Conversations with myself - My first prepared speech at The Toastmasters International Club

Dear Bloggers,

I have recently become a member of The Toastmasters Club and had a chance to present my P1 (first prepared speech) speech. For all the amateurs, the Toastmasters International is a world renowned institution that helps better one's public speaking skills. I took this opportunity to boost my confidence and learn from my peers. 

I had to speak for a minimum of 4 mins and maximum of 6 minutes to qualify for an evaluation. I clocked a 5.45 on my speech and received a good evaluation. In fact I even went on to win the Best Speaker Ribbon! 

Following is the script of my P1 speech. 

Conversations with myself

Toastmaster of the day, fellow toast masters and guests, my name is Asawari Sathaye and I am here to present my P1 speech.

When I nominated myself for today, I did not think it would be that difficult a task for I only had to speak on myself. I mean, who here than me to speak on me?! And yet it took me a good one hour across 3 days to remind me about myself. And that's when it struck me, have I lost touch with myself?  Ask me and I can tell you 5 good things about Pooja, but myself, m still thinking. M I humble? Maybe, but more than that I am too pseudo busy with life to actually live it. And so are many of us here in this room. Reflect on this. Tell me the last time you had a conversation with yourself? For this particular reason, I thank toastmasters for this opportunity; they let me have a conversation with myself.

While I was engulfed in the thoughts that were crowding my mind, I chanced upon something that I had long forgotten. I saw it staring back at me from the corner of my eye  and I just wanted to avoid it’s gaze, I felt very guilty, for it occurred to me that besides myself I had also not paid attention to things that earlier used to complete my life – case in point, my harmonium. There it was lying peaceful, unclean and untouched like a virgin for I had not played it since some days. Let me now help you understand the deep connection between my harmonium and myself. My name is derived from the thaath asawari in Hindustani classical music. I am a trained classical singer and have won Zee TV’s Close-up Antakshari. Besides singing I like to read, blog and travel. My husband and I love to take time off every year to explore new destinations and try our hand at adventure sports. The last time we were kayaking in Krabi and a few years before that went sky diving in Germany. This time we travelled to Italy and were mesmerised in its beauty, history and art.

I think of myself as an empowered dreamer, and that has a lot to do with the way I have been brought up. I belong to a typical maharashtrian family that places a lot of emphasis on education. We believe that education has very high Returns on Investment. The women folk in my family have always lived an independent and empowered life. We were and are the custodians of our own decisions. I remember looking at a photograph of my grandmother who would drive a two-wheeler wearing a nine-yard saari to go to her college every day. My grandmother was a BA in Sanskrit and my mother is a Masters in German and Economics.

To let the cat out of the bag, I am still considered the black sheep in my family. My father is an alumnus of IITB and IIMA while my brother is an alumnus of the famous North Western School of Management – Kellogg. My husband is a Chartered Accountant. So where does that leave me? I completed my bachelors in economics and statistics and my masters in econometrics from the Mumbai University. I then started working as an economist with the Tata group. But I guess I had not satiated my hunger for education yet. After working for 5 years with the group, I decided I wanted to study more. Wanted to get a global degree. So I started applying for MBA schools. Got through to one of the high ranking schools in the world, its ranked no. 34.  That 52 week roller coaster ride taught me a lot of things about life. I cherish all the moments I spent on campus right from my induction on day one to my placement and my graduation. Amongst all the other things, my b-school taught me that time and sleep are luxuries in life. This was my mantra when I started working with PriceWaterhouseCoopers as a consultant in their strategy consulting practice.

I spent a good time in PwC but I could not stop myself from dreaming what life would be on the other side – the industry that is. So I decided that I wanted to take a break from consulting and chanced upon an interview with Jayant and Emmanuel at Voltas. I have just about started my journey here and hope I continue to do well. Thank you.  

   

It takes two to tango!

It takes two to tango. But if this is true and so is the other adage birds of the same feather flock together, then is it not wrong if your co-workers think you are reflection of your boss? Is this then good or bad? I tossed this question around while on a Sunday brunch with friends and well not everyone was ready to speak the truth. Most of us are in our mid career phase (which basically means we are over the slogga-thon phase and are ready to be managers, to delegate responsibilities and to lead teams and reporting to the heads of companies that we work for). Given this scenario, how would we have answered this question?

I conducted an experiment, took a random sample of ten people (well it is <30, but at the cost of the results that could be biased, I present to you the results of my experiment). More than half, seven in this case, said that were as different as chalk and cheese from their respective bosses, while only three admitted that were ‘’kind of’’ similar to their bosses.

For those seven who were chalks while their bosses were cheese, I had a question. How did they manage to work so closely with the boss considering their differences? Did they face any problems if and when they differed in opinion with their boss? Were they given a fair share to explain their PoV and was it given due consideration? Did they feel valued and thus more engaged with their work therefore?

I started focusing more on their engagement levels at work and what were those engaging factors. Two of the seven pointed out that their boss gives them valuable inputs and suggestions and was open to consider their opinions as well. Only one pointed out that his boss actually acted on a plan suggested by him, making him feel more valued and appreciated as an employee. The remaining four agreed on the point that even though their boss would listen (only sometimes) to their PoV, not always were they counted in the same league as his/her (the boss in this case). So credit was of course taken by the boss while these employees felt they weren’t rewarded enough.

These four were now curious to understand how the earlier 3 got their work done from their boss. (haha, hit a home run, I thought). The 3 stooges explained that they had understood their boss better than the remaining quartet. In understanding their boos, they knew

• How and when to time their suggestions – depending on the boss’s mood
• How to present the suggestions – making it sound intellectual and as if your boss was the inspiration behind this thought
• How to implement the suggestion – send emails through your boss on the PoA, team involved and roles and responsibilities

We all had questions, lots of them, but they only had one answer, you cannot standardise this solution. You have to understand your boss better first and only then go about with this attitude. Gaining your boss’s trust is very important and so is working hard towards it. Spend time in the system, understand people and processes and draw your battle plan. After all work place is a battle field and majority of us are surviving every day.