Looking to Develop Leadership Skills? Try Toastmasters.
Posted on March 31, 2012 by Scott Graham, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
Toastmasters will help you develop more than effective communication skills.
When most people think of Toastmasters, they think of public speaking.
“Toastmasters will help me with the presentation I need to do at the Conference,” said one of my coaching clients when he was contemplating applying for membership. My client completely overlooked the other benefit of Toastmasters: leadership development.
Toastmasters not only has a communication track for members to grow skills but a distinct and parallel leadership track.
Toastmasters will help you develop leadership by giving you:
Feedback:
- At every Toastmasters meeting, when you take on a role, you can get feedback on your leadership skills.
- As you assist with efforts to help manage the local club, you can get feedback.
Training:
- Once each year, leaders at the area, division, district (and higher) levels receive leadership training.
- In turn, these individuals conduct training for leaders at the club level (twice each year).
Team Support:
- One of the unique tools Toastmasters offers its members is called High Performance Leadership (HPL). Working with a committee, this five-project program sharpens leadership skills in vital areas using a learn-by-doing methodology. You can initiate an HPL at any time during your membership and do as many of these programs as you want.
Your investment for all of this (plus the communication skills that I have not outlined in this article): less than $100 a year.
So give Toastmasters a try. To find a club near you, click here.
