This entire week was absolutely packed with training, counseling, coaching as well as meetings. I’ve been leaving home early and returning into the wee hours at times, giving me less than half an hour to be online each day. Nonetheless, it had been a very meaningful week with getting to know so many new friends and participants in my trainings. I’ve managed to run into a few old acquaintances too.
It was hence 3 days ago on Wednesday that I was invited to speak at the Certis Cisco Toastmasters Club’s first meeting. This is a new club to be formed with the full support from its top management. It’s always heartening to know that managers and working professionals are getting more receptive to the fact that communication makes the difference in work productivity.
I conducted an educational presentation during this meeting, which was followed by my evaluation of the speakers. The talk was “How to Speak on Table Topics?” within which I shared some ideas and tips on how one can attempt to handle impromptu speaking effectively and artfully.
What was even more encouraging was that after the presentation, the table topics speakers took to the speaking platform with an evident desire to improve their public communication ability. Although there was slight nervousness, most of them were able to articulate fluently on the topics after composing themselves. That spelled a promising starting for this new Toastmasters Club.
When it came to my evaluation of all the Table Topics speakers, I shared with the audience a number of tips to improve their impromptu speaking skills. These included:
1. Remember to provide a summary of what you have just spoken about. Instead of being too quick to rush off the platform, let the audience recap on your speech content.
2. If you introduce to us a concept or terminology as the key focus of your topic, give an example or two to help clarify what you are attempting to say.
3. Help us, the audience, to better answer your questions by providing the answers to your queries. In this way, we won’t be too caught up mentally about what the solution was instead of listening to your speech.
Speaking well in an impromptu manner is a science, an art and sometimes, luck. You will have to get exposed to the different topics and grab on the opportunities when it presents itself.
With consistent effort and constant practice, you’ll soon experience how table topics can truly help you to Excel Beyond Excellence!
Excel Beyond Excellence! at wekie.com 
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