The following is my answer to a Quora question: “How does going to a Toastmasters meeting help a person to overcome his fear of public speaking?”
If you are serious about it, Toastmasters has a programme that trains you in public speaking. It gives you a place to do so, a network of clubs you can visit all over the world to practise, and it creates opportunities to become a great speaker. If you are the competitive sort, you can test yourself against others. Table topics and project evaluations allow you to be eased in, until you are ready for a project speech.
Unfortunately, there are many people who join these clubs but never take that step forward to work on their speeches. They may be members for years without actually speaking, and thus, never improve. This is the same as people with gym memberships, but never go. If you make an effort, Toastmasters can turn you into a great public speaker. This is attested by the number of former and current Toastmasters who went on and made a career as coaches, trainers and public speakers.
The question is too generic. It says attending Toastmasters meetings and not participating in toastmaster training . Not very clear what you mean by “attending “
ReplyDeleteIt is questionable if attending Zoom seminars help overcome fear of public speaking . I think otherwise. Zoom meetings at best may train you to be good TV presenter .
The visual , auditory and kinesthetic elements are missing . I am speaking from my experience of 3 decades in the military training thousands of officer cadets in the subject of Leadership. i was Competent Toastmater since 1993 and had a free hand in revising the syllabus for leadership, both outdoor and classroom training
. I developed a 16 hour programme on public speaking based on Toastmaster and Dale Carnegie system. The officer cadets will have to make 32 presentations each 2 minutes long modeled after our impromptu speech format.At the end of each module there would be a competition to pick the best speaker from each cohort . Often I invited external judges from TM and Dale Carnegie fraternity. The Airbase Commander his offices and junior cadets are invited . 100 to 150 usually turn up to .
We produced outstanding results to the level of CC in 16 hours spread over 4 weeks .
To conclude attending toastmaster meetings will not overcome fear of public speaking but participating will help .
I have no experience in evaluation of benefits of Zoom TM training. My take is that the benefits if any will be small speaking to your computer camera in the comfort zone of your home with a virtual audience . Rgds
I have answered it.
DeleteI am a Division Director now, and President of my club, which is, probably, the best corporate club in Asia. We have been President's Distinguished Club for the last 16 years, with 10 DCP every year. We produce national, and our District produced two world champions, and two finalists in the last several years.
We run effective programmes. And that includes online meetings.