The Toastcast!

Here is an interesting blog entry.  Might be good for people thinking they need to get involved in Toastmasters.

 How to be a Great Speaker…

Did you know that when surveyed about their greatest fear, people more often say public speaking than death? That’s right, apparently people would rather die than have to address a group of people.

Hm, must be bad.

I used to be one of those people. For me the mere thought of standing in front of a crowd made me feel like tossing my lunch.http://www.blargy.com/2006/09/public-speaking/how-to-be-a-great-public-speaker-by-a-former-nervous-wreck/

Live and learn, and help your fellow Toastmasters practice some great interviewing skills!
-Judd

We’ve all heard stories of job candidates who looked great on paper but who were absolute disasters in person. With fewer and fewer interview opportunities available in this competitive market, it’s essential to make the best possible first impression. You can learn from the mistakes of others and avoid the top 10 worst interview blunders.

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I recieved this in my email today, and thought it was pretty good. I don’t normally go for this sort of thing, but for Monday, it played well for me. Hopefully you can use this for some speech fodder. - Judd P.S. I have no idea who wrote it, but it’s floating around the net.

• ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
• TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
• THREE. Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
• FOUR. When you say, “I love you,” mean it.
• FIVE. When you say, “I’m sorry,” look the person in the eye.
• SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
• SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.
• EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone’s dream. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
• NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.
• TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
• ELEVEN. Don’t judge people by their relatives.
• TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.
• THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask, “Why do you want to know?”
• FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk..
• FIFTEEN. Say “bless you” when you hear someone sneeze.
• SIXTEEN. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson
• SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R’s: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.
• EIGHTEEN. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
• NINETEEN. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
• TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
• TWENTY-ONE. Spend some time alone.

I know you need some help with that speech on how to treat people with respect. This is a great source for helping see what will degrade your team, and ensure your drop to the bottom!
-Judd
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I polled the other guys in my group and we built a damn good list of things that our IT manager did that led to him losing his $100K/year job. Note that I left a few specific things out because I don’t need anyone getting pinched. If you repeat these things successfully, you too will get your team to hate you.

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Sometimes its difficult to start a speech off, you have topics and a variety of other conscise bit and pieces to put together, but this may help you sort things out, well done article.
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It’s not the fear of writing that blocks people, it’s its fear of not writing well; something quite different. Certainly ever writer has moments of paralysis, including myself, but the way out is to properly frame what’s going on, and writer’s block, as commonly misunderstood, is a red herring.

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Whether you answer ‘em or write ‘em, impromptu questions can be done to help or hurt the respondent… here we find out how to better compose our questions.

Everyone asks questions. When you conduct a usability test, you ask questions. When you gather information from a client, you ask questions. When you write a customer survey, you ask questions. It is interesting that effective interviewers sound like effective interfaces in many ways. They lubricate information flow by getting out of the way.

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I like these tips, especially when you change Businessman to Toastmaster. When each member takes personal ownership in their club.

The Number 10 Secret is:
No matter how many millions an individual amasses, if he is in business he must always consider his wealth as a means for improving living conditions everywhere. He must remember that he has responsibilities toward his associates, employees, stockholders — and the public.

I think that’s great!

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My inner-geek vs your intuition = great Toastmaster Speech Fodder for the day! - Judd

The evidence seems to be that the conscious mind isn’t much use in making hard decisions .

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In another behavior modification story, the same rules that apply to winning that job may also help you win that next speech contest…

A survey of 223 senior executives and managers found that 63% rely on “likeability” and personality of a candidate when making hiring and promotion decisions. So what does this mean to the stereotypical techie who is often labeled as lacking sparkle when it comes to people-skills? Bring on the charm…

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Great Toastmaster Fodder right here!

Extract: “When we see a new face, our brains decide whether that person is attractive and trustworthy within one-tenth of a second, the results of new research indicate.

According to US psychologist, Alex Todorov, people respond intuitively to faces so rapidly, that their reasoning minds may not have time to influence the reaction.

“The link between facial features and character may be tenuous at best, but that doesn’t stop our minds from sizing other people up at a glance. We decide very quickly whether a person possesses many of the traits we feel are important, such as likeability and competence, even though we have not exchanged a single word with them”, Mr Todorov explained.”

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