There’s a famous quote from Dr. Smedley that reminds me of why I keep coming back to Toastmasters.
“Ours is the only organization I know that is dedicated to the individual. We work together to bring out the best in each of us and then we apply these skills to help others.”[1]
It’s this goal of developing the individual that keeps me coming back. I have seen the growth in me, and I see the growth in others each time I engage with Toastmasters in some way.
One evening I attended my club, Cardiff Toastmasters. At that stage I was still serving on the Toastmasters Board. It had been a long day with a lot of deep thinking about Board matters. Maybe if I hadn’t had a role in the meeting, I might have considered staying home, but I am really glad I went.
Our club president had organised a mock Evaluation Contest for that evening. We had so many new members who had never competed or judged in a contest and she wanted everyone to feel confident about stepping forward. The contest was great, they all did so well. But the most special moment for me came up when our mock contestants were interviewed at the end.
One after the other, they were asked what brought them to Toastmasters and how it had helped. Even though they were so new to the organization they each had a story to tell of how their skills and confidence had grown already. I can recall one of them sharing how they had had great feedback from their boss about how much more assured they were in meetings.
It just felt brilliant to see their smiling confident faces, to feel like our club had helped them grow so much already.
This brought me back to my own early days in Toastmasters, going from nervousness in front of an audience, to enjoying being on stage. How I came to love doing evaluations and running training for leaders – so much so that I moved from leading change in organisations to teaching MBA and Masters students how to do it for themselves. It also reminded me of how I came to do doctoral research into how, as individuals, we can grow our self-confidence, self-understanding and self-acceptance.
I know that when I stand in front of an audience of Toastmasters and ask if they have grown from being a member, each time all the hands will go up. As I write this, it is the month of our 100th birthday, when Dr. Smedley got us up and running. Just imagine how many people’s lives have been changed through being involved with this organization he created. Imagine how many more lives will be changed in the next 100 years! I think that is really exciting, don’t you?
[1] Personally Speaking, Selections from the writings of Dr. Ralph C. Smedley. Page 13.