This week’s posts are about great speakers who have made a difference in the lives of people that they meet. One of which is Craig Strachan of Communications Excellence.
Craig is currently connected with The National Speakers Association of Southern Africa and Toastmasters International in Southern Africa where he received the Toastmaster of the Year award by his Toastmasters club. Likewise, Craig is also recognized as the Division Governor of the Year. Because of these, we asked his views regarding Toastmasters and public speaking.
Craig detailed to us how he learned about Toastmasters. “I always knew that Toastmasters is an organization that “taught public speaking”, but beyond that, I didn’t really know anything about it.
About 10 years ago, I started moving up in management and responsibility at work, and I found myself giving more and more presentations. I realized that I need to improve my public speaking skills to become more effective at work.
My in-laws were both Toastmasters, so I went to visit their Toastmasters club, and I joined after my first meeting.
When I joined Toastmasters, I found out that the educational program was far more that just public speaking, but that it encompasses every aspect of communication and leadership. I soon found myself on the club committee. Since then, I have served in all seven of the club officer roles, as well as Area and Division Governor. I achieved my Distinguished Toastmaster award about two years ago.
I currently look after marketing for District 74, which covers nine countries in Southern Africa, and from July, I will be Lt.Gov Education and Training.”
Craig has really gone a long way in terms of his achievements in public speaking which leads us to the next question, “Even the most advanced speaker has challenges and can improve in some area. What is the public speaking challenge you are working at right now? And if you could choose anyone in the world to be your mentor to help you take your public speaking skills to the next level, who would that person be?”
“One of the things that I love about the Toastmasters educational program is that no matter how good you get, there is always room for improvement. My main challenge at the moment is how to convert a 5-7 minute speech (which is the typical length of a Toastmasters speech) into a full hour keynote presentation. I have a couple of fantastic mentors in South Africa, in particular Adolf Kaestner, who is really helping me in my speaking business.”
He further added that through an organization called Champion’s Edge, he had the honor to meet David Brooks and Mark Brown, both of which are world champions in public speaking. These people are filled with wisdom and experience.
If he could pick anybody as a mentor, Craig said, ”Stephen Covey would be very high on my list. Just imagine the leadership skills that he could teach you!”
Lastly, we asked him to comment on the importance of a speaker’s accent when delivering a particular speech.
“As an English speaking South African, my accent tends towards British. However, with 11 official languages in South Africa, we hear a very diverse range of accents every day. Personally I believe that one’s accent can be an asset, it can be use to distinguish oneself form another, provided one can be clearly understood.
If you do speak with an accent, just slow down and speak a little more clearly - it will make a huge difference especially if your native language is a fast-spoken one.”
Craig is also an author and a speech mentor. He conducts trainings regularly on effective communications. You can reach him through his site at www.craigstrachan.com
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
This advice is really going to help, thanks.