I recently posted evaluation advice from recently crowned World Champion of Public Speaking, LaShunda Rundles.  Her poignant advice is to listen to your heart.

In an interview for Six Minutes a few days ago, LaShunda said the following:

I believe that being able to expose yourself to a variety of settings for feedback assures the universal appeal of your message. Assemble a group of honest coaches who will tell you without the sugar coating what works. Don’t be so resolute that you cannot accept honest and reasonable criticisms.

This is excellent advice.  Seek out coaches.  Open your mind to accept honest feedback.

Walking in to my local Starbucks store, I see the following:

A list of ideas in a Starbucks store

I think this is an excellent idea.  It shows that not only is Starbucks requesting feedback, but they are also listening to it.  Personally I like some of the ideas listed and am optimistic that some of them will be implemented.

I think it could be improved though.  They list a website, but no way to interact physically.  That is a missed opportunity I believe.  They could have a huge idea board in the store and give customers a vote each time they purchase a drink.  You would need to stop vote fixing I suppose, but this would give something tangible to the customer.

The website listed (MyStarbucksIdea.com) is interesting too, but is for the whole of Starbucks.  There are thousands of ideas.  I would like to see local sites where I can change my local Starbucks.  I don’t care what the average Starbucks person wants anywhere in the world.  I want to influence my local store(s) to be the way I want them to be.

I have seen an increase in evaluators using acronyms to provide structure for their points.  As an example, the acronym MOVE:

• Movement
• Organization
• Vocal variety
• Eye contact

The idea being that you can focus on movement throughout the evaluation, and tie all your points together with the acronym.

This may work if it fits perfectly with the speech, as this example does.  The problem arises when you plan to use an acronym before you have even seen the target speech.  The acronym is not likely to fit with the speech and will come across as a method for the evaluator to remember their points vs. helping the speaker or the audience.

Acronyms can also be a stumbling block.  If you have two of the same letter in the acronym, that will almost always causes confusion.  Another problem I have seen is where the evaluator used the letters out of order.  A luck would have it, spelling a completely different word!

I suggest that if you want to use an acronym to aid your memory, keep the acronym to yourself.  The audience will sense that you are more confident because you are providing a well structured evaluation.

When was the last time you challenged yourself when you give a speech evaluation?

The evaluation contest is just 6 short months away.  Now is the time to treat all of your evaluations as if they are contest evaluations.  No more taking the lazy way out!

Here are seven ways you can challenge yourself when evaluating a speech:

1. Limit yourself to 5 minutes after the speech for writing your notes.
2. Leave your written notes behind when delivering the evaluation.
3. Don’t take any notes at all and make sure to quote specific details in your evaluation.
4. Focus on a single aspect of the speech, such as gestures, and talk about that for the entire evaluation.
5. Give your evaluation to the entire room rather than to the speaker.
6. Create a theme for your evaluation based on the content of the speech you are evaluating.
7. Create your evaluation as a story rather than as a typical informative speech.

You will find that your speech evaluating abilities will improve immensely each time you challenge yourself.