Character and the Public Speaker

by Ron Kurtus (23 May 2002)

In your role as a public speaker--whether professionally, on the job or for enjoyment--it is important to have good character. Being honorable and honest in the work you do and in your relations to others is essential in speaking and in your profession. Having an honorable character also provides you with personal benefits and can enhance your career.

Questions you may have include:
What does having character mean?
What are the benefits to a speaker?
How does a public speaker show character?

Having character

Having character means that you are honorable and honest, have integrity, and are reliable and responsible. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are people who lie, cheat, or steal. They may also be lazy, unreliable or inconsiderate of others.It is obvious that honesty and integrity is important in the workplace, as well as from the speaking lectern. The same is true for reliability and other forms of character. The public speaker must be ethical and conscientious in his or her activities. This is especially important when making presentations to a group.Having an honorable character is a natural progression from being healthy, skilled, excellent, and valuable to the audience.

Importance and benefits

Being a person and speaker of high character is important to your relationship with other people, your career and your own self worth.If you are known as an honest and honorable speaker, and a person who is reliable and responsible, those with whom you deal will respect you. Your speaking audience, as well as your fellow workers and supervisors will trust you, know they can depend on you and want to hear what you have to say.People certainly don't want to listen to a speech from someone who lies, steals or is immoral.Another important factor is that being an honorable public speaker gives you greater self-esteem. You feel good about yourself. Finally, there is the religious aspect of being honest, moral and ethical.

Maintain character

Your actions determine what people think of you and establish your reputation. They also determine how others will respond to what you do and say. The way to have character is to always make sure that you are honest, honorable and forthright. Make sure there is no implication of dishonesty in any form.
You should also seek to be considerate of others and conscientious in your public speaking. This doesn't mean that you have to be perfect, but it does mean that you are trying to be someone of high character.

In conclusion
A public speaker needs to be honest and reliable. Your reputation affects how people deal with you. Having good character results in others respecting you and increases your own esteem. Having character requires a constant effort.

Melissa says...

For all the people that I've met throughout my toastmastering in Sandakan, the old and new, the past and present, I am ever thankful for each and every one of you. I am going to miss all of you. Really. No lah. But, really la...Seriously. All of you are a great bunch of people.

And because of that, I won't say good bye. I have a feeling that I'm going to see you peeps sooner than we know it. Till then, be good, happy toastmastering and of course, do make a difference...

Cheers and till we meet again!

Congratulations ..

Congratulations and welldone to all fellow contestants of International Speech Contest

and

Table Topic contest.

International Speech Contest's fellow Contestants

Winner: Datuk Hassan Haji Sandukong, ACG-The 3 Cs

1st Runner Up: Melissa Betsy , CC- Be Positive

2nd Runner Up: Dusun Chong , CL- One Minute

Amy Hiew, CC- The Secret

JR Chia, TM- GIS

Table Topic Contest's fellow Contestants:

Winner: Charles Chow, TM.

1st Runner Up: Melissa Betsy, CC

2nd Runner Up: Datuk Hassan Haji Sandukong, ACG

Dusun Chong, CL

Ling How Kee, TM

Amy Hiew, CL

As quoted by Norman Chin, CL as well as Vice President of Education, by participating, you are already a winner. Well done contestants!

Winners with Madame President, Datin Grace Chiu and Vice President of Education, Norman Chin.

INTERNATIONAL SPEECH AND TABLE TOPIC CONTEST

Date & Time: 24th January 2008 @ 7.30pm

Venue: 1st Floor, Mini Conference Room, Mark Lodge at Bandar Indah

Come witness and support our fellow contestants!

On recent events:

Sandakan Toastmasters Ex Committee members who attended the TLI training were invited by Amy to join her birthday dinner @ Luna Rossa Italian Restaurant. We had a sumptuous dinner thanks to Amy.

TLI Training Part 2 @ Kinabalu College (10am to 3pm) on 19th January 2008

6 of Sandakan Toastmasters Officer attended the training. The training highlighted the benefits of being a Toastmasters and how we can share those benefits to everyone.

Cheers for now...!

Why do I keep coming back to Toastmasters?

By Speaking-life.blogspot.com

Toastmastering is addictive! I am a serial toastmaster!

No matter how much I try to cut down on my toastmasters activities, I continue to help out as a project evaluator, language evaluator or even the toastmasters of the evening on occasions where I can spare the time.

Going forward, I will have to drastically cut down my toastmastering activities especially from March 2008 onwards as my daughter will be announcing her presence to the world! In the meantime, I am still having a blast participating in toastmasters activities.

Being involved in toastmasters is not purely ultristic, I gain a lot from participating as an project evaluator and as a language evaluator.How project evaluation can benefit you.

Those of you who are toastmasters who have completed the Competent Communicator (CC) or Competent Toastmaster (CTM) titles know that when you evaluate, you are practising coaching skills. An effective evaluation is not one that glosses over the weaknesses or the speaker nor is it one that tears the speaker down. Effective evaluations require experienced toastmasters to walk the fine line between encouraging and condemning. It requires you as an evaluator to listen carefully to what, how and sometimes even guess at why the speaker says the things that he says.Speech evaluations have trained me to be a better listener. It has also allowed me to think quickly on my feet to find out how the speaker has either met, exceeded or missed his or her speech project objectives.My approach to speech evaluations has been to be fair and encouraging in tone. So I do not say all is fine when there were clear examples of the speaker not being able to meet one or more of the project objectives. I try to build people up by focussing on what they could do better and to be specific in the feedback. These techniques help me in being a better coach and mentor as I move on to a different phase to be a father to my daughter and a mentor to her development.How language evaluation can benefit you

Those of you who are experienced toastmasters and are fluent in English should consider taking up the role of language evaluator or grammarian in your clubs. If you have tried to arrange of language evaluators in your clubs, you will realise that there are only that many names being shared who are regular language evaluators.I too was afraid to be a language evaluator because I thought I didn't have sufficient vocabulary to comment on the technical references of language. However, as I performed more and more language evaluators, I began to realise that as the language evaluator, my role was not to be an English teacher. Instead, it was to share where I had heard good use of English and to share where I had heard obvious errors in grammar, pronunciation, singlish or poor expressions e.g. cliches. As I delivered more language evaluations, I learnt to listen more carefully and intently on not just what people say but how they said it. It allowed me to critically examine how language was used in a formal setting. I also liked to share with fellow toastmasters during my language evaluation that speaking correct English was important but being able to convey your message to the other party was critical. This means that substance was more important than form, but we could all improve on our forms as we developed our substances! ;-)

Toastmasters is a powerful programme. In my five years of toastmastering, I have achieved Competent Toastmaster (CTM), Competent Leader (CL), Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB). I am one speech away from my Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) in my English toastmasters and 4 speeches away from Competent Communicator (CC) in my Mandarin toastmasters.These achievements mean nothing if I have not learnt anything from my toastmasters journey. It is through the journey, the process and the preparation that went into achieving these titles that I grew the most in my toastmastering journey.

Many toastmasters drop out of the programme after achieving their Competent Communicator title. People join and leave clubs and associations all the time. But it is through exposing myself to the different facets of being a toastmaster that I have truly benefitted from the program. It has also allowed me to do something that I had always wanted to do, to touch other people's lives.Toastmasters allows you to do so, if you so chose.

Try toastmasters, it's simply amazing. :-)

What Motivates

A manager having just returned from a management seminar was trying to put into practice what he had learnt. He called in an employee and said that the employee could now plan and control his job. He was positive that it would raise productivity.

The worker wanter to know if he would be paid more.

The manager lectured that it had been found that money wasnot a motivator and that the employee could not expect to get greater expectation from a salary rise.

The employee wanted to know whether if productivity went up, he would be paid more.

Now, the manager was getting annoyed with the employee for not understanding the motivation theory. He therefore gave him a book to take home to read. "The book will tell you what motivates you."

As the man was about to leave, he paused and asked the manager, "If I finish the book, will I get a rise?"

Moral of the story

Theories aside, give people what they want. How often we get so engrossed in our own world that we fail to see reality.

In layman's term

Easier said than done. Just give them the money. :)

Cheers!

Toastmasters whereabout..

As we are writing now (10.44 am and the time is ticking every second) our dear Madame President, Datin Grace and Distinguished Toastmaster Eleanor is in the middle of disccusion in St Cecelia's Secondary School to discuss of a possibility for a Toastmasters Gavel Club in that school....

Just so you know...:)

New year, new beginning. Cliche, I know. :)

We had our first training meeting of 2008 last night. Held at a new venue, Mark Lodge, it definitely gave us a new ambience to fit in, with the bigger room, an actual stage or platform to talk , though a mini one, and everything was just so new, because the lodge was opened quite recent. All in all we had 16 presents including 2 guests; Adrian brought in by David Chong and Mr Chong brought in by Charles Chow. Toastmaster of the evening was none other than Dusun Chong, our immediate past president who did a great job earning the club President Distinguished Club for term 2006/2007 thus putting the pressure on the current President, Madame Datin Grace. However, sweat not as members of the club will be rooting her and assisting her to earn the award this year. As of now, we have achieved 5 DCP goals and soon 6 if we have at least four officers to join in the TLI Training on the 19th January 2008 in Kinabalu College.

Madame President presenting club's report

Back to the training meeting last night. As the table topic contest (club level) is drawing near, our Vice President of Education Norman Chin decided to take up the role as the table topic masters and posted various challenging topics that were at par with contest table topic standards. I reckon it was a good session, serve to gear up potential contestant for the contest.Again, the best table topic taker was Dusun Chong when he took on a topic "Love or Freedom" with his punch line "What's freedown without Love." Wahh.....:)

January babes were Amy and Kenny. Both wonderful people who have inspired me in some ways. Happy Birthday to you both! Amy, I hope your goal to be a housewife in 2008 materialized. Kenny, for a member who have been with Sandakan Toastmasters the longest, continue to inspire people around you by promoting Toastmasters. Hehe... You people rock the world!
In addition to what's been said, last night we heard speeches from 4 speakers ranging topics from Global Warming, Rich Dad, Poor Dad on how to be a millionaire, Coaching the right way, to Smart Parenting. How cool is that??? We were given a wake up call to start thinking about the environments and left to ponder on what are we going to do about it, on how to be a millionaire ( now this is interesting), on leadership and managerial skills, and on being a smart parent. Awesome.

A great way to retreat the day is to feed your idle mind with inspirations, positive calls and knowledge.

I tell you, perhaps Toastmasters are about improving your communication and presentation skills, but it is more than that. Really. We happen to be a bunch of people who are passionate for the society, environments and the whole well being. Most importantly, we're nice people. :) Right?

Anyway, cheers to our journey for 2008. May it be a great, fun filled, fruitful year for all of us and YOU!

Best Wishes,

Melissa, cc

Your Vice President Public Relations 2007/2008.

Greetings you all! Welcome to the first entry of 2008.

Just a few minutes ago, my friend was quoting, "New Year, New Beginning" So cliche but so true! Anyway, I was surfing for some nice New Year poem and found a few. So I thought I share it with you all. Sharing is caring. :D

Here goes....

Happy New Year To You
Happy New Year to you!

May every great new dayBring you sweet surprises--

A happiness buffet.

Happy New Year to you,

And when the new year’s done,May the next year be even better,

Full of pleasure, joy and fun.

Happy New Year Wish
My Happy New Year wish for you

Is for your best year yet,

A year where life is peaceful,

And what you want, you get.

A year in which you cherish

The past year’s memories,

And live your life each new day

Full of bright expectancies.

I wish for you a holiday

With happiness galore;

And when it’s done,

I wish you Happy New Year, and many more.

New Year’s Reality Check
Another year, another chance

To start our lives anew;

This time we’ll leap old barriers

To have a real breakthrough.
We’ll take one little step

And then we’ll take one more,

Our unlimited potential

We’ll totally explore.

We’ll show off all our talents

Everyone will be inspired

We’ll give up all bad habits;

We’ll read and learn a lot,

All our goals will be accomplished,

Sigh...or maybe not.

Oh well, Happy New Year anyway!

So yeah, have an awesome 2008!