June 2008 Archives

Today I had the pleasure of giving my 10th speech at my Toastmasters Club. This completes the Competent Communicator manual and means I have reached the first milestone in my Toastmasters career. I feel I have really progressed since November when I gave my Icebreaker speech and if the feedback is anything to go by this has been noticed by everyone in the club.

Toastmasters is a funny thing really. Public speaking is an important skill and to follow such an established process as the 10 speech projects has really been an education. One of the main reasons I started on this was because I felt that many of the leaders I had seen speak, clearly missed an opportunity by communicating poorly - even when they had a potentially strong message.

Of course, with only 10 speeches under my belt I am no expert - what I am though is far more aware of what I can do when speaking to increase the chances of achieving my desired aim. I recommend Toastmasters whole heartedly to anyone who has an interest in their own personal development and how they are peceived by others. You will learn lots about speaking, evaluating and leadership but more importantly you will learn more about yourself. Something, I feel is never a bad thing.

For the record, my speeches in order were as follows:

The Icebreaker; The Technology of being Connected; Crows - dispelling the myths; The Inspiration of Mountains; Autogeddon - the motor car; New Ventures BC Competition; Howard Schulz; Talking Sticks; The Simplest Act - walking; Ignite the Spark.

After the speech today I called my boss to tell him I had completed this milestone. He replied "It's good to know I now have 1 competent member of my team!" :-)

I've had some interesting responses when I introduce myself as a financial storyteller. The vast majority of these have been very favourable - I help organisations tell their story through numbers. Depending on the organisation, this can mean presenting what their business actually is to an external audience or informing Senior Management internally about what's going on.

So I was thrilled to see the latest CMA Marketing campaign which was launched last week. The new brand platform is "Creative Accountants" and I agree with David Fletcher who is the CMA Vice President, Public Affairs, when he explained "This is about people, not a criminal practice." I think the same can be said for storytelling. The full comments are contained in this article and I invite you to check them out.

As an alternative you can check our the new website, creativeaccountants.org. I applaud this campaign and the thinking behind it. Whether it's easier to say I am creative accountant or a financial storyteller I can't guess but either way we are on the same page.