Why Do We Time Speaking Roles in Toastmasters?

 I've heard many reasons why we time speaking roles:

1) We are working on being reliable for our speaking, especially when it comes to business occasions.
2) We have to keep our meetings on track
3) It is good practice for contests
4) It makes us plan our approach to how we speak

There are a number of timing activities and details in the Competent Leader (CL) manual, with lots of details - though we only have to complete timer and one of 4 other roles that can be related to time.

I've even heard that some of the timing we learn in Toastmasters may limit our point of view for other types of speaking in the future. However, I think the large variety of timing in the advanced manuals and the other series keeps us from being too complacent with the set times.

I think there is an additional way to look at why we time in Toastmasters Clubs:

To measure the level of extroversion and introversion.

For most Toastmasters I know, they started as introverts and had to really make a giant stretch to join Toastmasters. I include myself in that camp.


For introverts, the green light can be the enemy! They have to push and struggle to meet the goal of filling up the time before they can breathe a sigh of relief and hand the meeting back over to someone else.

It can take a lot of practice to get past seeing the green and wanting to quickly wrap up - especially in Table Topics! An introvert can know that they are really learning from Toastmasters when they start seeing that they are getting to the yellow light more often and even being comfortable with the red light.

Even when getting comfortable with getting in the yellow-to-red zone with speeches, looking at the next step may be very scary - CC10 is the next step up, having to face filling 8 to 10 minutes! Then looking at the number of presentations and advanced speeches that can be 10 to 15 minutes may seem like an eternity to fill up, especially without using notes!

However, you can really tell you are succeeding with Toastmasters when you look at a 10 minute speech as a nice time to speak, and you look forward to having a little more time to share your thoughts.


For extroverts, the red light can be the enemy at the beginning. They may feel that they were just getting started and feel disappointed that they have to stop talking. Sometimes they may just go way over their time, not realizing the value of trying to be better at meeting the timing of their project. In fact, I've been guilty of this a few times, so perhaps I've gone a bit far into the other camp - being an extrovert in an introvert's body.

For true extroverts, being about to focus their thoughts and presentations down into the green-to-yellow range is a very valuable challenge for them to accomplish. They will find that they will reach their audience much better, be more connected and get their message across in a way they will be much more accepted. This may also help them be in a better mode to be active listeners - being able to stop in a timely manner, and accept the feedback that will come with the evaluation.


Thus the timing light can help us gauge where we are on our journey learning about ourselves with Toastmasters. It can be the thermometer to take the temperature of our balanced approach to speaking.

The yellow light is your friend. For normal speaking, this is where you should become most comfortable.

Happy speaking! And keep your Witz About you!