Toastmasters International: Where Leaders are Made
When I tell people that I am a member of Toastmasters the first thought they have is ‘oh, are you one of the red-coated masters of ceremonies who proposes toasts and introduces speakers at formal events?’. Sometimes I explain that I’m not that Toastmaster even before they’ve asked. I then elaborate and say that it is an organisation that helps people develop their public speaking skills – and the tagline is ‘Where Leaders are Made.’ This usually gets their attention. The next question is ‘oh, and how do you do that?’ which is a great opportunity for me to explain what we do at Toastmasters – and that it’s not just building our speaking and communication skills. It’s having the opportunity to develop skills in leadership through taking on club officer roles to start with and then taking on district leadership roles, such as Area and Division Directors. When I pitch the Toastmasters Youth Leadership Programme to head teachers I emphasise the fact that the students will be organising and running the meetings themselves which helps them develop vital leadership skills, in addition to speaking skills and confidence. Just this term I received a lovely email from a Head of Year teacher at the school where I have delivered the Youth Leadership Programme several times:
We are currently going through our ‘Senior 6’ process at school, which is an application and interview process for our Year 10 prefects. The process will decide our 6 student leaders and head boy/head girl, and is pretty gruelling! It includes a ‘fish-bowl’ activity, speeches, tasks and an interview with the Principal.
So far we have cut applicants from 31 to 14 following the fish-bowl exercise. One thing almost all of the successful students so far have in common is that they participated in the 10-week [YLP] course you ran for us last year! This is amazing and really shows the impact this has had on our young people.
Needless to say, they have booked us to run a YLP with the new Year 9 group in the Autumn term. I’m really looking forward to that – it is so rewarding to watch a group of 20 15 year-olds grow in confidence and communication skills over that time. And we have a lot of fun – after all, Ralph Smedley said “we learn best in moments of enjoyment”. I never have a problem getting one of them to chair the meeting – as soon as I say they will have the gavel to call the meeting to order, they all want to volunteer – and enjoy the power it gives them! As for managing the timing – what fun to take charge of the timing lights to warn their friends that they are running out of time. As for the Topics Master – yes, sometimes the questions they ask can be a bit vindictive on their friends – but they know it will be played back to them when the roles are reversed. All the while they are learning valuable leadership and speaking skills. Oh, and what do we do about the awkward gait and shuffle when approaching the front of the room – we practise good posture by pretending we are models on the catwalk – one of them plays some lively catwalk music on their phone and we all take it in turns to stand tall, sashay up to the front of the classroom – and turn gracefully to face the audience – just as if we were at Paris fashion week. It works – as has been evidenced by the success of some of the students getting those leadership roles for the coming year.
The Youth Leadership Programme is an excellent project to run in any school or youth community group to teach valuable public speaking, leadership and communication skills. Running such a programme can also count towards the requirements for gaining your DTM award.
If you would like to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact me. alkema@janetalkema.com
Last Updated on 25th June 2025 by Allen Paul