Benefits

Toastmasters and Leadership

Leadership takes practice. In Toastmasters, members learn leadership skills by organizing and conducting meetings and completing projects. The projects address skills such as listening, planning, motivating, and team building and give members the opportunity to practice them. Just as Toastmasters members improve communication by speaking, they learn leadership skills by leading.

Company/Business Benefits

A company’s success depends on communication. Employees interact with their colleagues and customers to exchange ideas, messages and information. How well they communicate and share their ideas can determine whether a company grows into an industry leader or is mired in mediocrity. At a very reasonable cost, Toastmasters teaches employees to become better presenters and leaders:

• Give better sales presentations
• Hone their management skills
• Work better with fellow employees
• Develop and present ideas more effectively
• Offer constructive criticism
• Accept feedback more objectively

Toastmasters produces results. Around the world more than four million men and women of all ages and occupations have benefited from Toastmasters. Thousands of corporations, community groups, universities, associations and government agencies currently use the Toastmasters program.

Community Benefits

Toastmasters helps many members in their community-service activities. Using the skills developed in Toastmasters, members have become more active in business, church, service and charity organizations. Toastmasters are able to organize activities, conduct meetings and speak in public as their organizations’ representatives. Some even become active in local, state or national government.

Structure of a typical meeting

A typical meeting consists of 3 (4) parts:

Warm up

During this portion of the meeting, the program is described, followed by a joke and an elevator pitch or a speech tip. After that, “table topics” or debates allows club members and guests to practice impromptu speaking by responding to topic questions prepared by the Table Topics Master.

Prepared Speeches

In this section, assigned members practice their public speaking skills by giving a prepared presentation from one of the Communication and Leadership Program manuals. Each project in a manual has a specific objective in an area that helps members practice different speaking techniques. The objectives are designed as guidelines to help you think about the various qualities that comprise a good speech. Some members may be just starting out, while others may be more advanced. Remember, though, all Toastmasters began just as you did and, as you learn from each project, you will be able to reach and exceed what you see in your first meetings.

Evaluations

In this section, members demonstrate their listening skills and practice their evaluation skills. Assigned members will give evaluations of the prepared speeches and of the meeting as a whole. In their feedback, the evaluators outline the impression that the speaker made on them personally, highlighting positive aspects of the speech and pointing out where there is room for improvement. Good evaluations are the hallmark of good Toastmasters.

Get together

Discuss the evening and network with the members and guests over a nice cold drink.

Munich Business Speakers Special

As a business oriented club we offer our members the opportunity to give an “Elevator Pitch”.
A 30-60 second timeframe is given to practice your selling skills.

The Next Munich Business Speakers Meeting Agenda:

Please Note: The learning path the learning path described below is going to be phased out.

As of March 20th 2018, The Munich Business speakers will incorporate the new Toastmasters “Pathway” program.

For more details follow the link below:

https://www.toastmasters.org/pathways-overview

Toastmasters provides a self-paced, focused speaking program with a supportive, experienced group of people to assist you. This mutual support will help you become more effective in several skills, including formal public presentations, individual communications, impromptu speaking situations, managing and participating in meetings, and leading and managing people.

You will achieve it through the unique Toastmasters Educational Program. The Toastmasters Educational Program is divided into two tracks – a Communication Track and a Leadership Track. Members are encouraged to participate in both tracks. The two tracks are not mutually exclusive and you can work in both at the same time. Both also provide for specific accomplishments as seen in the Award Progression. In addition to these tracks there are several opportunities for Moving Along and in the End becoming a “Distinguished Toastmaster”

Communication Track

Beginning with projects from the Competent Communications “basic” manual, this track is dedicated to improving members speaking and listening skills.

• Competent Communication Manual
  • The Competent Communication manual is designed to give new members a strong start in developing a core set of skills for public speaking. Each of the ten projects in this basic manual focuses on a certain aspect of speech making – from organization to delivery.
    Completion of the Competent Communication manual fulfills the requirement for the Competent Communicator or Competent Toastmaster award.
• Advanced Communication Manuals
  • Each of the Advanced Communication Manuals challenges members to further improve their skills in a specific area of public speaking. Some manuals focus on “real life” situations such as public relations and technical briefings, while others help develop more widely applicable skills, such as humor and storytelling.
• The better Speaker Series
  • The Better Speaker Series is a set of educational speeches on speaking-related topics. This program is usually presented during a club meeting. Included in the program are a script outlining the workshop and media.
• Success / Communication Program
  • The Success / Communication Program is comprised of several modular programs designed to offer a higher, more comprehensive level of training for developing and improving communication skills. Each program is conducted as a workshop of one or more sessions. Every program includes a script and instructions for presenting the program.
• Successful Club Series
  • The Successful Club Series is a set of educational speeches focused on improving the quality of club meetings, with tips on attracting and maintaining members.

Leadership Track

Beginning with projects from the Competent Leadership manual, this track focuses on developing a member’s leadership skills through a variety of Club and District activities.

• Competent Leadership Manual
  • The Competent Leadership manual focuses on different leadership skills through ten projects, each providing the member background information and an assignment that requires serving in one or more specified meeting or club roles in which the aspects of that skill can be practiced.
• Leadership Excellence Series
  • The Leadership Excellence Series is a set of programs that teach members the skills that they will need to be successful leaders inside and outside of Toastmasters.
• Success/Leadership Program
  • The Success/Leadership Program is a program is comprised of several modules designed to offer a higher, more comprehensive level of training for developing stronger leadership skills. In addition to the presentation materials, each module also provides ample opportunity for participants to practice what they have learned.
• High Performance Leadership Program
  • The High Performance Leadership Program is a five-project program which offers instruction and practice in such vital leadership skills and activities as developing a mission and vision, goal-setting and planning, identifying values and building a team.
• Further Leadership Opportunities:
  • Being a Club Officer
  • Being a District Officer
  • Serving as Personal Mentor to another Toastmaster

Graphical Overview: