This article is taken from my speech during our last Toastmaster meeting.

Do you know what is the only thing that will never stop until you die other than the pumping of your heart?

You will never stop learning from the day you were born until the day you end your life. Learning is a continues process for you to develop a certain skill set to do something effectively to achieve a desirable result.

Learning can happen in 3 ways.

Firstly it can happen instantaneously using the subconscious mind like a baby trying to stand up for the first time by holding the edge of a table or a chair to lift its body up and stand before falling on the floor. But later on will try again and learn to balance its body until it can stand up comfortably.

Learning can also happen by force as what we have gone through in school. Like it or not, we have been forced to go to school and obviously all of us have adapted to this type of learning.

Another type of learning which I will talk about in my speech today is self learning which is the best type of learning just because it originated by your own initiative. When a person opted to develop him or herself, automatically the commitment and the dedication will come out by itself. A great example is here in Toastmasters. I’m sure no one is here by force or just happen to be here because your subconscious mind brought you here. We are here because we have chosen to develop ourself to be a better speaker and at the same time develop leadership skills for our career or personal needs.

Self learning is about how you want to develop yourself in whatever way you want by yourself. You can learn by reading books or articles, by attending talks or courses, by reading and leaving comments in blogs or participate in forums and etc. You can also learn by joining clubs such as Toastmasters or just do something positive to get out from your comfort zone.

The “Law of Entropy”, one of the fundamental universal physical law stated that anything that is left to itself, organized system will get less organize and unstable as time advances. For example if you abandon a new car for a year or more, you will notice a flat tire, broken windows, corrode parts and etc. Similarly, if you are not continuously learning and developing yourself even currently you are at your peak, you will not be at your best in the future.

The question most of you will be wondering now is what is the best way to start a self learning process.

The answer is “Just focus on your strength”.

Many leadership gurus have shared many ways on how to kick off a self learning process. For example by Stephen Covey in his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” where the Habit # 7 is Sharpen The Saw.

A saw will only be effective as long its teeth are sharpen diligently. The strength of the saw is determine by how sharp its teeth are. Similarly to us, our effectiveness will be determined by our strength not by our weaknesses. Going back to the analogy of the saw, if you diligently sharpen the wrong side of the saw, yes in the long term it may eventually get sharp of course after some great effort but it will  be useless in a short term.

Hence, as a start, you can begin by assessing your self learning needs by identifying your strength. To avoid being bias, get feedback from your family and close friends. You will also need to be very honest to yourself and should be ready to leave your comfort zone. You will need to remember this is a self assessment, no one will be there to tell you if you are doing the right thing or not.

Once you have completed this assessment, you should have a good understanding on your strength.

Next it is time to sharpen the saw. Focus on activities that can enhance your strength. I’m sure in no time, you will start to have a very sharp saw, literary.

So in the future, if you want to start a self learning process just focus on your strength.

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Glossophobia or fear of public speaking is the most common fear among many of us including professionals who are making a living out of public speaking. What makes them to be successful is their ability to overcome their fear by leveraging some skills that many of us can learn effectively. The focus of today’s article is to share some tips on how to collectively learn and build the skills needed to overcome glossophobia.

As a start, for me the word glossophobia itself is a new word I’ve learnt while writing this article. Most probably it is also a new word to you hence I would like to take this opportunity to share from where this word was derived. Based on Wikipedia, glossophobia originated from the Greek word glossa which means tongue and phobos, fear or dread. 

In whatever career you are in, to a certain extend, you will be forced to speak in the public regardless if the group is small or as large as a nation or globally. When this situation happens, many of us would rather avoid it but not realizing this is a good opportunity for their self development. Mastering the skills of effective public speaking not only will accelerate your career growth but also will help to improve your communication skills in your personal live. I’m sure you will be amazed when listenning to great speakers such as nation leaders; Obama, Dr Mahathir and many more who are able to engage and move audiences with their rhetoric use of words and composure to overcome their glossophobia. We can also be like them as long as we are willing to do these 2 things: Control your mind & Just do it!

Control your mind

The major hurdle to be successful in public speaking is your mind. Ironically, at the same time it is also your mind that will determine your success. Logically, if you are able to control your mind then to overcome glossophobia will be simple but yet practically it is not. Naturally, we have been programmed to fight or flight when we are confronted with anything that we think will cause us danger or challenge our status quo. Hence going against glossophobia will require us to change our programmed mind. Thank God we are able to do that.

Firstly, we need to understand the possible root cause of glossophobia which most likely due to traumatic single or multiple public speaking incidents by your own or someone’s experience. The incident might be a rejection or negative perception from the public after failing to deliver a good speech which eventually leads to a series of belief that public speaking will only bring negative perception from the public. Furthermore, it will also cause self defeating and anxiety provoking situation where your thoughts will only picture yourself to be a failure and start to have panic attack. The best way that we thought to mitigate this situation is just by avoiding it. From time to time, this will be a dogma in your mind which will build the glossophobia in yourself.

If this is happening in you, then the first thing you will need to do is control your mind. Even though it is tough but as long as you want to change then it is possible. You can do it by yourself through listening to some great speakers talking in tv, radio or in You Tube to motivate your change. Your amazement listening to them will help you to realize that public speaking is actually a positive interaction that will benefit yourself and also the audience. That is a start to a positive change.

Next, to accelerate your change is to join a community of people who is in the same boat as you. There are several established communities or clubs which focus primary on improving communication skills. One of the club that I just recently joined is Toastmasters International. 

Basically Toastmasters International is a leading movement devoted in making effective oral communication achievable by everyone through learning of speaking, listening, thinking, leadership potential enhancement, foster human understanding & contribute to betterment of humankind. Toastmasters clubs are available throughout the world, you can click HERE to check if there is a club available near you. For those who are in Penang, you are cordially invited to join our club meeting as a distinguish guest. As a guest, you will witness how a Toastmaster Club meeting is conducted to train their members at their own pace to enhance skills to be an effective public speaker. If you are interested to join us, please drop me an e-mail at career_advisor@resumeweassist.com with your contact # to book a seat.

Just do it!

Finally, with the skills you have learnt, now it is the time to put them in practice. Participate in events where you will be able to demonstrate your skills as an effective public speaker.

Good luck!

I would like to read your inputs about this article. If you have any comments or experience to share, please feel free to drop them at below.

Thanks.

Till then,

Take care.

Regards

Yusoff 

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Employers are looking for workers who have that special something: the skills, tendencies and attributes that help to keep productivity and profits up.

What are they? Businesses are looking for employees with strong “personal” skills, according to ACT research. Keep these in mind, because employers certainly are.

• Carefulness: Do you have a tendency to think and plan carefully before acting? This helps with reducing the chance for costly errors, as well as keeping a steady workflow going.
• Cooperation: Willingness to engage in interpersonal work situations is very important in the workplace.
• Creativity: You’ve heard of “thinking outside the box”? Employers want innovative people who bring a fresh perspective.
• Discipline: This includes the ability to keep on task and complete projects without becoming distracted or bored.
• Drive: Businesses want employees who have high aspiration levels and work hard to achieve goals.
• Good attitude: This has been shown to predict counterproductive work behaviors, job performance and theft.
• Goodwill: This is a tendency to believe others are well intentioned.
• Influence: Groups need strong leaders to guide the way. Influence includes a tendency to positively impact social situations by speaking your mind and becoming a group leader.
• Optimism: A positive attitude goes a long way toward productivity.
• Order: “Where did I put that?” A tendency to be well organized helps employees to work without major distractions or “roadblocks.”
• Safe work behaviors: Employers want people who avoid work-related accidents and unnecessary risk-taking in a work environment.
• Savvy: This isn’t just about job knowledge, but knowledge of coworkers and the working environment. It includes a tendency to read other people’s motives from observed behavior and use this information to guide one’s thinking and action.
• Sociability: How much you enjoy interacting with coworkers affects how well you work with them.
• Stability: This means a tendency to maintain composure and rationality in stressful work situations.
• Vigor: This is a tendency to keep a rapid tempo and keep busy.

If you have any other personal skills that were left out from the list above, please share in the comments below. Please also tell us why do you think they are important.

Thanks