Evaluations play a key role in developing communication skills.
In addition to the evaluation page from the manual, evaluator should prepare handwritten notes on a separate paper capturing details from the speech.
Evaluation is about active listening, critical thinking, and then compiling notes captured to develop an insightful, coherent, one-on-one conversation with the speaker.
It is critical for evaluator to capture specific details from the speech by taking copious amount of notes. These notes should help evaluator use specific details from the speech while giving evaluation.
How do you plan to use visuals in your speech presentation?
First of all, when you see use of visuals in a Toastmasters project, keep in mind that a visual can also be a handout that you give to members in audience, or something to show (for example your science project where you might have built something), or a prop appropriate for your speech topic, or presentation slides you can develop using Power Point, or Key Note, or Google Slides.
Visuals don’t necessarily have to be presentations slides only that you show on a TV or a projector. Other ideas here can serve your purpose as well.
About the use of presentation slides that go with your speech, yes, there is a value in learning and trying those. That is, particularly when your speech project description calls out for it. In other cases, be careful not to overdo visual slides, or use them overly in variety of speech topics.
Why is that?
Visual slides complicate your speech preparation. It can add time to your preparation.
It makes your speech presentation more complicated as well, as you have to balance and coordinate use of visual slides with your delivery of the message.
It can get in your way for developing other skills such as effective eye contact, use of body movement and facial expressions, developing more vocal variety, etc. All these skills are very important to learn as well.
Visual slides shouldn’t be used as your speech notes. Might as well bring handwritten flash cards in that case.
So, again learning how to use visual slides is important, however only for a few select projects at toastmasters.
When you speak, your gestures and body language can empower you to emphasize and clarify your words. Body language can help you reinforce sincerity and enthusiasm.
Where do you start?
Keep our three techniques in mind: 1) develop a message in your own words rather than memorizing the entire speech or reading it, 2) focus on individual listeners for eye contact, 3) think of at least a few words in your address that you emphasize using the vocal variety. See more on these with this blog post on three techniques (click here.) With time, these three things will help you connect with your audience naturally, and your body language will also emerge naturally.
Put verbs into action when speaking to an audience by physically acting them out with your hands, your face, or your entire body. Plan a few gestures using preparation and practice. See ideas and tips on this in the following video.
Move around the speaking area when you transition from one point to the other in your presentation. Move towards the audience when asking questions, making critical connections, or offering a revelation or a key takeaway from your speech.
Be aware of nervous expressions such as putting hands in your pockets, nodding your head excessively, using filler words like um and ah too often, pacing back and forth, or rocking from one side to the other. Learn to control these mannerisms. They can distract your audience and sap energy from your presentation. Ask your friends and coaches to give you feedback when they see those from you.
Another potent tool is recording your speech and watching it later. Please have a friend record your presentation, and then watch it at home. If you’d like, ask your coach if there is time to watch the video in class.
Food for thought:
Prepare and practice. Think of five verbs in your speech that you can put into action using gestures and body language, visualize yourself using them, and rehearse them at home.
Use the feedback loop of toastmasters; it can make a big difference. After all, you have your peers and friends in the same boat; you aren’t into this alone. Use that to your advantage.
Go on your cutting edge; no one is judging you at toastmasters. Try new ideas, and experiment with them. Over time you will develop your natural style.
Most important of all, have fun with it. Enjoy the process.
At toastmasters, we have tools to organize the message, to learn how to listen effectively, to cultivate empathy, emotional intelligence.
Speeches and evaluations can help us cultivate this all.
Deven’s thoughts on this are in this video. (He gave a speech at his club in Orange, Paul Revere Toastmasters, to record this video)
[Deven’s note: I wish I had recorded the evaluation I got from Rich on this speech. If I did, I think it would have been helpful to post it right after the presentation. (Some of you know Rich, he came to our meetings a few times and gave ideas, feedback on a variety of things.) My takeaway from him “Deven, if I could think of one way that you can improve, and I don’t know how to do that … it is the way you conduct yourself. When you show emotions, they don’t seem natural.” So, that is a perspective for me from his vantage point. Thinking about it, I don’t show a lot of emotions when I meet with people one-on-one. It’s not right or wrong; it’s the way I am. So, it is my opportunity to learn and show more emotions if I were to connect with Rich’s of the world. I think the most emotions that I express is while I am coaching at toastmasters. I enjoy it so much; it puts me in my element. Maybe, I carry it around everywhere I go, whatever that I do 🙂 We live and learn.
The title of my speech was Perspective. I aimed to weave that, in conclusion, to reinforce it. In the flow of the moment, I missed it.
I am happy that the message did come through … or in the spirit of this conversation, I should say … so I think … 🙂 ]
Our two tools for prepared speeches and evaluations:
Feel free to provide feedback, ideas, your thoughts related to this topic in the comments section of this blog. We can learn so much from each other while talking about it.
At the Toastmasters meeting, the table topics master brings table topics for members. They might develop a theme around a series of questions. For example, it can be about colors, friendships, sports, movies, fiction, high school locker room, or Halloween … the sky is the limit where you can take table topics.
You have 20-30 seconds to think about your answer as a speaker. Why is that? Because that’s all, you got. Remember now that with toastmasters, nobody judges where you are taking it. Okay, to be a contrarian, totally okay to have humor in there; bring in a surprise, maybe. You are talking to your friends, after all.
Use the P-R-E-P technique (Point – Reason – Example – Point)
Make your point.
Give your reason for that.
Give a few examples from your perspective, experience, and thoughts.
Close out the talk by making your point again.
Use the Pros and Cons Technique
Explain the pros and cons of the potential direction, or answer. After that, give your recommendation.
Learn more about these two techniques in this video:
Make a point, and tell a story about it.
“Let me tell you what happened when I was doing that last …”
Make your story specific with details of where/when it happened. Use real names in it as well. That will make it so much easier to open up.
When the topic is about a social issue, or something generic, think of how it relates to you, how it can impact your life personally, and develop it.
Example One: What do you think of the year-round school schedule?
Personal angle to it in your answer. Are you on a schedule like that? What would you do if you had a program like this? What does it mean to you personally? How does it relate to you? Talk about it. Pull in a personal story maybe (for example, we were able to have a two-month vacation to India last summer because …). It also naturally helps you connect with your audience since there is an emotional pull to it that usually comes from inside.
If you take to a direction to talk about the overall advantages and disadvantages of the schedule to students in general, it will require that you come up with a list of reasons in real-time. You can still deliver a compelling statement; it may not be as easy as a personal angle.
Example Two: What do you think about the legalization of marijuana?
Personal angel to your answer: How can it impact your safety and well-being? How can it change or improve your options and prospects?
Note: Now, if it is an actual job interview or something at school, would you be more careful about what to say? The answer is yes, of course. With the Toastmasters table topics, we are developing “muscle” to think on our feet. So, okay, and even better, to have fun with it. Also, remember that for situations at school, you are much more prepared naturally, as a question is related to the subject matter (and not something random). At a job interview, if it is about what you put in your resume, then you know so much about it, to begin with, that’d help you.
The general evaluator runs the evaluations part of the meeting:
Introduces evaluators
Requests timing reports and voting for the Best Evaluator award
Requests ah-counter report, grammarian report
Gives their feedback on the meeting and may provide specific feedback/ideas to each evaluator – this should all be done in 2-3 minutes.
How to be a credible general evaluator?
Think about all that we are trying to do with the theme of credibility – all different aspects of it, all four priorities.
Listen carefully, and take notes.
Use the opportunity to share if you had ideas, observations, or points in your notes that weren’t covered in other evaluations and reports.
If you have specific feedback for any role players, bring it up. Again, keep it very specific, and avoid general statements.
Think of evaluation speeches critically. If you thought of opportunities for feedback on specific objectives of a speech project, feel free to bring them up. (Now, this is a very comprehensive skill; you have to think about the goals of every speech project. Do the best you can on this part. Still, an excellent idea to start thinking about it. It will do wonders for your communication capabilities.)
The general evaluation is your evaluation of the meeting. It is your opinion, your reaction. Use the speech evaluation techniques here as well, except that you are giving feedback to several individuals, not just one.
Coaches do a lot of this at our meetings. It is a good idea for members to start developing this.
Use CL manual projects to think of all the different aspects of it. For example, active listening, critical thinking, time management, facilitation, planning, encouraging others, etc.
Develop ideas in your own words. What does it mean?
Have a list of critical points to develop in your speech. Think about how these points tie into your overall message.
Develop each key point in your own words as they come to you naturally.
Avoid trying to memorize the whole speech verbatim.
Avoid reading the whole speech from paper or phone.
While delivering your speech, think of meaningful eye contact with at least a few in your audience, if not all. You make eye contact with a person just long enough so that person feels a personal connection to you. Do this with many people in the audience, if not all. When you do that, public speaking becomes one-on-one speaking with people in attendance, one person at a time..
Make a conscious attempt to deliver the message with vocal variety.
Change in projection
Change in pace of your speech delivery
Vary your pitch
Pauses to take deep breathes, pauses when you are trying to develop words (no need for filler words 🙂 )
Stretch critical words in your message for emphasis
Deven had given this speech below at his club in Orange, Paul Revere Toastmasters, to record video on this. It has more on the three ideas, and specific things to try with each:
[Deven’s note: While watching the video recording of my speech, I noticed that my eye contact didn’t come through for someone watching it now. This room set up is such that the width of the room is almost four times as much as depth. When I speak, there are more people to my sides than in the front. If I were to do it again, I’d look at Mark much more, or more specifically, at his iPhone, so the video shows my eye contact. 🙂
How about hand gestures? I didn’t try anything specifically for the hand gestures.
While practicing the three things, you naturally develop hand gestures over time. Every person should and probably would have his/her gestures. There are specific techniques about making your hand gestures full/big and holding them for impact, useful to develop awareness about it. Use feedback loop at toastmasters to cultivate a mindset for hand gestures, try the ideas, you will build your body language in time.
Read and think about your project objectives. Toastmasters manuals have explained each project well, take your time to understand it all, absorb it, and then most importantly, try to use it in your speech preparation and delivery.
Prepare and make a sincere attempt.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
Stay true to your natural self when you speak, no need to pretend to be someone else.
Be vulnerable. Show, express, channel your emotions.
Trying is all we ask at toastmasters. Give it a shot. There are no judgments here, neither from your peers nor from the coaches.
Maintain your speech bank. When an idea comes up to you, jot it down. It will become an excellent repository of topics for you. Keep it with you at every Toastmasters meeting.
Think about your next speech now; no need to wait till the last week. Think about potential topics, what you would/could do for it, …etc. It will do wonders for your confidence and comfort level.
Have fun with your speech; it is your speech topic, after all. You can take it wherever you like.
It is your reaction to the speech as it came across to you: what you saw, heard, and felt in the message.
If different individuals give evaluation feedback to the same speaker, will that be different? The answer is yes: each person has a different perspective, state of mind, temperament, and background to feel and perceive the speech.
You organize the evaluation as a 2-3 min speech to share your feedback and reaction to the speech.
It is an opportunity for the speaker to see how a fellow toastie received their speech.
It is a helpful peer-to-peer support system to improve and learn.
The speaker should appreciate feedback from the evaluator. The evaluator, a fellow toastie, listens to the speech presentation carefully, thinks critically about the project objectives, writes notes, prepares detailed feedback, and sincerely attempts to deliver it constructively.
At a Toastmasters meeting, the speaker avoids interrupting, countering, talking back, or arguing with an evaluator in the middle of the evaluation.
A Toastie genuinely cares for fellow toasties in the group.
At Toastmasters, we encourage every teenager to get on their cutting edge, stretch their comfort zone, and try new ideas. So, an evaluator shares their reaction in a very positive and constructive way. The evaluation could be an opportunity to make friends with a new speaker or sometimes take the speaker in your wings. An evaluator always roots for the success of a fellow toastie making a speech attempt.
Think about it from the speaker’s perspective. Examples:
It is an Ice Breaker speech where the speaker stands up for a prepared presentation for the first time. In that case, it is essential not to overwhelm them with too many areas to improve: accentuate the positives a little bit more, maybe to encourage them.
You are giving feedback to an experienced speaker preparing for a competition or a critical school presentation. In that case, the speaker might find detailed insights for improvement more helpful.
Q:What if you disagree with a viewpoint a speaker shares in their speech? A: Focus on the speaker’s project objectives and how well you think they achieved them. It is an absolute NO-NO to counter the speaker or argue against their take in your evaluation.
Q:Do you have to agree with the speaker’s viewpoint even if you don’t believe in it? A: As an evaluator, you don’t have to agree or disagree with the speaker’s opinion or message. Look at it from the speaker’s perspective: think of what they did well and where they could improve to achieve their goals.
For example, what if you see a lot of value in social media and the speaker’s message was social media is the worst thing that happened to teenagers? Try to understand what they tried to convey and how well you think they succeeded in developing the statement. Probably okay to mention that your opinion on it was different, but the focus of an evaluation should be on what the speaker did well and where they could improve to develop their intended message.
Q:Do you share what a speaker could have done differently for a more substantial impact or impression on you? A: Yes. Evaluations are the heart and soul of toastmasters and an incredibly empowering tool for teenagers to grow and develop. Seeing a genuine perspective from a fellow teenager toastie regarding how their message was received and perceived is priceless. Speakers can use it to understand how to improve.
Q: Do you share what came across effectively from the speech? A: Yes. An evaluation isn’t just a fault-finding mission; it should also include positives from the speech.
Review the project objectives before the speech.
Write down notes while listening to the speech.
Focus on the project objectives while putting your thoughts together. Each project targets a specific area, for example, organizing your message, using descriptive language, vocal variety, body language, visual aids, persuading your audience, etc.
Smile and address the speaker using their name.
Make your feedback specific – pull in particular instances and details from the speech and use that when you give an evaluation. The speaker can understand and relate to your feedback when you do that.
Learn to give meaningful constructive feedback using speech evaluations (one-on-one evaluations). I think this should be our top priority this session.
This helps in a number of ways:
Effective listening
Critical thinking
Understanding speaker from his or her perspective
Cultivate empathy – ability to feel like the way other person does
Articulating a coherent message combining different ideas you capture when speaker speaks and objectives for a specific objective
Striking one-on-one conversation with the speaker to share your feedback, your opinion, your reaction to the speech in a constructive way
Emotional connection with individuals in audience is so critical. If they love you as a speaker, they will want to listen to you, they will root for you when you stand up and speak.
We focus on specific ideas and techniques that’d help develop emotional connection with audience.
It is an empowering skill to develop. So much of our speaking is impromptu, whether that is in group meetings, interviews, customer support, answering questions during training, etc.
Why emphasize table topics with the theme of credibility?
Table topics help us stay in the flow of the moment. When you do that, your ability to connect emotionally grows very quickly.
You develop “muscle” to think on your feet and develop ideas on the spot. It will make you better in all kinds of communication.
It makes you more comfortable under your skin, it makes you more natural.
Can you lose power because of Power Point (or Keynote for that matter)?
Can power point get in your way to make a clear point?
The answer can be yes. When you are presenting, you are the focal point of your presentation. Or, rather you should be the focal point of your presentation. You are in charge, and not your power point presentation.
Here is one hilarious, energetic and yet insightful video on it from Don McMillan… check it out… 🙂
And see how his vocal variety is adding impact to his presentation.
