It’s contest season in Toastmasters right now. Toastmasters clubs worldwide are holding 2 different contests, one of which – the International Speech Contest will end up with a single speaker from a Toastmasters club somewhere in the world being crowned 2009’s World Champion of Public Speaking.

On a District level only (a geographical area that can encompass a State, Country or more than one country) Toastmasters clubs will be running a second contest out of a choice of four:

• Table Topics Contest – impromptu speaking.
• Evaluation Contest – evaluating a speech.
• Humorous Speech Contest – delivering a speech that contains humor.
• Tall Tales Contest – delivering a speech that tells a tall tale.

In my District, we are running the Evaluation Contest.

I entered both of my club’s contests, not for competitive reasons but because we didn’t have too many entries – only two entrants for both the International Speech Contest and the Evaluation Contest.

Despite my intention being to fill out the numbers, on the night itself I was fired up by the fact that it was a contest and that each contestant was expected to put on a good show.

I had a lot of fun, particularly with my speech for the International Speech Contest. I really went for it! While I didn’t know what the judges scored each contestant’s speech, I felt that had I really wanted to win and had I done everything I could to learn and prepare for the contest beforehand, that I could have won it.

Even though I didn’t have a contest win, I grew from my participation in the event. It really is a whole different ball game to go from just speaking to speaking in a contest setting and wanting to meet the expectation of delivering something special.

For this reason I’d certainly recommend that if you are a member of Toastmasters or some other kind of educational organization where you are eligible to enter the contest – and usually avoid doing so, that you enter at the next available opportunity, no matter how new or how advanced a speaker you may be.

You will:

1. Grow from raising your game and pushing through your comfort zones to new levels
2. Demonstrate to your fellow members what they can become – especially if you are one of the newer members or least experienced. Inspiring people is a great way to help people challenge themselves to grow.
3. Improve your confidence. You entered the contest, you put yourself in a position where you will be judged, and you got through it.

All the above make you a winner, regardless of whether you are voted the winner of the contest. Doing so also adds quality to your club/organization. So it really is a win-win situation, but especially a win for you!

So, when will be the next opportunity for you to show what you’ve got???

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© Make Speaking Fun, 2009. | Permalink | Leave a comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Public Speaking, Toastmasters

New article:

Public Speaking Courses, Toastmasters, and Self Study Options for Developing Public Speaking Skills

This is just an article I wrote expressing my opinions on the benefits of attendance based public speaking courses, Toastmasters, and self study. Each has a part to play, but I believe where you are right now plays a role in determining which options are the most suitable at the cuurent point in time.

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© Make Speaking Fun, 2009. | Permalink | Leave a comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: overcoming fear of public speaking courses, public speaking courses, Toastmasters

I was supposed to deliver a speech at the last Toastmasters meeting, but due to the flu and house move of both the Toastmaster and President, as VPE I had to go into emergency mode and make the agenda work out. Part of that process included me stepping in as Toastmaster.

However, I am pleased to say, everything went great as far as what I thought of my performance was concerned, especially in contrast to all efforts to date.

It was my fifth time performing the role and the first time since the first time I performed the role of Toastmaster, that I finished performing my duties feeling a great sense of achievement. I did it to a very high standard – which was verified by the general evaluator for the evening and member feedback!

Now that was a great example of what good public speaking is all about. I had fun and unleashed a can of “see how easy this is” whoop ass! Not that being Toastmaster is easy – until you’ve done it enough times to know what you’re doing and to cope with the unexpected.

One of the preliminary things I did to set myself up for success is I paid attention to what happened last time and the feedback I received.

Another was I got all outstanding roles filled before the meeting and followed up with confirming attendance of people booked into roles as much as I could on the day. After the experience last time with several no-shows and people running late, I wanted to minimise any chance of surprise this time, even if people did confirm that they were coming online.

There was a slight problem over filling in the speaking slot I had vacated, as a member that hadn’t visited the club for a while hadn’t understood that his having booked in as reserve speaker meant he was good to go if a scheduled speaker dropped out, or was a no-show.

This almost threw a spanner in the works, and lead to a loss of speech (and subsequent evaluation) or the need for someone else to go in and give an impromptu speech to make up for the gap.

There were only two real problems at the event itself. Fortunately they were corrected before becoming a significant problem. The problems were our Acting President (who is supposed to open and close the meeting) arrived late AND he was carrying with him the copies of the meeting program that all members and guests should have before the meeting starts to be able to follow the meeting’s events.

Fortunately, I had a few copies myself, so at least the timekeeper and myself could function properly. Also fortunately, as I was about to start the meeting on time without him he arrived – with a pint of beer served fresh from the bar in hand! Can you believe it?

I quickly got the agendas from him and got them distributed. However, while this happened and the Acting President sorted himself out, the meeting ended up starting 8 minutes late.

That time unfortunately wasn’t to be recovered, but this was mainly down to people running over their allotted time in the second half of the meeting.

I did my best to quicken the pace in the first half of the meeting and we ended up running 4 minutes late. We were only running 2 minutes late at the start of the second half of the meeting, as I clawed back a further 2 minutes by shortening the break.

At the end of the meeting, we were over by about 15 minutes (I’d stopped timing once I realised we’d missed the finish time). Anyway, none of that was down to me and I did my best to stay on top of it.

And what of my performance? Well I took notice of all the main recommendations I’d received before, as well as few I’d made in my own mind and I was determined to give this a good shot and that I was going to cover everything I should in my role. And I did just that.

I will let the commendations received speak for my performance:

• took control of the meeting
• introduced everyone well
• let everyone know what was happening throughout the evening
• lively transitions
• very pleasant stage presence
• confident
• good eye contact
• great explanation of what my role was about and what I was going to do
• good use of humour
• engaged the audience
• good use of vocal variety
• to the point
• managed time well
• getting pretty slick at the job

And the recommendations:

• don’t sit at the back of the room as some of the lesser experienced members didn’t know how to pass back control of the speaking area very well, which made the process seem a bit awkward at times.
• more vocal variety needed (I just love it when two people say the same thing from opposite sides of the coin)

In the case of the former recommendation I had actually explained the process of transition between speakers, but obviously I hadn’t emphasised it strongly enough and/or needed to mention it again later in the meeting. I intend to try out different seating locations in future and regeardless of wherever I’m sitting, I will use stronger emphasis on the process of transition between speakers next time.

I’m very pleased with the feedback received; voluminous commendations and two minor recommendations!

Something I felt I could have done better was to relax more when not on stage. I found myself trying to make sure I knew who I was introducing next and how I was going to introduce them, to the extent I wasn’t properly listening to everything that was going on at times.

So relaxing, paying attention and trusting I will get everything right is the mission for next time. And I’ll take some concealed notes with me just in case I do forget and need them.

Right now, I’m extremely pleased that I achieved in one more attempt something that I thought would take about three more attempts.

I conquered the role of Toastmaster and showed everyone how much fun you can have with public speaking!

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Post tags: Evaluation, make speaking fun, Public Speaking, Toast Master, Toast masters, Toastmaster, Toastmasters

My experience of being Toastmaster (or the host) at my club’s Toastmaster meetings has always been interesting. I’ve now performed the role for the fourth time. Each time I felt slightly different:

• The first time was about getting through it.
• The second time was about doing it better than the first time.
• The third time was about trying to become comfortable.
• The fourth time felt a little like the third time because a number of challenges came up but I also felt more confident.

Interestingly, the first and second times, I don’t recall there being any external challenges. For the third (see Mr Toastmaster … (part 2)) and fourth times there were. Both included a last minute change of venue and both featured speakers that failed to show, including two late functionaries in the case of the fourth performance.

Initially I was a bit hard on myself for my performance as I felt there were things I could have done before the meeting and during the meeting’s break to smooth things out.

Sure there were, and I will be more prepared the next time I perform the Toastmaster role, because on the fourth performance I was paying attention to what didn’t work well. I also contrasted how I felt overall, what I felt went right, and what I felt didn’t go so well to the third time I performed the role of Toastmaster to put things into perspective.

One of the significant things I said as far as keeping things in perspective is concerned, was that I needed to do the role a few more times to increase my skill, confidence and ability at performing the role of Toastmaster. And by doing that I’ll also increase my skill at handling whatever occasional challenges crop up quickly and efficiently!

So what could I improve (a mix of my own feelings and comments from the audience and general evaluator)?

• Prepare a better introduction. I had prepared an intro that included some background information on Toastmasters. That background information should only have served as backup in case the President didn’t say it. The background was mentioned quite thoroughly that evening. So I had to improvise a little.
• Cover my main points even if the President has partially done so. Our President (on this occasion a stand-in) mentioned one of the three points I’d intended to cover – applause. Following this I decided I didn’t want to be redundant by mentioning applause again, or sound awkward by mentioning the other two points – handshake and voting slips, in isolation. Especially when handshake is connected to applause. But as the event went on the need for this quickly became apparant as our table topics master neither lead the applause or shook hands with each topic speaker. At that point it became awkwardly obvious to me that being redundant is fantastic if it achieves the desired result! And on top of that, I’m simply performing my role correctly by mentioning what I’m supposed to mention.
• I was a bit flummoxed by starting the meeting with our table topics master, GE, and two speakers absent. So I then had to immediately find stand ins for the first two. (The former two were running late and one of the speakers had got struck down with a cold.)
• Some extended voting periods during the speaker part of the evening while I sorted out the speaker and evaluator slots, including an improvised speech. This I could have comfortably dealt with during the preceding break and it would have kept the momentum going more strongly.

That was pretty much it, four things.

There was one more, which came about as a result of me taking a minute or two to add in some interesting facts about Toastmasters before closing the first half of the meeting, and to ask for some feedback on my performance as Toastmaster during the second half, on both occasions mentioning that we were running ahead of time.

We never usually request feedback for the Toastmaster, but I’m going to recommend we start doing so as space is provided for it on our ballot slips. It would also be helpful to the Toastmaster to get a general opinion on how the audience felt they performed.

So what was that last thing? Our General Evaluator quipped that I shouldn’t feel the need to fill in free time if we’re running ahead of schedule, as it’s eating into his “drinking time!” That was a laugh out loud moment for everyone, myself included. And then he made himself just as guilty by running over time too! I agreed with his point to an extent.

Where I disagree is that I wasn’t trying to fill up all the free time, but just to add a little interesting filler, which in no way would make up for the minutes freed up by a missing speech and the corresponding speech evaluation, and I believe these things were done within my allotted time anyway. What I would avoid doing next time is saying that we’re running ahead of time until I announce the break or before handing the meeting to the President to close. It sounds like a bonus to the audience that way!

So what were my commendations?

• Gave a strong welcome
• Good stage presence
• Kept energy going
• Fine tuned programme
• Good timekeeping
• Good links between introducing functionaries and speakers
• Remembered all names
• Introduced humour
• Appeared confident
• Strong clear voice

Some of those things were repeated by more than one person. These comments support my feelings that I am definitely getting the hang of this. And lately I’ve really begun to appreciate the fact that there is more to Toastmasters than delivering speeches.

I believe there’s a common perception that you join Toastmasters to develop your public speaking skills. I was guilty of this myself before I first visited a Toastmasters club to find out how things work. Sure there is that, but there’s a lot more than that to gain from the Toastmasters buffet!

Getting involved in the functionary roles is a great way to learn, to give back to your club and to inspire and encourage all those who will follow in your footsteps (and often even those who came before you)! If your profession is in a leadership or managerial role, this is a great way to practice and develop those skills.

Why not learn how to become a confident host? Why not learn how to do great warm ups? Why not learn how to give constructive feedback that helps someone perform to a higher standard, feel encouraged and supported all at the same time? Why not have the opportunity to practice developing your skills in these things as often as you like in a mutually supportive environment. Why not develop your public speaking, communication, leadership and managerial skills so that you can feel confident every time you have to speak or take on a role at a business, work, or social function? Why not join Toastmasters and learn how to do exactly that?

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Post tags: Evaluation, make speaking fun, Public Speaking, Toast Master, Toast masters, Toastmaster, Toastmasters

So, you’ve got to introduce an act or maybe even host an event, and you’ve got up to 15 minutes to warm up the audience, what do you do? Well, there are many ways to do a warm up. I’m going to discuss a recent warm up I did that was very successful.

I wrote in my previous entry Mr Contest Chair! about getting out of my comfort zone to chair the Humorous Speech Contest (which also ended up including the Table Topics Contest) for the Toastmasters clubs in my area. At this event I felt my public speaking skills were on top form.

I indicated I was surprised at all the commendations I received. I felt that I’d achieved what I’d set out to do and really enjoyed it. In other words I thought I gave a capable, average performance. After attending a more recent speech contest and paying close attention to how the contest chair did the warm-up, I gained some insight as to what I thought worked well with my style of chairing, earning me those commendations.

This is another of the benefits in Toastmasters, you can learn from simply observing each speaker’s speaking style.  Some tend to be serious, some tend to straight talk, some tend to smile a lot, some tend to field questions to the audience, some tend to joke, some tend to be very animated, and so on.

I said I had fun chairing the contests mentioned in my previous post. I understand now that all eyes definitely are on the chair, so the enthusiasm and excitement I was carrying with me must have shone straight through to the audience! After my introductory speech which I had used as an opportunity to deliver an all-encompassing recognition of all contestants and everyone else present that night as winners for what they would learn from the experience, I launched quickly into my warm up exercises.

My first exercise was apparently unconventional – I didn’t see any other area or division contest ask all representatives of each (competing) club present to stand and receive applause. To me this was important, it was a way of recognising everybody that had taken time out of their schedule to be at the contest to support their club’s contestant, or simply to be entertained and hopefully learn something new.

I also made sure everyone that didn’t belong to a competing club (but may or may not have been performing some other functionary role) received applause too. Albeit for only a brief period of time, it gave a face and recognition to each person in the audience that would otherwise have just been a silhouette.

I then gave everyone something to do with a single spoken word game where each person gets to contribute one word to whatever had been spoken by the speakers that spoke before them. Again, it gets everyone involved.

Finally, I did a what I like to call a “sound check” – testing out the audience’s applause. And this was were I got to use my voice and physicality to not only help ensure the reaction was what I wanted, but to also be with the audience rather than just telling them what I wanted to do.

Chair’s Call: In a slow, not too optimistic voice “How do we applaud at a cricket match?”
Audience’s Response: Polite, dispassionate clapping.

Chair’s Call: In a more moderated, slightly upbeat tone “How do we applaud to live music in a bar?”
Audience’s Response: Slightly louder and more appreciative clapping.

Chair’s Call: In a quicker paced, excited, enthusiastic and increasingly louder voice “And How Do We Applaud At A TOASTMASTERS MEETING?”
Audience’s Response: Booming applause with cheers and whoops!

Then I put my arms out in front of me at chest level, right palm over left, and then drew them both out towards their respective side of the body, signalling a cut/silence signal. I paused for everyone to stop applauding, and then quipped with each arm outstretched towards either side of the audience: “Save some of that energy!”

So in a nutshell what made for an effective and appreciated warm up boiled down to four simple ingredients:

• Make the audience feel appreciated
• Get everybody to do something, even better get everybody to recognise each other (together with the above point this encourages the audience to share responsibility for the event’s success)
• Be an enthusiastic chair (you are important and influence the mood for the evening)
• Ensure the warm-up for an event like this lasts a reasonable amount of time – about 10 minutes, give or take up to 5 minutes either side.

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© Make Speaking Fun, 2008. | Permalink | Leave a comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Public Speaking, public speaking tips, Toast Master, Toast masters, Toastmaster, Toastmasters

If you’re going to speak in public to different types of audience, especially audiences involving people of more authority, influence, or in some other way different from the norm and you’re a bit concerned about it, then it helps to get practice of being in that scenario. This is one area that Toastmasters can really help with.

Recently I volunteered to chair the Area Humorous Speech Contest for the six Toastmasters clubs in my area (although only four clubs actually fielded competitors). At the time I didn’t think much of the implications of taking this role on.

Not too long after however, it dawned on me that I had signed up to host a contest in front of not only my club’s Area Governor, but also the Presidents of up to six Toastmasters clubs in the area, including my own club’s President, and also our Division Governor.

To add even more spice to the mix, when I arrived at the contest venue I observed even more authority figures: our past Division Governor, and at least one other current and past Area Governor. And after all was said and done, I’d then have to face a mention in a contest report write-up in our Divisional newsletter. No pressure there then!

When it came to crunch time, I was surprised at how quickly I got rid of the nerves. I felt relaxed and comfortable pretty quickly. This was somewhat ironic. I was in a strange venue and with only a few familiar faces from my club present, yet despite all the important figures, and carrying on my shoulders the expectation of successfully handling this important contest, I felt more comfortable chairing this contest than I’ve felt doing a standard role in some Toastmasters meetings at my own club!

One of the things that helped give me a strong start was I did have some notes prepared – pretty much just a checklist to ensure I covered all the essentials. And I used them only in that way as and when needed.

The evening was opened up by my Area Governor who then gave me a warm introduction before calling me to the speaking area. It didn’t take me long to launch straight into the warm up and energise the room. It was fun. GREAT FUN!

I began by congratulating all contestants and guests that had come along to support their club’s contestants and then I got members of each club to stand and be applauded by everyone else.

Then I got everybody else that wasn’t a member of any of the clubs to be applauded for their part as functionaries and guests for the evening too. I thought this was right in the spirit of things at Toastmasters – except with a twist, instead of getting everyone to speak, I got everyone to be applauded for taking the time to be at the contest.

Then I got everyone to speak. Each person saying a word each and seeing where things went. There were a few giggles along the way!

Lastly I did an applause sound check, to make sure everyone was awake, alive and ready to energise the room as each contestant was called to and departed from the speaking area.

With the contest proper, I ensured all points on my checklist were delivered to the audience and contestants. I did have a couple of minor hiccups initially, nothing too obvious or distracting to the audience. As soon as it was time for the second speaker to be called up, I was fully back in my stride.

One thing I did quite well here and was commended on in later feedback was memorising all of the contestant’s speech titles so I didn’t need to refer to my notes while calling each contestant up to speak. One of the speech titles in particular was quite long and awkward, albeit wonderfully creative. I wasn’t sure if I could commit it to memory. I did manage to do so!

After the Humorous Speech Contest was done and dusted, and as my Area Governor thought I’d handled the Humorous Speech Contest well, I was then asked if I could also chair the Table Topics Contest that were to immediately follow a short break. The scheduled chair for the Table Topics Contest hadn’t arrived and had advised beforehand that he couldn’t guarantee he’d make it in time. I agreed to take on the role and perhaps handled it even better than the first contest, despite some initial nerves due to not expecting I would be taking this role on.

Additionally at the end of the contest I had to launch into another warm up – a table topics session with the audience, to keep everyone entertained while the judges votes were being counted and verified. Luckily I didn’t have to prepare most of the topics myself. Being that I had no time to prepare the topics in advance myself due to being asked to take on the role at the last minute, my Area Governor prepared some for me.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself at this part of the evening, especially as my first volunteers were a couple of people that had “difficulty” observing the silence period that followed each contestant’s speech or table topic response for judges to mark their ballot papers. At this moment, they were suddenly wishing they had observed the silent periods and each started nominating the other to go first! There were some good responses to these questions, some provoking laughter from the audience. Objective achieved!

Did the audience seem to agree I had nailed it? They sure did. As well as the abundance of verbal commendations I received following the contests (which I was quite taken aback by, humbled by, and gratefully received) the icing on the cake was that my performance as chair of the two contests was summarised in the Divisional Newsletter as a performance that was “expertly handled.”

So the lessons I’d like to share from this experience is to step up. Be willing to expand your comfort zone. Dare to take something you can currently do to a higher level. Trust yourself that you’re capable of doing just that and will achieve it! And then follow through and DO IT!

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Post tags: Public Speaking, public speaking tips, Toast Master, Toast masters, Toastmaster, Toastmasters

Last week, and perhaps a bit foolhardily of me, I decided I would step in at the last minute to cover the speech slot of someone that had just pulled out of the speaker schedule for what was our upcoming Toastmasters meeting. I ended up with 24 hours to prepare the speech that I would deliver the following day.

Why was that a bit foolhardy of me? Well, the speech had never existed at that point in time. We have an upcoming area Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests evening. My club’s area governor had enquired about getting some of my club’s members to volunteer to take on functionary roles for the contests, or simply to come along both to support the evening and to support our club’s contestant who had won both of our club’s contests.

This could have been done in a short announcement during the meeting. But what do I do? Seeing a free speech slot, being unable to bring forward any speakers scheduled to speak at the meeting after, and not wanting to disappoint one of the speech evaluators by having to drop him/her from the schedule, I decide I would make a full speech out of the area governor’s request.

That was on Saturday. I didn’t have time to draft the speech until late Monday afternoon. Our club meeting was on the Tuesday evening. On top of this I had never done a persuasive speech before and I was now about to do so two speech projects ahead of schedule.

But through my experience of attending other clubs, whether as a visitor or functionary, I found I could use some of that knowledge and experience to help make my case. In fact this was both the core and driving force of the speech, selling the benefits of attending other clubs. Attending the contests was in contrast a fun and easy way to get started on that track to developing new leadership and speaking skills. They were no longer something external that members didn’t need to be concerned with.

Was I nervous? Well, preparing a speech approximately 24 hours ahead of delivering it, doing a rehearsal of the speech twice with script in hand and then reading it through about 2/3 more times afterwards. This being a speech designed to get people not only to see my point of view but to be encouraged to take action as a result of it, yes not having enough to time to prepare I was a bit nervous.

I pulled it off though. Nerves did break through in uncontrolled arm movements, and I could have paced my speech better with pauses. But I otherwise felt in control whilst delivering my message, and I felt satisfied overall that I had delivered my message, albeit missing out a few points that I had wanted to make.

What did I do to make the speech successful? Some of the elements that worked particularly well was I went straight from my intro to getting the audience involved, asking them why they joined Toastmasters. That immediately got people’s attention because they didn’t know who I was going to call on next and because I was asking about something we all had in common. I then relayed my own story just to remind everyone that I am with them.

With humour, I reminded people that our contestant going forward to the area contests should have some fellow club members going there to support him, as they were responsible for sending him there by giving him the most votes.

I heavily sold the benefits of attending other clubs, making it clear that there is much to be learnt by attending other club meetings and events. As a recent and direct example, I relayed that my chairing of our club’s recent contests was influenced by what I’d learnt from attending another club’s contests.

I asked our Immediate Past President to share what he’d learnt by attending other clubs, and I asked our current President to help validate my growth by sharing his own observations of my earlier speeches to the present time, which I attributed in part to what I learnt by attending other clubs. Having other people provide support and evidence for what I was saying, helped establish credibility. Having the big guns do it, did it even better!

I then closed with a sequence of questions asking the audience what their goal is at Toastmasters, if they knew when they were going to get there, to whether they were now ready to take action to get there quicker.

Underlying all that, I had a strong belief and conviction in what I was saying!

I left it to the Evaluator of my speech to find out how persuasive I was. When she asked the audience who would attend the area contests evening, a good number of hands went up.

Mission Accomplished!

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Post tags: Public Speaking, public speaking tips, Toast Master, Toast masters, Toastmaster, Toastmasters

Recently at a Toastmasters Table Topics contest, I observed a single thing that one person did who went on to win the contest. (Generally speaking, if you’re not familiar with table topics, a table topic is a question or topic given to a club member to give an impromptu response to in a time-frame of between 1 and 1:30-2 minutes.)

What did he do? He was given an open-ended question which he was free to take a for or against position on. The only controversy was it was talking about taking an opt-in system, and changing it into an opt-out system.

Rather than getting confused by this, he took a position quickly after receiving the question. As soon as he took to the stage, he launched straight into his argument for his position. So strong was his belief, he even dared the audience to challenge his position. I believe his taking a position before responding to the question and the power and conviction of his response helped him beat the competition hands down.

So, what to do if given a question where you’re free to give your opinion, must respond immediately, but without there being a “right” or “wrong” answer? Unless you really are unsure about supporting a particular position, then you’re best to quickly take a position and argue your case for it as best you can. Whether the audience agrees with your position or not, they’ll have to respect the conviction and belief with which you argued for it.

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Post tags: Public Speaking, public speaking tips, Toast Master, Toast masters, Toastmaster, Toastmasters

One of the thigs I really enjoy is when I can help someone to do something they have held back from or perhaps had never recognised themselves as being capable of doing. Such opportunities are present in abundance in Toastmasters. As discussed earlier in part two, every time you are an Evaluator you have an opportunity to help someone imagine how much greater they can become through constructive feedback. However, you don’t have to be performing as an evaluator to achieve this.

As a member of Toastmasters, you can encourage guests, newer members, regular members and even advanced members to step up a level. I was told recently by an advanced speaker that an evaluation I had given him was one of the best he’d received for a while! I was quite pleased considering I was a bit anxious about evaluating someone that was way more advanced through the Toastmasters programme than I was and that I had been asked on the night with little time to study the evaluation criteria for the speech project.

The main point I wanted to talk about however, is helping people that need some gentle encouragement to believe in themselves enough to take that important step forward from not feeling able to going ahead and doing whatever it is that they’ve been holding off from doing. Prior to my last Toastmasters meeting, I had the opportunity to exercise this as an experienced member of Toastmasters to a new member of Toastmasters.

I had responded to an email from a new, acutely shy member – at least as far as taking on her first role was concerned, that had so far avoided performing any role or giving a prepared speech in our club so far. She was a recipient of an email broadcast that I had sent to everyone that was on the schedule for the upcoming meeting, whether they were registered just as an attendee or as performing a role or speech. I was seeking an answer from the people scheduled for roles and speeches that I could use to introduce them during my role as Toastmaster. Receiving this email, our shy member had thought perhaps someone had scheduled her in to perform a role that evening and wanted to check she was not scheduled in.

I took the opportunity to reassure her that she was not scheduled into a role. I could have stopped there, but I didn’t. I proceeded to encourage her to schedule herself in for her Ice-breaker speech – the first speech project in the Toastmasters Competent Communication Manual. I explained that it was a good way for her to get started as she’d be speaking on a subject that she knows best – something about herself. I also offered to help or answer any questions she may have. That was all the encouragement she needed. Shortly after the upcoming meeting, I was pleased to see that she’d scheduled herself in for her Ice-breaker speech at the following club meeting. And she followed through and has scheduled herself in for a functionary role in an upcoming meeting!

So another benefit of Toastmasters – Enabling Others!

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© Make Speaking Fun, 2008. | Permalink | Leave a comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Enabling, good speaking tips, make speaking fun, makespeakingfun, MakeSpeakingFun.com, Public Speaking, Toast Master, Toast masters, Toastmaster, Toastmasters

One of the most useful things that you get from Toastmasters that you rarely get from a live speech is constructive criticism. If you do get this after a live speech it’s likely that the person offering it has forgot about the “constructive” part. In Toastmasters, we like to call this process an evaluation, and everyone that performs a role or speech at each Toastmasters Meeting bar one person will receive an evaluation. Why is it useful? It offers us the opportunity to learn what we are doing well at, and to consider areas which we may wish to improve.

In my last performance of the Toastmaster role, I received a fair bit of “evaluation.”

From the General Evaluator at the end of the Toastmasters meeting:

• I should have mentioned what I do for my role as Toastmaster (indeed, and ironically I did do a good job of doing this when introducing the functionaries)
• I should have mentioned the programme wasn’t running like it normally would for the second half of the evening. Also that the programme was further affected in the second half due to a speaker that had failed to attend the meeting.
• I displayed warm smiles
• I had a good stage presence
• I gave good voice projection
• I got the audience involved
• I carried out the Toastmaster role well

All fair points I thought.

From my Club President’s written evaluation:

• My exercise getting everybody to repeat the word of the day in the first half of the evening could have been done better by describing what I wanted them to do, repeating it, and demonstrating it before asking everyone else to do it.
• I should have reminded people at the start of the meeting to switch off their phones
• I thanked and bridged well between speeches/functionary performances
• I gave good introductions of speakers/functionaries

Again, all fair points. And now for something interesting…

From one of our guests at the end of the evening after our President invited guests for closing comments:

• I made the first half of the evening proceed slowly.
• I looked like I was finding the whole thing a chore and wasn’t enjoying myself.

This is the sort of thing a beginning speaker doesn’t want to hear – a series of negative statements or accusations with no constructive explanation or suggestions offered, and nothing positive mentioned. Yet it’s also the sort of feedback many of us are likely to give when we haven’t learned how to give constructive feedback. I’m going to expand on this as there were some learning points for me that may also be beneficial to you, especially if you are new to public speaking.

Having had some experience as an established member, I have learnt to consider points made in such a manner and make up my own mind as to whether there is some validity in them and treat the not so helpful manner of their delivery like water off a duck’s back.

While I didn’t feel it was fair to claim the first half of the evening went particularly slowly, certainly I could have stepped up the pace of proceedings and I could have dropped the word of the day exercise mentioned earlier. Then again, as I become comfortable in the role and aim to stretch my comfort zone further I am going to experiment and challenge myself to try new things, to find out what does work, what I could do better, and what doesn’t work.

On the second point, I was actually enjoying myself throughout, recognising how much more confident I had become. This role felt like a very big deal this time last year, I was aware of this while I was performing and I was proud of that. Clearly I’m going to have to start recording my performances! Seriously though, you can’t please everybody all of the time.

I later learnt our guest was applying judgments of my performance based against speakers she’d seen at a motivational speaker and personal development focused club. A different environment with different aims to a Toastmasters club, which is focused on developing communication and leadership skills.

I missed a trick on this occasion as I didn’t address the criticism when it was raised. Instead, our club President decided to ask the guest how she’d introduce someone. At this point being put on the spot and not knowing how our club expects this to be done, I think our guest understood a little that there is a learning process involved at all levels of the club. She also felt awkward enough about her comments that she felt moved to approach me in an apologetic manner after the meeting. I later learned she was considering joining our club! Obviously she did enjoy the evening and she would certainly gain from learning evaluation skills.

Overall, I recognise that I need to perform the Toastmaster role a few more times, to get right the aspects I overlooked on this occasion, to continue increasing my confidence in performing the role, and to continue learning new skills while performing the role. The feedback received was very useful.

So criticism a.k.a. evaluation is one of the benefits gained from being a member of Toastmasters. It helps us learn to evaluate more fairly, more constructively, and more effectively. Part of how this works for anyone not familiar with Toastmasters is that evaluation is often delivered in a sandwich approach: commending a person on something they did well, then making them aware of something they can improve (i.e. be constructive rather than condemning) – if possible SHOWING them how they can do it better, then commending the person again on something else that they did well.

And to round off, some positive criticism I received from a member of our club:

• I have a certain kind of energy and spirit that warms people to me. (Hey, thanks!)
• I lead by example. (I was pleased to hear this as it’s me when I’m really in my element.)
• I am very involved and hands on in the running and support of the club. (A topic perhaps for another time but I do try to do my part for the club and its members.)

To conclude, I did a number of things well. I overlooked a few things I shouldn’t have overlooked as Toastmaster. I am a valued member and contributor to my club. Is this feedback helpful? Do I feel encouraged to do better next time? You bet I do!

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© Make Speaking Fun, 2008. | Permalink | Leave a comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Evaluation, good speaking tips, make speaking fun, makespeakingfun, MakeSpeakingFun.com, Public Speaking, Toast Master, Toast masters, Toastmaster, Toastmasters