by Ed Fabonan, DTM

Maharlika Toastmasters Club

I am a frequent visitor of the FB group Official Toastmasters Members Page and I frequently see some variant of these comments:

1.“Why is Toastmasters using the tag line ‘Where Leaders Are Made’ when we clearly joined this organization to focus on our public speaking skills.”

2. “I lost interest in Toastmasters when they started emphasizing leadership rather than public speaking. I don’t care about the leadership tasks in my organization.”

3. “Why is Toastmasters placing people with limited skills to run the Areas and Divisions rather than hire experienced professionals do this.”

I’d like to share my own point of view. Toastmasters is not a training school where you pay tuition, learn something, and then leave. It is a club, a social group. And the way it is run is: you get something but you also have to put in something. If your interest is going to an organization where you just sit down, get trained by experts in public speaking and rehearse what you learned, there are training professionals and training organizations that do this. I’m thinking John Robert Powers, Dale Carnegie, etc. You can enroll there, pay the fee for a 2-day, 2-week, 2-month course, assess your progress, and repeat if you have to. The tuition won’t be as low as the 90 dollars you pay for a year of membership in Toastmasters but that’s because you’re paying for everything – their facilities, the salaries of their trainers and staff, the marketing overhead, etc. The advantage is, you come in and focus only on learning, then you can leave.

In a Toastmasters club, a lot of volunteer work is expected because there are no salaried employees that do many of the nitty gritty that needs to be done for you to learn public speaking. Even the routine task of planning and organizing a single meeting can consume a lot of time – assign and message role takers, plan and schedule role takers to ensure a fair rotation of roles, assign mentors and evaluators, invite guest evaluators, and promote the meeting. Recruitment and retention of members feel like it should not be related to public speaking – but if your club is not growing in numbers, you will not have an audience to rehearse public speeches to, and you will not be motivated to keep speaking. All these tasks are done by paying members like you. Some of them are done by elected officers and designated officials (District Trainers, PR Officers and the like). Some roles like mentors and coaches are not even officially given titles but nevertheless, essential tasks are given to them. If you heard the expression it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to educate a Toastmaster in public speaking.

That is why Toastmasters needs leaders. Without leaders, Toastmasters will not be able to help members develop their public speaking skills. The leadership base of Toastmasters are members themselves. Members who progress in their training in public speaking tend to naturally gravitate towards leadership roles and pay back what they gained. However, for some clubs, the number of members who are willing to take leadership roles are not always enough. This can lead to deterioration of the club because the rest of the members will feel the loss of support. It is therefore important for Toastmasters to build a desire in every member to aspire for leadership roles and give back.

But why are many members scared of being leaders? Maybe they feel this means hard work. But members who become leaders in Toastmasters should not feel that they are being taken advantage of by members who are just interested in learning public speaking. Because leadership roles allow them to attain leadership skills which are even more valuable than public speaking skills. Think of your own situation at work. Unless you are a teacher, TV personality, trainer, or a politician, how often will you be required to deliver a speech in public? On the other hand, how often will you be required to mentor a subordinate, recruit people, try to sell a product, train a group, organize meetings and events, manage and resolve conflicts, or utilize a network of contacts to execute a project in the job you have now? What salaries do you think people in your organization that can do these tasks command? I can personally attest that participating in leadership roles in Toastmasters gained me important work skills. When I was a Division Director, I had to promote Toastmasters to Managers and Corporate VPs so I can form corporate clubs. I was very intimidated speaking to corporate executives but I had to do it. Imagine my joy when I was able to put up corporate clubs in their organizations. In the process, I acquired the confidence to negotiate with executives that I meet in my own line of work and was even able to close a business deal between a major multinational and our own company. Leadership skills are valuable skills.

Maybe members feel scared to be leaders because they feel they are not ready. But leadership training in Toastmasters is like learning public speaking. You start with small roles. You learn by doing. You have mentors, you have manuals to follow and you get training and feedback from more experienced leaders. Then you move to the bigger roles. You do not get reprimanded for making mistakes. You get support. Members are also expected to be considerate of leaders who make mistakes. A member does not wait to be ready to be a leader. Any member can tackle leadership roles with the same assurance he/she tackles public speaking – that he/she will be provided a safe environment to make mistakes, learn, and grow.

Maybe members don’t like to be leaders because there is no reward for their effort. This is not true. Leaders in Toastmasters get recognized. Leadership roles also lead to earning norms. And leaders in Toastmasters are honored whichever club they go to. But if these types of accolades mean nothing to you, the greatest reward is knowing how many Toastmasters you were able to help transform from a shy and timid person to a confident public speaker. It is the same feeling a teacher feels upon seeing one of his/her student succeed in life. This is priceless.

So don’t feel odd that Toastmasters adopted the tagline “Where Leaders are Made.” Toastmasters is not just an organization for public speakers. It is actually a Leadership and Communications training organization. If you look at the skillset of leaders, communication is only a subset of it. Leadership skills encompass public speaking. Toastmasters is simply promoting the broader skillset.

Toastmasters need more leaders so it can help train more public speakers. But don’t worry. No one will force you to take the leadership path. Just know that it is a path available to you and it can yield you an even bigger personal return.