October Professional Development Workshop and Monthly Meeting Report
October’s Professional Development (PD) Session and Monthly Meeting took place at the Holiday Inn Toronto Yorkdale. Following this year’s call to "leave your comfort zone," the topic of the PD session was, "Why You Need Great Speaking Skills Now: Key Principles, Tips & Tricks." For many, the thought of standing up and speaking in front of a crowd can be debilitating. The facilitators, Fraser Barnes and Stephen Grant from Toastmasters, provided welcome and practical advice on how to overcome your fears and deliver a great presentation, which will go a long way to alleviate our fears.
Want to hear what members had to say about this event? Check out the video testimonials by clicking here.
The evening session took on another difficult topic, "The Power of Approach: Doing What’s Difficult to Drive Performance and Leadership." Dr. J.P. Pawlin-Fry took an entertaining approach to this topic, referring to the famous "stuck on an escalator" commercial as well as the "do not touch the marshmallow" experiment to illustrate the dangers of avoiding difficult situations and conversations. He discussed the traps that lead us to avoid these situations giving us the example of the desire to be liked as a key contributing factor. He also revealed the surprising fact that we often draw conclusions based on less than 5% of the available information. He concluded by providing the tools to escape these traps and lead a successful and productive team!
A special thank-you to our A/V sponsor for the evening Frisckhorn Audio Visual for their ability to manage last minute AV requests. Also thanks to our venue sponsor, the Holiday Inn Toronto Yorkdale, and our speaker sponsors, Toastmasters and Speakers' Spotlight.