pinnacle betm club newsletter 2015 - vol1 issue1

| Achieving Excellence in communication and leadership through creativity and innovation |

Club # 2532218 | Area: 30 | Division J | District 20 VOL 1 | ISSUE 1 | JANUARY 2015

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Pinnacle | http://betm.toastmastersclubs.org

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A CLUB PAR EXCELLENCE P.05

COVER STORY CROSSING THE EDGE P. 12

CLUB

SNAPSHOTS

THE ACCIDENTAL CONSULTANT P.10

The Quarterly Newsletter of Business Excellence Toastmasters Club

HONORING CC’S P.19

NEW CLUB MEMBERS 2014 P.14



2


When I get ready to talk to

people, I spend two thirds of

the time thinking what they

want to hear and one third

thinking about what I want

to say”

- Abraham Lincoln

Our Clubs diversity visible here!

About the Club Business Excellence Toastmasters [BETM] Club was established in June 2012, under

the patronage of Department of Economic Development [DED], with the pretext of in-

volving Dubai Quality Awards [DQA] and Dubai Human Development Awards [DHDA]

assessors, to further improve their communication and leadership skills.

The club was started by DQA senior Assessors, DTM Nagabhushan Balaji and TM

Prashant Nasery with support from the DED office. With an initial strength of only 4

members, today the club has grown significantly to more than 30 members, with its

unique diversified members profile (11 countries) being the hallmark of the elite club.

———————————————————

Club Mission: To provide a supportive and positive learning experience in which mem-

bers are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in

greater self-confidence and personal growth.

Business Excellence Toastmasters Club



3


Pinnacle

“The well-balanced, intelli-

gent speaker is the natural

leader in any group of which

he is a part”

- Dr. Ralph Smedley

Newsletter Team

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF TM Sameer Chougle [email protected]

EDITORIAL TEAM MTM Maureen Galang [email protected]

PHOTOGRAPHY TM Abdul Vaheed [email protected]

ART & DESIGN TM Sameer B Chougle [email protected]

CLUB MENTOR DTM Nagabhushan Balaji [email protected]

Business Excellence Toastmasters Club

The Club

PRESIDENT DTM Balaji Nagabhushan

050 6562797

VP - EDUCATION TM Praveesh Hassan

050 6505125

VP - MEMBERSHIP TM Kapil Naresh

055 1347030

VP - PUBLIC RELATIONS TM Sameer B Chougle

052 8480529

CLUB SECRETARY MTM Maureen Galang

055 5140819

TREASURER TM Abdul Vaheed

050 6538086

SERGEANT AT ARMS TM Imran Iqbal

055 3526061



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Contents Business Excellence Toastmasters Club

05

07

10

12

14

FRANKLY SPEAKING TM SAMEER CHOUGLE

ACCIDENTAL CONSULTANT

TM PRAVEESH HASSAN

CROSSING THE EDGE

MTM MICHELLE CHEDOTAL, CC

NEW MEMBERS

2014-2015

19

20

23

24

27

HONORING CC’s

2013-2014

THE BEST THERE IS…

TM KRISHNA PRABHU, CC

BETM ACHEIVEMENTS

2014—2015

CLUB SNAPSHOTS

17 CROSSWORD PUZZLE

MTM MAUREEN GALANG

Pinnacle is a quarterly newsletter published by Business Excellence Toastmasters Club, Dubai. The contents and articles published are the views, opinions

and thoughts of the authors/writers and the publishing and editing team are not responsible for the same. Business Excellence Toastmasters Club members

meet every alternate Monday at Business Village, 2nd Floor, Deira, Dubai. 1900 hrs onwards. If you have any complaints, ideas, suggestions, please feel free to

write to us at [email protected]

Website: http://www.betm.toastmastersclubs.org.

EXCOM

2014-2015

09 TOASTED HUMOR

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

DTM NAGABHUSHAN BALAJI

15 OUR GOAL, MY ROLE

MTM LAYS LARAYA

mailto:[email protected]



5


“We are what we repeat-

edly do. Therefore Ex-

cellence is not an act but

a habit.”

Aristotle

The club was launched in June 2012 after several years of planning and preparation. The

sole purpose of forming this club was to have mutual collaboration with the Quality pro-

fessionals connected with the Business Excellence Division of Dubai Quality Award Office.

While the assessors would bring in their vast experience in their respective fields to edu-

cate and share with members, experienced Toastmasters were to mentor and help these

quality professionals improve their communication and leadership skills. It was win-win

collaboration. The club was chartered under Area 30, Division J and District 20 of Toast-

masters International.

A Club par Excellence! You can become an even more excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to

those standards – Brian Tracy.

Fellow Toastmasters,

I believe in the statement of Brian Tracy. Excellence is a habit and once it becomes

a habit, there is no looking back. Business Excellence Toastmasters club believes in

making Excellence a reality every day and every minute. It’s a pleasure to an-

nounce and witness the release of our first newsletter for this year. ‘If you think you can do it, you probably defi-

nitely can and no one can deny that’

President’s Message Business Excellence Toastmasters Club



6


Two years down the lane, I am proud to state that the vision of forming this club has stood its ground. We not only have a

healthy membership of Quality and Excellence Professionals from different industries but also experienced Toastmasters

fraternity in our midst. Our membership is culturally diversified with people of eleven nationalities enjoying the aspects of

sharing and learning. The best part of this group is the willingness to share and also accept critical evaluations or comments

towards improvement.

We have achieved the distinction of being a Distinguished Club during the first year by reaching five out of the ten goals set by

Toastmasters International annually. During the second year, we have taken the challenge and achieved the Select Distin-

guished Club status by reaching seven out of ten goals. This year and in all our future years of existence, our goal is to be a

President’s Distinguished Club by reaching ten out of ten goals every year. We also have three members who have climbed

the first ladder of success by becoming Competent Communicators and I am sure there will be many more coming up this

year. Last year we had three of our members qualify in their speech contests – one of them to the Area level, two to the Divi-

sion Level and eventually one of them to the District level and that’s a fantastic achievement for such a new club.

BETM, BETM, BETM………this is what I and many others have been hearing this year in Division J. We are a force, a team and we

believe in excellence. We believe that we are a team and together everyone achieves more. This can be visualised with the

quality meetings organized and conducted this year. The Executive Committee is energetic, young, ambition filled, passionate,

innovative and I am sure we shall climb great heights this year as well as in the years to come.

Nagabhushan Balaji

Distinguished Toastmaster

Club Mentor & President



7


Being Editor-in-Chief of a newsletter is a unique experience, definitely not an easy position to manage. Let me not rant further on

how many midnight lamps I have burnt and have been at the receiving end of a disgruntled family (a.k.a wife). Eventually, I am

extremely happy with the output of this effort and all is now hunky dory—you now know that a healthy trip to an elite shopping

mall helps release tension on one side while burning a devastating hole in your pocket on the flip side! I hope my wife never

reads this.

While this newsletter leaves immense scope for improvement, this is our first effort. And we have tried to include some inter-

esting sections viz., superb articles, a humor page which we plan to improvise on in the future, crossword puzzle (do provide

feedback), and club snapshots of 2014.

Deciding on the newsletter name was not a piece of cake either. So, we decided to have a little contest, where club members

could suggest names for the newsletter. After 2 weeks of suggestions—we realized our newsletter is going to be called

‘PINNACLE’. Congratulations MTM Meesha Kapoor for suggesting this far and high reaching name! ‘Pinnacle’ is in all probabilit ies,

the most apt name the newsletter could get. ‘Pinnacle’ means the peak, or highest point—we can proudly say that our club is

well on the way to reaching its pinnacle!

Editor’s Note After a lot of thought and effort, we are finally out with Business Excellence

Club’s very first newsletter. This magazine is very close to my heart, not only

because I worked hard on it, but also due to the fact that it has the stories of

many of my fellow colleagues lives, as toastmasters in our club. This makes it

exceptionally special. A very impressive part of this newsletter are the pic-

tures, professionally done— an idea of one of our senior club members. Fun

photo session I would say and that reflects in the pictures! “Quality is in the eyes of the Beholder, just like

Beauty”

Frankly Speaking Business Excellence Toastmasters Club



8


The EXCOM for 2014-2015 deserves a mention, hence we have included the profiles of the club executive committee members.

Do read through and get to know them better—the people who manage the club.

We have presented the new members of the club for 2014-2015, covered our honorable Competent Communicators and Busi-

ness Excellence Toastmasters Club achievements over the past two years. Do browse around and read through.

Crossword, fantastically developed by the effervescent MTM Maureen Galang, has clues all about toastmasters. Go ahead,

google your brains out and find all the answers. Winner gets a Cross Pen with his/her name engraved!

Our very first newsletter—and this deserved an inspiring Cover Story from an absolutely inspiring, energetic and magnani-

mous personality—and that is none other than MTM Michelle Chedotal. ’Crossing the Edge’ is the story of her journey with

Business Excellence Toastmasters and the point of crossing the edge. Did she, didn't she? Read on Toastmasters….

Finally, thank you in advance, for reading till the end. We all know this is just a start, and I look forward to your regular contri-

butions to this newsletter—articles, jokes, puzzles, trivia, anything interesting and worth taking a leap into, I will put it here.

Go for it!

I’ll let you pass by me with a personal quote:

“ I once asked Perfection how he came into existence, He said “I don’t exist; many try to make me but fall short and keep

trying but fall short and keep trying……..I am Continual Improvement!”

Ciao

Sameer B Chougle, TM

QA Controller, dnata Airport Operations

Editor-in-Chief, Pinnacle

Vice President, Public Relations



9


Toasted Humor





10


The Accidental Consultant BY TM PRAVEESH HASSAN

It was a small beginning. But soon with my quality of work, I had references from my clients. I started getting busy. I took what-

ever projects came in my way; failed projects by other consultants, complex projects which others didn’t want to touch, pro-

jects in remote places. I soon became experienced. I had lots of work. I had lots of money as well.

Over the years with so many consultancy projects, I lost focus on what I was really good at. I never focused on one special

area, where I could be the best in the world. I was jack of all management solutions. So I decided I have to master one area and

I chose Strategy. At that point, I realized—to be a great Strategy consultant, you need to be a great communicator.

Toastmasters was introduced to me by my dear friend about 10 years ago. But I never took it seriously at that point of time.

I was busy and successful. But soon I realized, no matter how competent I am in the field of Strategy, communication matters. I

can only be a World Class Strategy consultant if I have World Class communication skills. You need outstanding persuasion

skills if you want to execute a great strategy in any organization. So my mind conspired to join Toastmasters again.

I am a Consultant, by accident. I never thought in my life I will be-

come a Management Consultant. My ambition, while at University,

was to work for myself. Soon after my MBA, I landed up in a job. But I

was disappointed by the atmosphere at my first work place. Having

studied in a western world and having an idealistic mindset, I was

shocked how the actual work world worked. So I decided to venture

out. But with little capital, I had no means to start a business. So I

started off with what I had. Tons of courage and very little experi-

ence in management science.



11


The Accidental Consultant BY TM PRAVEESH HASSAN

I was waiting for Toastmasters Club to be launched by Business

Excellence Department. I jumped at the opportunity when it began.

Although being a consultant for 17 years and having done numer-

ous trainings, I was jittery during my first speech, an impromptu

table topics speech. I realized public speaking is a different ball

game from the traditional boring presentations done by consult-

ants.

Toastmasters took public speaking altogether to a different level. I

saw many speakers inspire and educate me. I saw many nervous

speakers being great speakers by end of their fourth speech. I met

many interesting and warm hearted human beings. I started enjoy-

ing my toastmasters club. I started giving my project speeches. I

started being comfortable with my body language. I started using stories in my speeches. I opened up.

Now I have great friends. I eagerly wait for our club meeting on Mondays. At the end of every meeting, I get a great feeling of

freshness and positivity. Every meeting day, I would have met someone interesting, I would have learned something anew.

My journey has begun. I will march on, and I will take others along with me.

Praveesh Hassan, TM

CEO, Win Management

Vice President, Education



12


COVER STORY Crossing the Edge BY MTM MICHELLE GARNIER-CHEDOTAL, CC

Success is something almost everyone wants, and many a lifetime hoping for. Some never find it while others realize it early in

life. No matter where you are in your life, and maybe you are already there, or trying to get there, or you are lost somewhere

in between the desire for and the realization of personal success. But, when you are brave enough to join a Toastmasters club

and find the courage to want more for your life, then everything will change.

I did ! After a one year training on The Success Principles with Jack Canfield, the N01 Success Coach in the USA, I heard of

Toastmasters by my fellow coaches while I was still in California. At the time, I declared in a quite assertive voice : “ I don’t

think we have one in Dubai”, only to find out while doing a search on Google, that there were “many’ !

I was astonished ! Truly, I had never heard of it ! Naively, I thought it was a ‘baking type group” learning to roast and toast !

Back in the Emirate, I immediately called a few clubs and registered with Business Excellence Toast Masters. On the first even-

ing attending merely out of curiosity, I was called to ‘volunteer’ for a Table Topic. Now, talk about being thrown into the deep

end, and choosing to take “100% responsibility” for being there! I had to immediately become an Inverse Paranoid, and believe

that the world was not plotting to do me harm, but rather plotting to do me good!

“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally

astound ourselves” - Thomas A. Edison

In today’s super-competitive marketplace, high achievers are those

people who follow a systematic approach to their success. As the

best success movement to come along in decades, Toastmasters

International catalogs and explains, in a practical and powerful way,

the arts of listening, thinking and speaking, in simple language with

step-by-step instructions—and this for impact.



13


Crossing The Edge BY MTM MICHELLE GARNIER-CHEDOTAL

What came to my mind at the time was a quote from W.Clement Stone (Self –made multimillionaire and former publisher of

Success Magazine) who said “When life hands you a lemon, squeeze it and make lemonade”. Surprisingly, I won my first win-

ning baby award that night! and the rest is now history!

Over time, Project by project, from Listening to Team Building, I achieved my ten Leadership assignments taking me to a place

of being what TM calls: “A Competent Communicator”. Today, I am not sure if I am ‘competent’ to the level I want to be, but

what I am sure of is that I have better skills, greater ease, techniques and more so, better understanding on how to communi-

cate with others, amazing tools, a mentor and a community that can take me as far as I dare to dream.

Now, was it easy? To be honest, the answer for me would probably be a No! I have to admit that many times I wanted to quit

as each project was more challenging taking me through a place of doubt, a place where I had to face my own fears and re-

sentment. And yet, I knew that it was in ‘crossing those edges” that I would grow. Going back, finding hundreds of excuses for

not ‘needing’ to develop those Leadership muscles, would have been easy. But, I decided to “stay” and beautifully supported

with intellect, compassion and humor from my mentor and the group, I have gained confidence, and stood taller as a communi-

cator. I realized that joining a Toastmasters group was not only to take the front of the room as a speaker, but to take the

front of the room of my life!

If you are looking for a magic bullet to improve your life, your career and your relationships, Toastmasters delivers it in

spades. If expanding your opportunities, creating new alliances, helping more people, and getting more out of every minute of

your life are your goals then, Toastmasters can bring those results. Because you see, Toastmasters is not just only about the

tools, the techniques, the process, what I call ‘the particles”, it is about the development of the heart by overcoming the fears,

the limiting beliefs, and the stories in our heads. It is about creating connection for impact in our lives and the lives of others.

It is about inspiring, by being brave enough to grow as human beings.

Pretty cool!

Michelle Garnier-Chedotal, MTM

Managing Partner, KinesioCoach (LLC)

Competent Communicator



14


MTM Lays Laraya

DOJ - 01 Feb 2014

TM Nur Nurani

DOJ - 01 Mar 2014

TM Pratyush Mandal

DOJ - 01 Jun 2014

TM Ranjeet Philip

DOJ - 01 Jun 2014

TM Khalid Yahya

DOJ - 01 Sep 2014

TM Ravikumar Subbiah

DOJ - 01 Aug 2014

MTM Urvashi Sarin

DOJ - 13 Oct 2014

MTM Maryam Rezvan

DOJ - 29 Sep 2014

TM Vinay Vaishya

DOJ - 01 Sep 2014

MTM Shurooq Al-Banna

DOJ - 15 Sep 2014

MTM Eman Al-Suwaidi

DOJ - 01 Dec 2014

TM Usama Shatara

DOJ - 10 Nov 2014

MTM Hayet Zenati

DOJ - 29 Sep 2014

TM Abdullah Al-Hammadi

DOJ - 10 Nov 2014

TM Karam Antakli

DOJ - 01 May 2014

MTM Amani Al-Hammadi

DOJ - 01 Aug 2014


New Members 2014




15


Our Goal, My Role BY MTM LAYS LARAYA

The image which came to my mind was of a natural disaster movie scene where everyone runs into a different direction trying

to save their lives… a very different picture from true organizational success! At that stage I was an operational leader and

although I felt compelled to ensure my team of about 120 colleagues would at least learn what the priorities of the organization

were. I could not imagine I would, so soon be involved in ensuring this (and further) would be a reality for the entire organiza-

tion.

In this organization I work for, Balanced Scorecards have been in place since the very first years and surely, the property’s

most senior leader always knew what the goals for his/her business unit were. After all… that’s where bonus comes from! But

the reality seemed rather different at the colleague level. Although all departments had their bonus KPIs, there was limited

awareness, and often relevance regarding how those goals actually supported the high level strategic goals of the organization.

The element of passion was also questionable given the level of awareness.

The organization had done an amazing job in creating, assessing and refining Balanced Scorecards and aligned incentive

schemes and hence the platform for goal cascading was in place, ready to be explored and translated into an easy-to-

understand-and-act-on-language.

I remember sitting in a Leadership Orientation class when I joined

my current organization about 3 years ago. It was a session of the

award winning Steven Covey’s Great Leaders Program. The reason I

remember that day so well is that I came to know of some very

scary figures pertaining survey results on organizational excellence.

The survey results showed that, on average, only 15% of the organi-

zation’s people could identify the top goals and priorities for the

organization. Of those 15%, only 19% said they felt passionate about

those goals while 51% had no idea on what they were supposed to do

about the goals.



16


Our Goal, My Role BY MTM LAYS LARAYA

Step 1 – Know It!

The organization’s first step into creating the so desired

alignment and commitment to the goals was to communi-

cate them. Executive Office, HR and Business Excellence

conducted a campaign entitled “Top 3” which highlighted

the Top 3 Goals of the organization in very simple language

to all colleagues. Posters were distributed and quizzes

were conducted to ensure everyone would know those 3

figures by heart! At the end of that year, the first issue of

the above mentioned survey indicator had been ticked off

our list.

Step 2 – Love It!

Well, surely that wasn’t enough. The leadership team had

lots of work to do if they wanted to address the two other

areas of concern: getting the colleagues emotionally at-

tached to the goals and to ensure they understand what

their roles were.

On the second year, fueled by a passionate Learning and Development Team, the organization decided to organize an

engaging event to not only communicate, but to explain

what each of those goals meant in terms of outputs and

deliverable actions. At that stage our BSC had grown to

incorporate 4 dimensions and our top leader created the

4Ps concept (People, Passion, Performance, and Profit) to

better engage and ensure colleagues could relate to the goals. The workshops were a success and for two years in

a row we collected surveys showing that 98% of our col-

leagues understood and supported our Top 4 goals.

Step 3 – Do it!

That was great! Awareness and passion for the goal are

very important… Still, there was one question left in one of

our top leaders mind: “Do they actually understand what

THEY are supposed to do each day to help us achieve that

goal?”. Sitting next to him at one of those enthusiastic

events, I had no choice but to confess that I also did not

have such confidence. (Looking back, I can only be thankful for having had great leaders who would never be satisfied

with the “now” and to whom excellence had indeed no fin-

ish line).

In this fourth year of continuous assessment and refine-ment of our goal cascading and communication approach,

a new program called Our Goal My Role was introduced

by that leader. In this program, colleagues have been in-

volved in defining objective statements of the contributions

for each of the Job Profiles within our organization to be

reviewed twice a year during their appraisals.

At last I feel a strong sense of satisfaction by looking back

and seeing that the leadership of this organization has invested sincere efforts towards all of those scary point

addressed by Covey’s survey.

Step 4, 5, 6, 7… Keep on Racing!

Well, when we feel this way, there is one thing left to do: Look for another scary survey and improve a whole differ-

ent process!

Lays Laraya, MTM

Business Excellence Manager

Jumeirah Hotels, Dubai



17


Crossword Puzzle! BY MTM MAUREEN GALANG

ACROSS:

6. A well-known BETM mentor who says Life

is all about Passion and has been a passionate

Toastmasters for the last sixteen years

8. Ralph Smedley's mantra "Let's keep it

____"

14. A list of meeting activities in the order in

which they are to be taken up, by beginning

with the call to order and ending with adjourn-

ment

ACROSS:

16 The current president of TMI

18 Comprised of people with diverse social and

cultural backgrounds that a speaker need to relate to

for a good speech

20 Debate contestants needs to present

_____________ views

24 A designated space for the performance of pro-

ductions

26 The name of

27 Verb form of the CL Project 1 skill

29 Newsletters, manuals and magazines from TMI

comes through

31 A toastmaster that takes a personal interest in

and helps an inexperienced person, offering

knowledge, insight, perspective or wisdom.

32 Title of BETM Newsletter Editor's Note

34 The alias of the first female International Presi-

dent of Toastmasters

35 A form of communication in spoken language,

made by a speaker before an audience for a given

purpose

39 For ice breaker, at what time does the amber light

appear

43 Most people come to Toastmasters to overcome

this in regards to public speaking

44 A social concept used to categorize humans into

large and distinct populations or groups

Hello Toastmasters!

Solve this breeze of a crossword and win an

exciting CROSS PEN with your name en-

graved! Winner will be selected through raf-

fle draw.

Last date for submittal is 15 February 2015.

1 2 3 4

5

6

7

8 9

10

11

12

13

14 15

16

17

18 19

20 21

22

23

24

25

26

27 28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35 36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48 49

50 51

ACROSS:

1. A ritual in which a drink is raised and

taken as an expression of honor or goodwill

3. An integral part of the club meeting agen-

da wherein it means “the act of considering or

examining something in order to judge its

value, quality, importance or condition.”

4. Toastmasters' most prestigious award is

the Golden _______.

5. It is the heart of the Toastmasters educa-

tional program supportive commentary and

helpful suggestions can reinforce positive

speaking behaviors and point toward areas

that need improvement



18


Crossword Puzzle! BY MTM MAUREEN GALANG SALAS

DOWN:

12 VPPR hope that every attending guest

signs up

13 Toastmasters' International Acronym

15 Non-club members… yet

17 In an Evaluation Contest a speaker will

give this type of speech

19 BETM belongs to this

21 Since BETM inception, he was one of

mentors

22 A BETM member who has founded Win

Management Services in 1997 and has been a

Dubai Quality Award Assessor since 1998.

23 As a presenter, if you can successfully

connect your hook to this, then your audience

will be much more likely to remember your key

point.

25 On this project you discover your speaking

skills

28 To tell a story

30 Project 7: Research your ______

33 Becoming an Outstanding Toastmaster or

Toastmaster of the year, you need to accumu-

late these

36 A valuable mechanism for building drama,

adding suspense and imbuing key words and

sentences with added meaning

DOWN:

37 One of the primary rules in Toastmasters is

to “speak to people's _____.”

38 Competent Communication manual speech

#10 objective

40 Part of the Leadership Track

41 Important tip in public speaking. Transform

nervous energy into enthusiasm.

42 A fixed period of time

46 Usually speeches ends with a lesson that

can be derived from a story or experience.

Crossword designed and developed by:

Maureen Galang, MTM

HR Manager

Carea Air-conditioning Services LLC.

Dubai

ACROSS:

45. Two ____, as appointed by the chief judge

keep the official record in contest speeches

with one with using stopwatch and the other a

signaling device

47. Which award does a club get on adding five

new, dual, or reinstated members

48. Tellers develop the ability to make differ-

ent characters distinct by using ______ variety

49. "We empower individuals to become more

effective communicators and leaders."

50. Applause

51. Bring or come to an end.

DOWN:

2 To say words to express yourself in a

particular way

3 One of the Toastmasters International

Values and promoted by BETM

6 Which TMI club has been sponsored by

Department of Economic Development of Dubai

7 BETM Anniversary month

8 First Woman from the Middle East to reach

the finals of a Toastmasters International

Contest

9 A crucial element of public speaking is to

create among listeners the right _____

10 A Speech Contest Official

11 Highest level achieved in Toastmasters



19


Honoring our Competent Communicators 2013-2014

As a previous Business Excellence Assessor herself, MTM Michelle

Chedotal was one of the first group of members of Business Ex-

cellence Toastmasters, closely mentored by DTM Nagabhushan

Balaji.

She is a seasoned coach

with the inherent ability

to engage her audience

with the way she passion-

ately delivers her project

speeches. She completed

her Competent Communicator on 1st Sept 2014.

One of the precious Distinguished Club Points has been achieved due to the contributions of two of the most recognized public

speakers of BETM, MTM Michelle Chedotal and TM Krishna Prabhu.

Sr. Project Speech Title (MTM Michelle) Speech Title (TM Krishna)

P1 The Ice Breaker Comb your hair / Clean your shoes Ice Breaker

P2 Organize Your Speech Take 100% Responsibility Time Management

P3 Get to the Point Problem, what problem? Art of Manipulation

P4 How to Say It To do or not to do Beauty

P5 Your Body Speaks Be an inverted paranoid Money

P6 Vocal Variety Foot on the break Restroom Etiquette

P7 Research Your Topic Be invincible Loneliness

P8 Get Comfortable with Visual Aids Crossing the edge Wisdom

P9 Persuade with Power From frustration to fascination The Best Donation

P10 Inspire Your Audience Money Matters The Best There Is.., The Best There was…The Best there ever will be

TM Krishna Prabhu’s Competent Communicator journey began in

2013, having been invited by one of his closest friend and BETM’s

past president Manu Singh.

His uncanny ability

to bring intelligent

humor in his project

speeches has been

appreciated on

numerous occa-

sions. He complet-

ed his Competent Communicator on 29th Sept 2014 .

The following list is a snapshot of MTM Michelle’s and TM Krishna’s Competent Communicator journey (P1 to P10) :



20


The Best There Is... BY TM KRISHNA PRABHU, CC

Even before joining Toastmasters I was exposed to public speaking. Although this was generally well appreciated by the audi-

ence, I always felt I WAS NOT THE BEST!!! I was introduced to Toastmasters as a Guest in a meeting where stalwarts like DTM

Balaji were sitting in the audience and I was asked to attempt a Table Topic.

Initially I was quite nervous, however post a valiant attempt at the Table Topics, DTM Balaji had some kind and inspirational

words for me and I just knew at that very moment that I wanted to be a Toastmaster and I eventually decided to join the awe-

some Business Excellence Toastmasters Club.

They say “fortune favors the brave”, I don’t really know if I was brave, however I was quite fortunate - I got the opportunity to

be mentored by none other than DTM Balaji. Today, in little over a year’s time,

I have managed to complete my Competent Communicator Manual

I have been adjudged “Best Speaker of the Day” at BETM on 7 occasions

I was the Winner at the 2014 BETM Club Level International Speech Contest

I was First Runner Up at the 2014 Area 30 International Speech Contest

“I Am The Best There Is, The Best There Was And The Best There

Ever Will Be”

I am sure none of you would agree with what I said because I am

not…How many of you have heard this statement before? These

are the famous words of Wrestling Superstar Bret “The Hit Man”

Hart. As a kid, I was a huge fan of Bret Hart and since then this

statement had a massive impact on my thought processes and

the way I went about with my life.



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The Best There Is... BY TM KRISHNA PRABHU

I may seem arrogant and boastful about my achieve-

ments..., however all the Credit goes to my mentor and

evaluators. Having said that, my fellow toastmasters, I

would be the first to accept that this is not rocket sci-

ence… and if I can do it… so can you!!!

There are three powerful ingredients that you and only you

as a Toastmaster can bring into the equation,

- A Burning Desire

- Willingness to Work Hard

- Willingness to Constantly Learn

The initial question here is “How strong is the desire?”

A man once asked the greatest Greek Philosopher Socra-tes, “What’s the secret to success”?

Socrates instead of replying caught hold of him by his neck

and closed his nostrils and held him in that position. The

man struggled and gasped for breath, but Socrates did not

release him. When the man was almost about to die, Socra-

tes released his hold and asked “What did you want the most when I strangled you?” The man replied, “Air”. Socra-tes then said, “Only if you want success as badly as you

wanted the air, you will get it.”

A burning desire is the starting point of your journey to-

wards success. Therefore I said to myself, come what may,

I will become not just a Competent Communicator, I wanted

to be the Best Public Speaker.

Secondly…Can a strong desire alone lead you to success?

Well…the answer is No! One must sweat it out.

In my experience with all our other engagements like office

work, studies, and family commitments it is a real chal-

lenge to turn up with quality speeches, however we should

remind ourselves of the promise that we made when we

joined Toastmasters.

I promised that I will plan, prepare and practice the

speeches to the best of my ability and so I spent most of

my free time searching suitable topics and material for my

speeches. I wrote and re-wrote each speech at least 5

times, constantly improving upon it, till I was completely

satisfied and only then I sent it to my mentor. Once I got

the go-ahead from my mentor, I scheduled the dates for

the speech well in advance and tried my best to meet the

deadlines. I worked hard to internalize the speech so that I

could deliver it with ease. It was not easy, and because I

wanted to be the best, I chose to work hard…

And Finally - Your desire for success and your hard work

must be supported by your willingness to learn.

Once upon a time there were two woodcutters who used to

work very hard but could cut only 2 trees per day. One day

someone advised them to spend some time in sharpening

the axe to increase their productivity. One of them who

was willing to learn, followed this advice, took time and

sharpened his axe, only to discover that he was now able

to cut 4 trees per day, the other woodcutter who did not

bother, continued cutting only 2 trees per day.

The axe for us “Toastmasters” is our communication skill,

by being open enough to learn from every Toastmaster,



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especially our mentor and speech evaluators. There will be no end to learning, however good we are, there is always a scope

for improvement. I always noted down areas of improvement from all possible sources and prepared my speeches keeping in

mind those valuable points.

Remember “The Toastmasters Program” is a serious endeavor and our BETM Club is actually a remarkable educational institu-

tion, because it provides its members—Us—with an opportunity to develop oral communication skills, which in turn fosters self-

confidence and personal growth.

I have always believed that if you take care of the process, the result will take care of itself. If I can do it… so can you… and all

you need is 3 powerful ingredients,

A Burning Desire

Extreme Hard Work

Willingness to Constantly Learn

It is now your turn to wake up… to rise…. and to deliver your next speech and never stop this process…Not until our BETM Club

is “The Best There Is, The Best There Was And The Best There Ever Will Be”.

Krishna Prabhu, TM

Competent Communicator

Asst. Manager - Process Re-engineering

Emirates Islamic

The Best There Is... BY TM KRISHNA PRABHU



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Business Excellence Club Achievements

YEAR 2014 – 2015 [Achieved to date]

NUMBER OF NATIONALITIES

SMEDLEY'S AWARD 2014

Business Excellence Toastmasters Club was awarded the Smedley Award for adding 5 new members to its club. This is a com-

mendable achievement for the club and the ExCom.

ON TIME SUBMITTAL OF OFFICERS LIST & RENEWAL OF FEES 1 GOAL

TEN NEW MEMBERS REGISTERED 2 GOALS

TWO COMPETENT COMMUNICATORS 1 GOAL

OFFICERS TRAINED FOR FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR 0.5 GOAL

OFFICERS TRAINED FOR SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR 0.5 GOAL

TOTAL ACHIEVED (Distinguished Club) out of 10 GOALS 5

Brazil, 1, 3%

China, 1, 3% France, 2,

6%

India, 15, 46%

Iran, 1, 3%

Jordan, 2, 6%

Philippines, 2, 6%

Syria, 2, 6%

UAE, 7, 21%



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BUSINESS EXCELLENCE TOASTMASTERS CLUB

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2014-2015

EXCOM 2014-2015





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BETM Executive Committee 2014-2015

DTM Nagabhushan Balaji - Club Mentor & President

DTM Balaji joined Toastmasters in September 1998, and it has been a very satisfying journey till now. He is a Distinguished Toastmaster currently mentoring numerous clubs under Division J in the UAE. Once a senior

management professional with a leading bank, DTM Balaji now looks at being his own boss. He likes to read, keep fit, smile, share knowledge and follow sports. Balaji says ‘Its a privilege as I have learnt a lot and met people from various fields of expertise and this is one place where learning never stops’! One can never

stop learning from him.

TM Kapil Naresh, CC - Vice President Membership

TM Kapil is a dual six sigma black belt, level-1 certified TRIZ practitioner and an EFQM certified assessor. He is presently working as a Quality Assurance Controller in dnata Airport Operations. His areas of expertise are

Strategy deployment, Business Process characterization, Project and Risk Management.

Having joined toastmasters in 2012, TM Kapil wishes to keep learning from this great educational institution. “A toastmaster is my arena where I do mistakes and learn to become exactly what is required, nothing more, nothing less”, he says.

TM Praveesh Hassan - Vice President Education

TM Praveesh is a “Man of Strategy” with a love for solving business critical issues and building innovative ideas. He joined BETM in 2012 and this year 2013-2014, he was elected President as VP- Membership 2013-14, . He es-

tablished his own Strategy Consulting firm in 1996 in Dubai, and has since undertaken various challenging strat-

egy assignments.

Praveesh is a family man and enjoys spending time with kids. An avid reader, he has a wide collection of books

from different fields of knowledge. He is fond of quoting Jay Forrester: "While most people understand first-order effects, few deal well with second-and third-order effects. Unfortunately, virtually everything interesting in business lies in fourth-order effects and beyond".

TM Sameer Chougle - Vice President Public Relations

TM Sameer is a Chemical Engineer with a Masters in Operations Mgmt. He is also a Six Sigma Green belt, a certified DQA assessor and is currently working with dnata Airport Operations as a QA Controller.

TM Sameer cannot explain what drew him into what is now a passion for toastmasters. He simply just loves

attending BETM club meetings, something he always thanks TM Kapil for — introducing him to the club in 2013. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the club quarterly magazine—Pinnacle. He loves Shiv Khera’s famous words

“Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently “ - and tries to implement in his work and per-sonal life.



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TM Abdul Vaheed - Club Treasurer

TM Vaheed is a management professional of high caliber. Working with S.S. Lootah, Dubai as Business Excel-lence Manager, he has been instrumental in numerous quality improvement projects with the firm. He is also a

DQA senior Assessor and has assessed organizations since 2004.

One of his best qualities are to instinctively think ‘out-of-the-box’ and come up with something innovative, that’s why he is called the ‘Innovator’ at the BETM club. A quiet profile, he is married and has three beautiful

children. TM Vaheed will continue his journey with toastmasters for many years to come.

BETM Executive Committee 2014-2015

TM Maureen Galang - Club Secretary

MTM Maureen joined toastmasters in 1st September 2013 after MTM Michelle Chedotal introduced her to the

club. During the first ever club meeting, she was called to speak in a table topics session and she won it. Since

then, Toastmasters has become a vital part in MTM Maureen’s chosen path of self-discoveries, both profes-

sionally and personally. She works as an HR professional in UAE since the past 7 years, and is also a sports

enthusiast, avid supporter of environment conservation and animal protection causes.

She says “Every day I am discovering insights to myself, my appreciation for competent leadership and won-

derful friendships”.

TM Imran Iqbal - Sergeant At-Arms

TM Imran joined toastmasters in 2013 and has been actively involved with the executive committee since

then. He is currently working as a QA Manager with a leading construction company in Dubai.

He is confident he will be able to achieve his objectives of joining toastmasters, as he has already made

huge strides of improvement.



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CLUB MEETINGS SNAPSHOTS 2014

One of BETM’s Iconic meetings showcasing our club’s diversity!




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For membership, please contact:

Kapil Naresh | VP Membership | [email protected]

For complaints and suggestions, please contact:

Sameer Chougle | VP Public Relations | [email protected]

Business Excellence Toastmasters Club Club # 2532218 | Area: 30 | Division J | District 20

We meet on alternate Monday | 1900 hrs to 2130hrs @ 2nd Floor | Business Village | Deira, Dubai

http://www.betm.toastmastersclubs.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/339369946137837/

https://twitter.com/BETMClub

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/business-excellence-toastmasters-club/76/827/b16C:/Users/Sameer/Documents/ArcotOTP

pinnacle betm club newsletter 2015 - vol1 issue1

Documents

innovation club

club par excellence

club snapshots

elite club

club mission

new club members

chief tm sameer chougle

leadership skills