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.
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:
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.”