RISE - Toastmaster Values

If you have been following my blog or know me personally, you would know that I am a member of Toastmasters Club. This is an article that I wrote for the Toastmasters District 98 newletter, Communicate 98.  It was published in the September 2016 edition. Here is my unedited version. 

RISE - Toastmasters Values

With Mohammed Qahtani - WCPS 2015

The Toastmasters values encapsulated beautifully in the acronym, RISE, are the guiding lights in our Toastmasters journey. 

• R is for Respect.
• I  is for Integrity. 
• S is for Service. 
• E is for Excellence.

It is essential for a Toastmaster to  understand these 4 simple words fully and act as per them. Here is a simple way how you can live these values in a regular Toastmasters meeting.

Respect: In your club, the caliber of members, the economic, social and educational background may be vastly different. If we do not respect our members as individuals despite the differences in culture, status, caliber and position in life, we cannot provide a conducive learning environment. It will not help our growth as a club or as a leader. Hence, Respect is very important. Greet everyone cheerfully and treat everyone with respect.

Integrity is doing what you say you will do. In simple words, it means keeping your promises. In your club, if you have agreed to deliver a speech or take up a meeting role, do not, as far as possible, back out in the last minute. Keep your promise.

Toastmasters is based on Honor system. There is no pass or fail. There is no examination. There is no Toastmaster police. Everything is trust based. Therefore, integrity is of paramount importance.

Service: In a Toastmasters club, no one is paid to do anything. Volunteer service to members is the backbone of a club. This is what makes you grow as a person, helps fellow members grow and helps our clubs prosper. Take every opportunity to serve your club in a meeting. Be it helping in room arrangements or logistics or mentoring or giving feedback to a member, be of service to others.

Excellence: Finally, we try to achieve excellence in whatever we do in our meetings be it giving speeches, organizing the meeting and other events, or mentoring and helping others. Aristotle said - we are what we do repeatedly. Excellence is thus a habit. Keep giving your speeches, taking roles and attending meetings regularly and repeatedly. Once this becomes a habit, excellence in all that you do is not far away.

Let's pledge to RISE to the occasion in every single meeting so that we can shine in life.

Visit to Holy Mary Degree College

It was a Saturday. Vikram Chandra from Secunderabad Toastmasters, who was the Offline Outreach Chair for Master Orator Championship, reached out to me to visit a local college to promote the event. Master Orator Championship was an event conducted by the Toastmasters of Hyderabad to promote public speaking among college students.

Holy Mary Degree College is located bang on the main road leading from JNTU to Hitec city. I had noticed this college several times in the past and wondered that it would be a great location for a Toastmasters club. So, it made sense for me to visit the college and get introduced.

As I reached the college gate, it was a very different feeling for me. I had never been into any sales job. So, going somewhere and doing a cold calling, and that was exactly what I was going to do, was not my cup of tea. On one hand, I thought I may make a fool of myself as no one would entertain me. On the other hand, I was thinking that I had nothing to lose. Even if they turned me away, I will gain the experience of getting rejected!

With these thoughts, I marched in and was soon stopped by an old man who seemed to be the watchman of the place. I told him that I have to go to the office and he allowed me. Inside the building, I found several rooms with their doors locked. One door was ajar and there sat a lady, doing some paperwork. I met her and told her about Toastmasters. Then I handed over the 2 paper pamphlets that I was carrying. She checked it out and asked me if I would like to meet the director. I did not expect that in my wildest of dreams. But why not? I remembered a key phrase from Ed Tate, a world champion of public speaking...

 "If not here, then where? If not now, then when? If not you, then who?" 

With these thoughts, I said yes, I would love to meet him. She asked me to wait and in sometime she asked me to go to the director's office. Contrary to my expectations, Mr Srinivas, the director was a young man. I introduced myself and appraised him of my intention of coming there. After listening to me patiently, he asked me if I would like to speak with the students in their class room?

Again, why not? If not now, then....

 
So, he took me to a class room in the first floor. It was the class room for the BBA students. There were about 25 students and a teacher. He introduced me and gave the floor to me. It was an extended table topics for me. I gave a quick introduction of myself and explained about Toastmasters. I told them the what and how of Toastmasters, how clubs operate and how they help in building communication and leadership skills. I told them the importance of communication skills in the job market and professional life. Then I briefed them about the contest that we were organizing and asked them to register for it. I spelled out the benefits for them from the contest and the formalities required to register for the same.

 
With that I opened the floor for questions and answers. Couple of folks asked questions regarding venue, topic etc. I answered them and finally thanked the students and their teachers and then left the class room.

I met with the director again before leaving the college and thanked him as well.

Life throws unexpected things - things that you sometimes dread and things that you some time enjoy. As they say, if you believe that the universe will present the best of opportunity to you, it somehow materializes!! But, as someone said, luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Universe will give you an opportunity. But only if you have the right preparation, so you can convert that opportunity to be a lucky one!! 

5 Tips for a Great Blog

I am by no means a great blogger. There are national and international professionals in blogging. I am just an amateur who likes to dabble in this for fun.  Since I have been blogging for quite some time, I have read many blogs of various genres and here are some of my thoughts on how to have a better blog

1.  Language is the prime tool in a bloggers kit - absolutely unpardonable if it is not robust. Good language, as per me, does not mean usage of heavy words, complex sentence structure and a bizarrely woven plot; but it is one with small, simple sentences, correct spelling, and grammar. I see spelling mistakes in posts of many amateur bloggers. I am sure they are typos which could be rectified with a review. 

2.   Alignment of posts makes the presentation look much professional. Try to experiment with different alignments and figure out which suits your blog. I prefer a justified alignment.

3.   Giving a double line space between paragraphs in the article is a good idea. It helps the reader navigate through your article easily and understand the transition between various ideas.

The root cause for all the three ills mentioned above, seems to me, is that amateur bloggers probably start writing directly on the blogger editor. Also they do their edits there itself. A simpler idea would be to use something like MS Word to draft, edit, re-edit and polish the article, do a spell and grammar check, do proper alignment, and them post it in the blogger. Professionals use software like scrivener. But for mortals like us, Bill Gates’ product is good enough.

4.   Before you tell anyone anything, there is one story that you need to tell them all. Unless you clarify that question in others mind, no one is really going to listen to whatever you say, or in your case, read and believe whatever you blog. That question is "Who am I". Hence, I suggest you should have a nice description of yourself and your world in the About Me/ Profile section. This will help readers to form an image and connection to you.

5. You may also consider adding some social media widgets on your page. Blogger provides many such options as Google+, facebook, twitter  - widgets and many other funky ones as well. I personally prefer a minimalistic approach. But again it depends on what the purpose of your blog is and what is your adopted method to achieve the goal. I guess that would be a good blog post by itself.

Hope my ramblings have not irritated you. Do give your feedback on the comment section.