April 2023 Leader Letter
Climbing the Corporate (Club) Ladder
It’s a great time to recommend Toastmasters within the workplace.
As companies find their place in a changed workplace, many leaders are realizing their workforce could use a refresh. In fact, recent research on Toastmasters corporate clubs found that a majority of surveyed managers, supervisors, and executives want to see their employees build soft skills to better present to leadership and in front of groups, as well as to better collaborate across divisions and departments.
Are you one of those company leaders? Do you know another leader outside of Toastmasters who is? Have you established a professional relationship with a company that could benefit from a Toastmasters corporate club? The time is ripe for you to help promote corporate clubs to forward-moving leaders who are more in tune than ever with soft-skill development!
The personal and professional skills learned and improved at corporate clubs are aligned with the skills learned at any Toastmasters club, namely: self-confidence, oral communication, presentation/public speaking, time management, impromptu speaking, speaking under pressure, and feedback (both giving and receiving).
But at a corporate club, where members are likely working together professionally, the value to the organization is expanded beyond each individual’s communication improvements; put another way, the corporate club whole is greater than the sum of its members.
So, here are a few additional benefits to consider touting when promoting corporate clubs:
Company culture/mission will be better understood. For any organization to function effectively, its own set of internal knowledge needs to be shared and comprehended. It can take time to learn how a company does things; the corporate club will help employees learn this information faster.
Team members and managers will have time together on equal ground. Leadership vulnerability is a big topic today, and corporate clubs facilitate this and improve how team members and managers connect with one another. This will likely transfer to projects in the workplace.
A forum for open dialogue will be created. The corporate club can help keep employees up to date on company changes, progress, and future plans in a way that company newsletters and emails can’t.
Online corporate clubs will create proficient online workers. With fully remote and hybrid workforces becoming the norm, online and hybrid corporate clubs will facilitate and streamline the new way of working together.
Outside events will be fun, less awkward, and more frequent contributors to internal cohesion. Nothing hinders company communication more than when employees don’t really know or trust one another. The corporate club will likely lead to more “out of office” mingling and events, which can facilitate improved engagement and stronger communication when working together.
Additional Resources: