Stand Up and – Toast! You Want Me to Speak NOW?

When I joined Toastmasters in 2006, one of my primary goals was to improve my impromptu speaking skills. While I was used to giving prepared presentations at business conferences, I encountered more and more situations in which I needed to be able to speak at a moment’s notice – whether it was a Q&A at the end of a presentation, or filling in for a colleague in a webinar.

There are many other situations in which you need to think on your feet, whether you are giving a toast at a celebration, giving a status update to your manager or team, or responding to questions in a job interview. You can see some of these situations in the first half of the trailer of the movie “Speak.”

Even if you are only responding to a question, you can still make that response structured, and leave your audience or conversation partner with a take-away.

One way to practice thinking on your feet is by participating in the Table Topics™ segment of a Toastmasters club meeting. A “Table Topics Master” will ask you a question, and you have 1-2 minutes to respond to it. Often, the questions within a meeting are all related to a theme, usually with an entertaining twist – from topics related to travel, to asking participants to draw a penny out of a bag and talk about what you remember from the year the penny was cast. The idea is to get you comfortable responding to the unexpected.

For these impromptu situations, keep the following strategies in mind:

• Consider the answer to a question as a mini-speech – create an opening, middle, and ending, even if the ending simply re-states your position.
• Develop a strategy to give you time to think. For example, restate the question in your own words to ensure you have understood it. Avoid the obvious clichés. The audience knows you’re stalling with phrases such as, “That’s a great question!”
• Know your subject matter. You will feel much more comfortable if you are discussing a familiar topic.
• Use a key story or anecdote to illustrate your point, whether it is a personal experience or a customer story.
• Don’t forget to answer the question! It is a common mistake to just “fill time” without advancing the story, or your point.

Most of all, relax! In impromptu situations think of it as a conversation, and just talk with your audience.

To practice impromptu speaking, find a Toastmasters club near you! 
http://www.d4tm.org/Membership/findingClub.php