Deon Fredericks, Group Executive: Accounting Services, Telkom

Accountants and auditors work with numbers but they need to understand how words work too, says Deon, one of the founder members of the Telephonix Toastmasters Club. “That was 17 years ago,” he recalls. “As Internal Audit, it was critical for us to be able to speak with confidence when presenting our findings to clients and making sure they understood the message.”

 

Deon says that while not many people are naturally good speakers, almost anyone can learn to be one. “You can use Toastmasters to get comfortable with yourself as a speaker and to be more effective in day-to-day situations such as meetings.”

Through his early Toastmasters training, he broke a bad habit that he hadn’t even realised was standing in his way as a speaker. “Sometimes, especially when people are nervous, they keep on repeating certain words, such as ‘basically’ or ‘um’. I used to use ‘basically’ regularly but when I became aware of it, I stopped.”

He also learnt to be comfortable when making ‘impromptu’ speeches – meaning an unprepared speech made at the spur of the moment. “It’s much more difficult to do an impromptu speech than a prepared one but with the right kind of training, you can learn to do it with confidence.”