and firm called SEMCO - S-E-M-C-O . The book is all about the change - Change for better workplace .

Change made by people ,for people and by people.

First is flexibility . Flexibility in everything . Flexibility in arriving , leaving , holidays , dress - literary about everything. For example - look at our Monday morning routine. We rush , run to catch subway . It is peak hour ,as usual crowded . People ,People ,every where people. I use Tozai-sen , So much crowded ,that there is special subway staff to push people and close doors. I always feel like overblown balloon, someday it is going to burst open !.

How great it will be if we can avoid this time and reach office - may be just 15 min. late ,for some 30 min late ?

Crowed is not the only thing - You may wish to spend morning for a dear one - with simmering ,steamy hot coffee , or you may wish to hold the soft , smooth hand of your two year innocent child and walk for Hoiku-en.

This is possible - only with one single ,easy and simple step. You should have flexibility in office time. Semco does that . All employees -not only white collar staff ,but blue collar workers too - can come to office as per their convenience.

Company does not bother as long as work is done. But this single ,simple and easy step balances their work-life beautifully. Semco is flexible not only in arrival time ,but also in everything . You can decide your parking space , color of your office, color of factory , your furniture. You can
decide job-rotations , holidays & training. The height of flexibility is employees can decide their salaries too. Yes - Salaries too.

Another thing is your manager , your boss. Unavoidable evil. isn't it ?
(Pause ! )

Many feel that boss is like a devil - who stands between you & your evaluation , You & your promotion too. He is the one who drives you and your ( low voice ) increments and bonus .

What if we can reverse this ? So instead manager rates you , you rate your manager. Semco does exactly that !. Instead boss hire employees , employee interviews and hires boss. Employee
decide - if their manager need to be promoted or not.

Do you think this all is odd, weird and strange . But this book with 36 chapters and 300 pages is full of such odd things.

Like ....
No Organization Chart , Semco doesnʼt need one.
No pyramidal or hierarchical structures with CEO at top ,then VP , then middle managers and then staff. Semco does not have any hierarchies .
And no designations for employees . Obvisouly Semco donʼt need HR department too.
So no HR ,No secretarial staff.

Sounds odd ,but note that firm is a huge success by any standards and any measures .

What is the secret of this success ?
It is collective decision making. It is not a mere Nemawashi - or simply consensus making . It is genuine collective decision making , true participative & democratic decision making.

Employees are not distant , disconnected ,abstract , faceless number. They are part & parcel of this Semco. They are spirit & soul . They are the force behind Semco Success.

Toastmasters now if you want to read this book ,my purpose is served .

Thank you very much.

Single Habit to Change your life !.

This is my third speech on the journey of Toastmasters . I gave this speech on 24-Dec-2009, taken almost two months since my Second speech. I took more time as I want to put this habit in practice and then preach about it. It proved fruitful , speech made a good impact earning me first in house "best speaker" recognition !

Toastmaster's third prepared speech project is "Get to the point". Objectives of this project are -

• Selecting speech topic with its general and specific purpose.
  
• Organize speech so as to achieve its best purpose.
  
• Ensure beginning ,body and conclusion reinforce the purpose.
  

This time too , I prepared speech just little above 5 minutes , so as to finish within 6 minutes.

Google and web resources helped me lot to gather the content for this speech , mainly Steve Pavlina , Zen habits blog.

Here is the draft of the speech.

A One Habit to Change Your Life.

How do you start your day ? Snooze alarm and go back to sleep ? or Jump out of bed and rush to catch overcrowded train ? If people are meant to pop out of bed , they would be sleeping in toaster , but we don’t . we sleep on bed .isn’t it ? Fellow Toastmasters , if this is the way you start your day , this speech is for you. In general this is to pursue you and specific purpose is to encourage you to wake up bit early. So lets see some of the benefits of early rising.

If you are rushing , jumping and popping out of bed , you are triggering your day with stress. Stress doesn’t go away . It builds through out the day . Stress is root cause of many modern day diseases like blood pressure, stroke including killer heart attack. You name a life-style disease ,stress will be related to it. Further stress drops your capacity to work. So the 8 hour work will take more time 10 hours , 12 hours , again you will work late ,go home late , sleep late and wake up late. So vicious cycle continues. Break the cycle ,just by waking up 10 minutes early. Just 10 minutes . There is one more health benefit. You will actually find the time for breakfast - first and most important meal of the day. It will not be quick and rush meal. In fact relaxed breakfast will balance your lunch and dinner too.

Other than healthy life, early rising has other benefits too - like easy commute . you can go to office bit early, and avoid morning rush hour. You will get a place to sit ,at least to stand properly. You can use this time for listening or reading something of your choice. Reaching office early ,before heavy work flow starts - helps to schedule priorities . You can focus on goals on daily basis. See how many times we crib about not having time for friend,family or helping fellow toastmaster ? or nurturing for our own hobby ? For example - I used to squeeze 45 minutes to one hour on my commute .I used to reach office early almost by one hour . And spend this time on study. It helped me to complete my MBA with good grades without any impact on office work. You too can work on your goals. Your boss ,colleagues and friends will be surprised with your productivity. That helps in advancing job and hobbies - and ultimately increased earning too ! so wake up early and get wealthy too.

Last but not least ,there are other benefits. Other than just being healthy and wealthy. You can witness the glory of nature in the morning hours. Have you ever seen how blackness of night fades out and blueness of sky creeps in ? Have you seen the brilliant changing colors of sky ? how about those warm rays wrapping around mount Fuji ? Early morning people are not rushing , cars are not polluting . visit some nearby garden or Koen to see the magic of nature in morning hours. This is the most serene ,calm and poise time of the day. No wonder that artists, mystics and saints thinks this is the best time for contemplation and mediation. The Experience is beyond the words. It is more than intelligence or genius. It is called wisdom, wisdom of life.

That is what Benjamin Franklin said - early to bed and early to rise ,makes man healthy ,wealthy and wise. Toastmasters it is new year time , time to make new resolutions .So make a resolution to wake up early and be healthy ,wealthy and wise.

Listening Skills - Golden touch for Communication in career !

This is my second step on Toastmaster journey . Additionally I have started participating in club activities (like word/thought of the day ,grammarian etc. ) proactively . I can immediately see the improvements , not only in my speech - but overall my look towards reading articles , blogs etc.

Toastmaster prepared speech second project is "Organize your speech". Objectives of this project are

• Select outline that will allow listeners to easily follow and understand your speech.
  
• Make your message clear with supporting material directly contributing to that message.
• Appropriate transitions when moving from one idea to another.
• Create strong opening and conclusion.
  

This time my speech is just little above 6 minutes and I had to keep an eye on time limit. I think to end comfortably ,I need to end it within 6 minutes while practicing itself.

Purpose of the topic is to improve my own listening skills as well as to understand more about listening skills. I think this is highly ignored ,but very important soft skill.

Again Six minutes blog was extremely helpful in drafting the speech and supporting material for the speech came from various books and Google search.

Here is the draft of speech.

Toastmasters - Find a Gold mine !

Are you able to hear me ? You and You ?
And are you listening too ... ?

Yes - There is world of difference in hearing and listening. One is just input and other is Intake. If you are not listening , you will not understood , worst is you might misunderstood . No wonder Turkish has a saying which says “If speaking is silver , listening is Gold !”.

And Fellow Toastmasters I am going to talk about this gold - Listening Skills. I will talk about three points ,One - importance of listening . Two - difficulty in listening . Three - overcoming the difficulty.

First about Importance. Listening is important . Listening was sole means of communication ,since when books were not available . Till today it is important.You listen to your Boss , subordinates and colleagues . You listen to your friends , childrens and spouse too . Off-course they always complains that you don’t listen. But still fact remains that it is important skill. Researchers have found that professionals earn 45% of their salary from listening ,executives and managers upto 70%. So as you move up to lead , listening skills becomes more and more important. It can lead you to higest level. For example Buddha’s the most charismatic thought leader of his time , was great listener , who listened everything around him. This is always symbolized by long ears in his statues. So bottom line is listening is very , very ,very important - I would say if speaking is silver ,listening is goldmine.

But then what stops us from getting this goldmine ? There is a pecularity about spoken word. You have always only once chance to listen !. Buddha had compared it with Arrow , Today we can think of bullet . Once it is fired , Gone !!. See on other side speaking is faster than reading .Listening is still faster. It is 10 times faster. So 90% of speaking time “Listener” is idle , it is waiting. 90% ! That is a lot of time. And this empty listening mind , devils house flickers , loose focus , it can’t concentrate. Ultimately your listening quality drops down. very much natural cycle.

But wait , don’t panic. There is a solution . Listening is a skill and can be nurtured too. First you can use 7 steps given in Toastmasters leadership manual. ( I was not aware of it ,when I started preparing for the speech .) That will help you to build your awareness at external level . Second -I will tell you a simple exercise , that will take hardly your one minute and you can practice anywhere. ( I picked it from Marshal Goldsmith’s bestseller - what got you here won’t get you there ). Close your eyes and count 1 to 50 slowly , calmly in your mind. And try to listen to it. Seems very easy ,but not so . You have to listen so that your attention is 100% .but you will find that all sorts of thoughts creep in. Problems at work , home will prop up. May be your hunger or thirst will strike you and you will find that it is impossible to focus. But please keep practicing .It is just a minute or so , you can practice simply while you are traveling or when you are about to sleep . And over certain days you will find that you are able to count without loosing attentiveness/focus. That is key. Slowly your awarenss while listening will increase multi-fold. you can focus with your will and your listening skills will improve dramatically.

Thus in conclusion - we saw importance of listening skill . we understand the root cause in listening attentively . At the end we have seen the solution at external and internal level too. This is bound to improve your listening. We already have a silver by practicing speaking , so lets get gold by practicing listening. I urge all of you to practice & find that goldmine of listening skills.

Toastmaster Speech 1 : The Ice Breaker

Thus my journey of developing speaking skills started . Though I used to participate in speech contests in school , I have never done it over long period . I wish to conquer speaking fear as well as acquire public speaking skills , which will help me in all walks of life.

Toastmasters prepared speech first project is "The ice breaker". Objectives of first project are

• Simply begin speaking in front of audience.
  
• Find out weakness in public speaking so as to improve them.
• Introduce yourself to Fellow club members.

I used "Six minutes" blog liberally to prepare for this .Though it has large number of example speech in text and video ,I found the section on "Speech preparation" most useful.

Fitting your story in maximum 6 minutes is pretty difficult task, mine is still going little above 6 minutes and I wonder ,how and where do I curtail it .But now I wish keep this as it is and let fellow toastmasters comment on it.

I centered my speech on how and why academic is my best career option Here goes my speech -

Lost in India ,Found in Japan.

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters.

Introducing “yourself” looks very easy and simple , but now I realized that it is one of the most difficult thing to do. But for Toastmasters I gathered my courage ,did some soul searching and standing in front of you with my little story.

I born and brought up in typical lower middle class Indian family. My father was clerk in Government service, mother house-wife and I have a younger sister. We two ,ours two , short and sweet family. Life was not very harsh ,but it was neither comfortable and luxurious. My mother always hammered ,if you want to grow and come out of all hardships ,study hard. You eat ,drink and play ,yes play also that helps in study. Just be a better student.

As a student once I played the role of Teacher on “Teachers day” .We taught in other classes for one full day. That left a lasting impression on my body ,mind and soul. I used to teach my sister too ,who was junior to me by 6 years. It was more than helping in studies. I used to coach, teach and scold her too. Everyone enjoys bossing around brothers/sisters ,isn’t it ? .But it worked. word spread among her friends and I became a kind of “Community teacher” very early in my life. This continued till Junior college. And it helped me too. Helping others to learn , helped me to learn. I became a better at studies and got good grades.

Eventually I got admission to Engineering college. This was my regions most prestigious engineering college. I started working in IT and was posted to Chennai - a South Indian city.

Here too I used to counsel and help my juniors to become a better at work.Again helping others to grow ,helped me to grow. It fine tuned my skills And I became better at my work, got better opportunities. It helped me to land in the land of rising sun ,Japan. Starting from one part of India to Southern India to Japan , the career graph was up-rising ,rewarding .

But still “something” was missing .I had feeling that my potentials are not used fully.

To search this “Something” and expand my wings , I participated in JMEC - Japan Market Entry competition in 2006, (Again one of the inside secret - In the super-expensive Tokyo that was the only affordable learning option.) .I learn lot about market survey, financial and writing business plan. Further I enrolled for MBA and completed it. But that “Something” was still missing.

So I returned to JMEC director ,talked to her and volunteered, to mentor JMEC team. We competed with other 12 multinational high profile teams. As a Mentor ,I worked beyond expectations.I searched for ways to to help team learn better, faster .and yes again It worked !. We were winners in 2009.

I started reflecting , did you ? Have you got the pattern. Whether studying , working or volunteering , or in my home-state , another state or another country too. So in different time, space and roles I was best when I was counseling , coaching & mentoring too.,Essentially I was teaching in one of the three ways.

Yes that's it- teaching ,that's where my heart is. In India I lost my teaching heart to IT and found it in Japan. So I decided to switch my career to teaching , teaching in business school ,where I will be able to counsel, coach and mentor to aspiring minds. I am very very very happy and satisfied about my decision as it will help me to grow with growing minds.

Presentation ,Speaking Skills and ToastMasters !

Communication is one of the most important skill ,that is hardly taught .Primary aspect of communication is public speaking .It is the most important skill whether you are addressing big audience (for example big gathering ) or small group (for example team meeting). Survey after survey shows that majority around you will have phobia for public speaking ( Technically they call it Glossophobia) .

But for the leader in making ,Public speaking and Presentations is the number one skill he/she must attain.

One of the best way to achieve the presentation and speaking skills is to join Toastmasters. Toastmasters is a non-profit organization dedicated for communication , public speaking and leadership development. Some major features are

• It is inexpensive.
  
• Toastmasters have time tested methods and self-paced graded program. Anyone can follow and acquire the skills. More than 4 million have discovered the benefits.
  
• It is not bookish or mere textbook learning ,but interactive and "learning by doing" . You will actually do small projects and gradually build required skills. You will have mentor and fellow club members who will help in learning. Whole environment is supportive and friendly.
  

Next natural question will be where do I find it , just click here and search.

I am also participating in the club meetings and started with basic communication manual . I shall post my speeches on this blog for follow up and feedback. watch out the space for more updates.

In addition to the Toastmasters manual , I am using online resources at "Six Minutes" liberally for this development. You may like to visit the site for its rich and very useful content.