Chapter 12
 Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace . . .

Do you realize that there are groups right in your own community or region that will let you practice being assertive, and on top of that, invite you back again and again? You may think that such opportunities are too good to be true, but this is true! Toastmasters International and other speaking, training, performance, consulting, and instruction-based societies can be found in every major metropolitan area, many suburban areas, and probably right near you.

These groups are not in existence specifically so that members can become more assertive. As a by-product of your participation, however, you can achieve spectacular results.

In this chapter, I will elaborate on four major professional societies that you can contact and join if you choose, so that you can begin to become more assertive and more effective in ways you may never have imagined.

All About Toastmasters International

Toastmasters International (TI) asserts that whatever your goals may be, your success in life will mostly depend on your ability to speak. People who have the ability to effectively communicate possess one of the skills necessary to achieve their goals.

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 Just the Facts
Dr. Ralph C. Smedley founded Toastmasters International (TI) in 1924 in Santa Anna, California, to help people develop their communications skills. In 1932, Toastmasters International was incorporated under California law, and now administers business and services through its world headquarters, located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Toastmasters employs neither paid promoters nor instructors, and no salaried staff except the executive director and world headquarters staff, which provides services to the clubs and districts.

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Members of Toastmasters International learn by doing; each member presents short speeches and impromptu presentations in front of other group members. TI contends (with lots of supporting evidence) that at membership fees of less than $50 per year, the program is cost-effective, especially when compared to seminars charging hundreds of dollars per day. The program must be working very well, as it has members from all over the world!

A Little Toastmasters Philosophy

To understand and appreciate Toastmasters and how it can help you to achieve dramatic breakthroughs in assertiveness and leadership, you have to understand a little about the Toastmasters philosophy. They believe that a person’s success, at least in business, is based on how effectively one communicates—hard to find fault with that! In Toastmasters, people learn to effectively communicate, conduct a meeting, manage a department or business, lead, delegate, and motivate.

“As your improved communication skills become obvious within the workplace,” says TI, “increased visibility, recognition, and promotion will follow.” While these may sound like high fallutin’ claims, I personally find them to be more true than not. As I emphasized in my book Blow Your Horn: How to Get Noticed and Get Ahead (Berkley), once you improve your presentation skills, you begin to attain the respect and sometimes the admiration of your peers.

A Few Good Men and Women

The leadership skills you can acquire in Toastmasters can increase your potential as an executive or manager. As with most organizations, however, you must have the initiative! By serving as club officer, you learn to use parliamentary procedure, accept and delegate responsibility, and implement the basics of planning and leadership.

Resources Galore

Each Toastmasters club has access to many educational materials, including books, audio-and videotapes, and seminar programs. Most of these come from the Toastmasters International Supply Catalog, but really, they’re a good deal. Toastmasters offers several self-paced programs you can use to meet your own goals at your own speed. For example, there are programs on:

• Prepared speeches
  
• Impromptu speaking
  
• Using visual aids
  
• Using voice inflection
  
• Giving a persuasive speech
  
• Introducing others
  
• Improving your grammar

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 Make It So
Many Toastmasters clubs change officers every six months or so. Hence, you can obtain leadership training and experience in short order by becoming an officer. As a Toastmaster, you can also increase your ability to persuade or inspire others.

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Each new member receives several educational materials, including the “Toastmasters Basic Communication and Leadership Program” manual. The manual contains speech assignments for the meetings that follow (don’t worry, we’re not talking drudgery here). The probability is that by the time you finish the manual, you’ll organize and present an invigorating and effective speech.

From there, you can become part of Toastmasters’ Advanced Communication and Leadership Program, which consists of more challenging assignments that you complete in pursuit of your own career objectives. In other words, what you do in Toastmasters has immediate, real-world applications.

Each member also receives The Toastmaster, a monthly magazine that offers the latest insights into speaking and leadership techniques. I’ve read it and been published in it several times—this is a highly worthwhile magazine that you’ll want to receive.

Scouting Out These Guys

With thousands of Toastmasters clubs around the world, there is undoubtedly one near you, and you don’t need a personal invitation to join. Some clubs are listed with their local Chamber of Commerce; some are listed under “Clubs” in the Yellow Pages; and some list their meetings in the weekly calendar section of the local newspaper. Once you find the club that is convenient for you, attend one of their meetings. You will be made to feel welcome—no one will ask you to “speak up,” although you can if you want to. Don’t be surprised to find members from such diverse backgrounds as executives, auto mechanics, teachers, attorneys, homemakers, artists, college students, doctors, supervisors, engineers, and salespersons. In the highly unlikely event that there is no club near you, you can even form your own with permission and assistance from Toastmasters International.

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 Just the Facts
About half of the new Toastmasters clubs since 1990 have been organized as in-house company clubs. In other words, many companies choose to sponsor a Toastmasters club as a way to provide high-quality, cost-effective communication training for their employees.

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If you want to increase your assertiveness, speech power, or leadership potential, put down this book right now and contact Toastmasters International at:

American Society for Training and Development

The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) asserts that the most consistent advantage for individual employees and businesses is the ability to learn faster and perform more efficiently than the competition.

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 Just the Facts
Founded in 1944, ASTD is a leader in the field of workplace learning and performance. ASTD’s membership includes more than 58,000 individuals and organizations from every level of the field of workplace performance in more than 100 countries. The leaders and members of ASTD work in multinational corporations, small- and medium-size businesses, government agencies, colleges, and universities worldwide.

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ASTD serves as a resource provider on topics related to workplace learning and performance. The organization sees itself as worldwide leader in this field.

What Can It Do for Me?

One of ASTD’s goals is to find, create, and disseminate the world’s most successful practices for achieving better performance at work. Attending and possibly joining ASTD programs either at the national or local level can give you insights and tools for being more effective in training, managing, and leading others.

While enhancing one’s assertiveness is just one benefit of the many programs ASTD chapters offer, there are more than enough resources on the topic and opportunities for growth in this area to justify your joining, particularly if you have some responsibility for the performance of others.

Each year ASTD identifies high-priority issues for members and the human resource development field in general. It then develops and promotes national public policies that support workplace training and performance. If you work for a large organization, it’s a safe bet that there are several ASTD members within your company.

At ASTD meetings, trainers and human resource professionals listen to a fellow presenter and exchange ideas. At any given meeting you’re likely to hear about methods for:

• Enhancing learning and performance in the American workplace
  
• Increasing workers’ ability to learn and adapt in a changing environment
  
• Sustaining competitive advantages, personally and organizationally
  
• Reinventing, reengineering, or revitalizing a department or organization
  
• Operating in a diverse workplace
  
• Being more assertive in the face of challenging situations

A Little ASTD Philosophy

ASTD contends in its literature that “performance is a precious commodity sought by every business. In the United States and around the globe, companies are responding to new demands. They have introduced technology, focused on recruiting a qualified workforce, downsized, restructured, and trained. All of these activities have been undertaken to achieve and sustain higher performance.”

As companies, particularly those that are small and medium-size, undertake change, they often find it difficult to develop a skilled workforce and maintain a modernized workplace. So, the more than 158 local ASTD chapters offer opportunities for those who supervise or train others to get involved through regular meetings, newsletters, conferences and workshops, position referral services, community outreach programs, and social activities.

Some Key Resources

ASTD’s Training & Development monthly magazine investigates the latest trends and topics in training, performance, human resource management, and learning new technologies. It is sent to the nearly 31,000 members and 6,000 non-member subscribers.

Technical & Skills Training magazine is dedicated to serving the specific needs of technical trainers. Each issue is targeted to help people who plan technical programs, purchase products and services, and train workers.

Another key resource is ASTD Online, a software database of learning, training, and performance literature. Using its electronic-mail and bulletin-board features, you can contact performance specialists around the world to discuss issues.

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 Just the Facts
ASTD produces several conferences each year, such as the “International Conference and Exposition” and the “Technical and Skills Conference and Exposition.” Training and development professionals from around the world attend.

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Like Toastmasters, membership dues for ASTD are surprisingly affordable. Here’s how to get in touch with them:

National Speakers Association

The National Speakers Association (NSA) is a professional speakers’ association of members from the United States, Canada, and around the world. NSA offers workshops, seminars, conventions, support materials, and other learning opportunities. Like TI and ASTD, NSA is a membership organization and charges a first time fee as well as an annual membership fee. Unlike TI and ASTD, to join NSA, you must meet certain criteria as outlined on the membership application, such as having spoken to a certain number of groups in the past year. In this way, it’s a somewhat more exclusive organization, although new members are openly welcomed and encouraged to stay from the start.

Some people erroneously think that NSA is a speakers’ bureau and that it “books” speakers. It does not. NSA is, however, a place where you can be a part of a like-minded community of speaking professionals where the pursuit of knowledge and the sharing of ideas is a way of life. Members fall into three distinct categories:

• Experienced professional speakers
  
• Developing professional speakers
  
• Individuals who serve the profession with products and services, such as speakers’ agents and bureaus, seminar producers, presentation skills coaches, cassette producers, and other industry professionals

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 Handle with Care
Once they get your address, ASTD inundates you with its literature. To remove your name from the mailing list, call the office of the chief executive and speak to an assistant. This way the request comes from the top down.

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 Just the Facts
NSA was founded in 1973 in Phoenix, Arizona, by veteran speaker Cavett Robert. Most of the 3,700 members seek to pursue a greater capacity to influence others through the spoken word. NSA regards itself as “a vast universe of learning opportunities, friendship, participation, and growth.”

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Broadly defined, NSA membership offers you opportunities for professional development, networking, and leadership, plus platform competencies, business development strategies, and professional recognition.

As with many such professional organizations, the benefits you can derive by joining are directly related to your level of participation in activities and commitment to greater personal effectiveness.

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 Make It So
In NSA you will encounter some of the most exquisitely assertive people in the world. If you seek to be more effective in communicating, influencing and, indeed, inspiring others, NSA can dramatically shorten your learning curve.

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Membership Bennies

NSA’s programs, meetings, publications, and resources are structured around what they call eight “Professional Competencies,” with each of the Competencies having numerous subtopics. The big eight include: Authorship and Product Development, Managing the Business, Platform Mechanics, Presenting and Performing, Professional Awareness, Professional Relationships, Sales and Marketing, and Topic Development.

Meet and Greet

Most new or prospective members start off at the chapter level. NSA has 37 chapters, with more being developed each year. Chapters offer members networking opportunities with individuals who share similar goals. The typical chapter offers keynote and seminar-type presentations, mentor programs, speakers’ schools, leadership sessions, and showcase presentations.

Each July, NSA holds its National Convention, where you can be a spectator, a participator, and/or a presenter.

As with TI and ASTD, you get to learn from some of the best and brightest members; in this case, top-level speakers who command high fees for their presentations. Members often build lifelong relationships with one another. I’m a member of NSA and have been to ten of the last 12 annual conventions. I can tell you firsthand that for at least the first couple of years that you attend them, NSA conventions are on the order of life-changing experiences.

It just doesn’t seem possible that so many positive, assertive, supercharged people could exist in one association. NSA’s Educational Workshops are held twice each year. Here, members meet in a more intimate setting for specific nuts-and-bolts sessions. Single-Focus Labs are educational sessions that focus on one of the eight competencies. These sessions are held at NSA’s International Center for Professional Speaking, in Tempe, Arizona.

Professional Emphasis Groups (PEGs) provide another opportunity for members with particular interests to share ideas and experiences. Thus far, 11 PEGs serve the NSA membership: Bureaus, Consultants, Sales Trainers, International Speakers, Humor, Health and Wellness, Technology, Educators, Motivational/Keynote, Writers & Publishers, and Seminar/ Workshop Leaders.

Other Membership Bennies

Among many other benefits of membership, ten times each year NSA offers a sterling audiocassette program called “Voices of Experience.” The tapes include top achievers who share their experiences with the other members. NSA’s magazine, Professional Speaker, is published ten times a year and offers features about what’s happening in the speaking profession and meetings industry.

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 Just the Facts
Every NSA member is featured in the Meeting Planner’s Guide to Professional Speakers. This 450-page guidebook contains each member’s photograph and professional description. The book is mailed free to meeting professionals throughout the country.

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Here is contact information for NSA:

International Society for Performance Improvement

The last of the four key professional societies where you will find ample opportunity to increase your assertiveness skills is the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). ISPI regards itself as the “leading association dedicated to increasing productivity in the workplace through the application of performance and instructional technologies.”

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 Just the Facts
Founded in 1962, ISPI’s approximately 10,000 international and chapter members are located throughout the United States, Canada, and 40 other countries. ISPI is populated by performance technologists, training directors, human resource managers, instructional technologists, and organizational development consultants. These professionals work in business, industry, universities, governmental agencies, health services, banks, and the armed forces.

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To Join, to Grow

You can join ISPI to help yourself and others to grow professionally and personally, to meet and know leaders in the field of performance and instruction, and to stay on its leading edge. ISPI’s Performance & Instruction Journal, published ten times a year, offers approaches and methodologies that can improve your skills and effectiveness in helping to improve human performance through incentives and feedback, performance aids, organizational development, job design, and instruction. A second publication, Performance Improvement Quarterly, offers articles on research and theory in performance technology.

ISPI’s annual conference draws the largest gathering of performance and instruction professionals in the country. It offers nearly 200 different sessions, touching almost every aspect of improving human performance. At a recent conference, for example, nearly 2,200 members from 20 countries attended for the opportunity to network with peers and learn the latest developments in human performance improvement.

To learn more about ISPI, contact:

What Else Is Available?

Beyond these big four, there are opportunities on the local level for you to participate as a member, presenter, or leader. Every other club, professional society, and civic group in town represents potentially fertile ground for you.

It’s a Privilege

Even if you are only speaking to a group of three at work, the opportunity to assert yourself is there. Naomi Rhode, a successful entrepreneur in partnership with her husband, Jim, and a talented platform speaker, refers to what she calls the “privilege of the platform”—the honor of being able to speak to others and to have them be willing to listen to you. You can join TI, ASTD, NSA, ISPI, or go local—you have dozens of opportunities awaiting you in the forthcoming year.