2018 was a successful year for Skylarks Toastmasters club, which is considered one of the oldest and one of the most active English-speaking clubs in the city. Since Toastmasters International launched its new educational program in Spring 2018, some of our club members launched directly into Pathways but for others it made more sense to keep working on their ‘in progress’ projects in the Competent Communication and Competent Leadership manuals and then to start Pathways once they were complete. As the saying goes: Hard work always bears fruit, and by the end of 2018 most of them succeeded in completing the manuals. In the following questions, I asked them about their experiences during their CC and CL projects and the benefits they received from the Toastmasters educational program.

D.H: Dear Györgyi, congratulations on completing the CC manual. How do you feel about it? Did the manual help you to improve your communication skills?
Györgyi Stenger: I am very pleased to have completed the CC manual. These 2 years were great learning experiences and quite a long journey. I am happy that according to the feedback received, all the skills required in the earlier speeches were incorporated appropriately.
Regarding improvement: first of all, my focus was sharpened; I can now structure what I want to say more precisely and I also improved vocal variety tremendously. When I am focused, I do not use filler words, either long and-s or ah-s and I am also not afraid to use pauses.

D.H.: Henriett, do you feel a positive impact on your professional presentations since you have begun working on the CC manual? 
Henriett Primecz: You have to ask my students J But I can tell you that I enjoy lecturing more than before because I now have a better understanding of what works and what does not work in public speaking. I have to admit that I practiced some of my lecture arguments in TM assignments, and then I used the same sentences at the university during the lectures.

D.H.: I’m curious. Which speech project did you feel was the most challenging, Klaudia?
Klaudia Fodor: The 10th project was something special: the inspirational speech. In this project the speaker should “uplift” the audience with her own story and make them reflect on their own lives. This is not easy! The preparation lasted a week, but that was an extremely intense week. I had a great mentor who gave me advice every day about how to make the speech better and better. These were clever techniques and tricks that I will use for my future presentations as well. I felt like a professional. 

D.H.: A Few months ago, you were one of the presenters at Ignite Budapest. During the preparation of your Ignite speech, did you make good use of your skills previously learnt from the CC manual?
Klaudia Fodor: Oh, sure I did! An Ignite speech is a special presentation category. The motto of Ignite is: Inspire us, and do it fast! You pick 20 slides or pictures that run behind you while you speak, and they advance automatically.
You have to be extremely prepared because there is no way you can turn the pictures back or slow them down! You only have 5 minutes, which is less than you imagine. Still, your presentation should be organized, have a beginning, a body and a conclusion and a core message. You must get to the point quickly and focus on it throughout the speech. These are the exact skills that you learn with the CC projects as well.

D.H.: Györgyi do you think Toastmasters clubs are good places to learn about effective communication?
Györgyi Stenger: Absolutely. When you communicate, the most important thing is your connection with the audience. Are they with you? How are they reacting? And this is what you can practice in a friendly, supportive atmosphere.

D.H.: Henriett, being a professor at the Corvinus University, would you recommend the Toastmasters educational program in schools?

Henriett Primecz: Communication is the key for most professions. If professionals cannot express themselves clearly, all their expertise is lost. This is why I would recommend that everyone develops good communication skills. Public speaking is only one part of it, but of course it is a very important part.
In leadership positions public speaking is essential, and since our students at Corvinus are today’s and tomorrow’s leaders, they cannot succeed without it.

D.H.: Orsolya, were Competent Leadership projects beneficial in your professional life?
Orsolya Görgényi: Absolutely! When I joined Toastmasters in 2016, I did it to improve my public speaking skills because I was preparing to give a big speech in front of 700 people. I had no idea that Toastmasters is not purely about communication and public speaking, but it also offers a strong leadership track. I have been working in a law firm for over 20 years and as an M&A lawyer, I work on various transactions, which means a different project and team with each new transaction. I wish I could have benefited from TM’s leadership (and communication!) manual projects at a much earlier stage in my career! Even now it helps a lot to deepen knowledge and skills about leading and managing people but in the beginning, I had to learn by myself the hard way.

D.H.: Márton, which leadership project did you find the most exciting in the CL manual?
Márton Csepregi: Chairing a speech contest. It was probably the most stressful one, took the most preparation, but delivered ultimately the most satisfaction. I remember the night before I was stressing about interviewing the contestants, and then suddenly deciding to let go, and the idea came to me, since they are competing in evaluation, I will ask them about evaluations.

D.H.: Do you feel that the manual’s projects prepared you for the presidential role of Saturday Toastmasters club?
Márton Csepregi: I guess so. The confidence boost certainly helped me along the way, and since the club is still young, we are used to taking multiple roles at a meeting.

D.H.: Orsolya what is your opinion about what makes someone an effective leader?

Orsolya Görgényi: For me leadership is about impact, influence and inspiration. This starts from within, and it is not about a title or a designation. Also, thanks to Toastmasters, the place where I realized I could make the most impact during my term as president of an international organization was using the opportunities during my various official functions to address people in a meaningful way. The most memorable speech for me was the one that caused me to join Toastmasters. It was my speech as president during the opening ceremony of AIJA’s annual congress.

D.H.: Do you think Toastmasters has the potential to help educate the next generation of leaders? 
Orsolya Görgényi: Definitely! In many businesses – including law firms – people often get management positions because they are great experts within their specific area of knowledge, but without having any training or support with management or leadership issues. Communication and leadership skills are key, and I believe soft skills in general will become even more important in the future where recalling lexical knowledge by heart will no longer play an important role. In the future, competence (knowing your stuff) and skills (getting stuff done) will be basic necessities to get invited to the party. But soft skills, and especially emotional intelligence will be the differentiating factor that will make everyone want to dance with you. Toastmasters truly fills a vacancy and helps individuals who are ready to challenge and develop themselves. After all, the only real training for leadership is leadership, and Toastmasters is the right place to start!

D.H.: Thank you for your kind answers. A big congratulations to all of you for the accomplishment of the manual’s projects and I wish you a successful continuation with Toastmasters new educational program – Pathways.