An entrepreneur, professional, businessman and the president of Everest Toastmasters Club. Shakya has transformed himself from a reclusive person to Advanced Communicator Silver and Advanced Leader Bronze. The internationally certified titles are now affixed to his name, certifying his communication and leadership skills.[break]
“I actually was a donkey, and I’ve become a horse now. I haven’t changed, I have been transformed,” said the 39-year-old of his days at Toastmasters International, a non-profit organization promoting and developing communication and leadership skills in local clubs worldwide.
As a child, a shy, introvert, Shakya didn’t speak while in school. But the scene changed as he graduated in Masters in Business Administration in Calcutta, India, when he realized communication was a major trick of the trade. After facing several job interviews, working as a salesman and then as marketing heads for companies like Himal Media and Channel Nepal and further as a teacher at Kathmandu University, Shakya had germinated the poise of public speaking, he thought.
But not really.
“By that time, I thought I was a good speaker,” he said of his first speech at the Everest Toastmasters Club in the Table Topic Session where a guest can participate. “But in two minutes, I made 17 hesitations. So I realized there was so much to learn and thought of joining.”
And the journey has continued. From a hall of the Russian Culture Centre as a closed group, the Everest Toastmasters Club has been more open to public, has a Facebook page and has shifted to the Yala Maya Kendra in Patan.
Every Sunday, a group of members and guests gather in one of the halls and start their 90-minute weekly session. While guests speak on impromptu subjects, the new members steps on their first project, Ice Breaker, a four to six minute speech, along with two other members at different project levels.
For Shakya, the evening of July 25 was his 32nd project wherein he had to direct a persuasive approach to the audience’s self interest, using a combination of facts and emotions. He talked about the current situation of the ambulances, gave an anecdote of the personal situations and an organization’s plan to make the system effective. But during an evaluation, when one of the evaluators asked the audience about their will to donate for the cause, not all hands were raised.
“Needs practice…bring some emotion…it was more informative,” said Ranjit Acharya, Shakya’s evaluator for the evening and the person whose invitation he accepted in 2004 to join Toastmasters and then later establish the Everest Toastmasters Club.
And six years hence, Shakya feels that there are still rooms for improvement.
“Those energies [nervousness, dry mouth, butterflies in stomach] definitely come; and in Toastmasters, there is a module on how to harness the [negative] energy,” he said. “I still feel nervous, the butterflies are still there but Toastmasters teaches you how to make the butterflies fly in a formation. It helps you to channelize the energies that come in and manage it well.”
It is through constant feedback, mentoring and encouragement at the Club meetings that people like Shakya get molded.
Yogesh Satyal, vice president of the Everest Toastmasters Club, said that members get “instantaneous, constructive and well-meaning feedback” from fellow members.
“We try to maximize the help and minimize the hurt,” Satyal said.
“Fantastic opening,” said Seema Golchha, an evaluator who judged a new member’s speech. “However…,” she continued her feedback.
At the forum, the evaluation session seems like that of a reality show; the only difference is that no one gets eliminated but only enhanced. The members are judged on grammar, hesitation and time allotment.
On his 32nd project, Shakya surpassed his time of five to seven minutes taking additional three minutes. Sitting at his office in Tripureshwor, he added that one needs to learn how to compress a fivehour content into a five-minute speech, and stressed practice is the key of attaining it.
And Toastmasters didn’t only help Shakya in organizing his speech and speaking well but also develop leadership abilities. The Chief Executive Officer of Heidelberg Nepal and Digitainment, Shakya said that as an employee and employer, one should be communicable, know what it’s like to be a good leader and take responsibilities. He talked about the different roles at Toastmaster—grammarian, evaluator, timekeeper—that helps to undertake different roles and responsibilities.
“There is no teacher…you learn by yourself and with the help of colleagues,” he said. “It’s a compact system—not only content but also the stress on words, the pauses and gestures— that has helped me grow.”
After that initial speech, Shakya finished 10 projects in 14 months, giving him the title of Competent Communicator and another 10 projects in a three-year time that made him an Advanced Communicator Bronze. After every 10 projects, the title progresses, and standing at 32, Shakya aims to attain the title of Distinguished Toastmaster, which comes after completing a combination of 100 projects on communication and leadership.
“It’s not about the number of projects you do but how well you do those projects,” said the man who now doesn’t hesitate to speak.
And he now wants people to become a part of a club that transformed him as a person. He urges people to come out of their shells, speak out and deliver the power of words. As one of his Facebook status reads: “You just want to make it this time... though you have been saying it for a long time.”
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