One of the best lessons I learned early in my career was the saying “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” When you turn on CNBC or Bloomberg business television and you hear an analyst rattling off a bunch of numbers, that is the basically what they are doing. They are using metrics to gauge actual results against a target expectation or goal. This helps to quickly assess value, identify weakness and highlight outstanding performance.

You can use goal setting and metrics to do the same for your Toastmasters experience.

Begin with an honest self assessment of your own level of ability. This will help form a strategy and set personal goals.

Consider these areas in your personal assessment:

  1. Fear / Comfort Level – Are you terrified of public speaking? There is nothing to be ashamed of over this fear. It is commonly listed as the number one fear in most people. And good news, it can be overcome!
  2. Communication Ability – How good are you at getting across your ideas? Do your stories go on forever? Can you get to the heart of the matter? Can you be brief AND effective?
  3. Creative Ability – Can you be creative? How long does it take you to prepare a speech? Can you think on your feet when asked a question on the spot?
  4. Leadership Ability – Can you help others grow? Can you give effective feedback? Can you get people to follow your ideas?

Now that you understand your current level, figure out a plan for improving upon them. Remember the opening line from above. Use numbers to measure your ability level. You’ll see in the Pathways education material the use of the 1-5 system. 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest level. You can easily use this system in the above 4 bullet points and reflect upon them quarterly. Your comfort level might be at a 1 to start and after a year it might be at a 4.

At the very least, set a goal for how many meetings you will attend and how many speeches you will give over six months. Then keep track and assess your performance monthly. For example, a club might meet 50 times in a year. Set a goal to attend 80% of the meetings.

For you overachievers, keep track of your speech production and preparation times. For example, it took 3 hours to prepare your first speech and by speech 6 it was down to 1 hour.

As you progress through your Toastmasters journey, have your metrics at ready recall to be used in an interview setting.

An interviewer might say to you: “Tell me about your Toastmasters experience.”

You can then respond in an organized fashion the way you would a speech with something like: “I started here, I set a goal, I achieved these metrics: 80% meetings, 6 speeches in a year, and got my production time down by 50%.”

Then they might follow up with a question like: “What were your speeches about?” You need to have them on ready recall so you can speak intelligently about them!

A closing thought as I wrap up this New Member Series…

One of my favorite poems is Desiderata. The whole thing is great for reflection throughout life. In it there is a line that says “Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.”

With that in mind, keep interested in your personal goals and achievements. Fellow Club Members will come and go and participate with varying levels of commitment. If you stay focused on your goals, then you will get a lot closer to them had you not written them down. When you achieve a goal, there is a valuable sense of accomplishment that money can’t buy.

Cheers to your development!