World Champion Evaluator evaluating like a champion

The ultimate goal of any speaker is to be “in the moment.”  When you are able to reach this point in a speech, nothing else matters.  You are a communicating machine and your audience will love you.

I am reading Improving Your Storytelling by Doug Lipman.  On page 14, Lipman says:

Now you can see why advice is often unhelpful.  It makes you think things like, “I should never change a folktale.  I should stop saying, ‘Um.’  I should try to make eye contact.”  These thoughts tend to take you out of the moment, diverting your attention from what is actually happening during the storytelling event.

In this sense, all advice is bad advice.  The thought, “I should look my listeners in the eye” may distract you just as much as “I should not look my listeners in the eye.”

Lipman then goes on to say that an understanding of the principles is helpful.

I believe it is critical to know how to use them and when they are appropriate.  You need to be so relaxed with the advice that it becomes second nature.  When you receive your next evaluation, listen to the advice, and work on areas of improvement over time.  Don’t beat yourself up if you say “too many” um’s!  It will come over time.

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Seth posted recently on How to Make Graphs that Work.  There is some excellent advice on using graphs.

If you are creating a chart for a presentation, or are evaluating a presentation that uses a graph, consider the following points:

1. Is the graph telling a story and is the story one that needs telling?
2. Does that graph effectively communicate the story?
3. Is there another way to tell the story without using a graph that would be more effective?

Number 3 is the most critical consideration.  There are few situations where a graph is more effective that some other way of presenting the information.  If you don’t believe that, check out Made to Stick for ways you can present statistics in amazing ways.

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How do you take notes for your evaluations?  Many people have templates they use such as dividing the page into 2 sections, one for positives, and one for negatives.  Another template I have heard of is 3 sections, one each for how the speech made them think, feel, and act.

I came across a different note taking method today.  While not focused specifically on evaluations, I think it could be used for it.  It is the Cornell Note-Taking System.  The best source of information on how to use the Cornell Note-Taking System, I found at LifeHacker.

Enjoy, and let me know how it works for you.

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Today I received a newsletter from John Kinde.  I look forward to his newsletters as they are always insightful.  He is a master of observational humor.  He is also a Toastmaster.

This particular newsletter, entitled “The Path From Good to Great” focuses on feedback.  I am reproducing the entire article below as I couldn’t find it online.  Emphasis is mine.

The Path From Good to Great

We don’t grow in giant leaps.  We grow in baby steps.  In fact the further along the growth curve we are, the smaller are the steps that take us to greatness.

This week, I attended a terrific Fripp Speaking School.  I’ve been to several of them.  There is so much to be learned from watching good speakers as they receive high-level coaching.  They go from good to great.  And from great to awesome.

Fripp emphasized that to grow as a good speaker you need to be open to nit-picking suggestions.  By itself, a suggestion focusing on one of the fine points of delivery may be small and may seem insignificant, but added with other tiny suggestions, the end result can be huge.

The runner who wins by a nose receives the Gold Medal.  The golfer who wins by just one putt, receives double the prize money.  The sales person who wins the contract gets all the money.  The speaker who is just a little bit better may be the only one who is offered the chance to speak. These common examples serve as reminders of how small things make a big difference when we’re considering competitive advantage.

The key for the speaker is to do more than thrive on feedback.  The speaker must seek out feedback.  And internalize feedback. Masters achieve the competitive advantage because they’re doing the small things better.

The enemy of growth is the flinch…the defensive response to a suggestion.  The flinch is a natural reaction to feedback.  We tend to fall in love with our own ideas and our own performance.  We deliver a speech in the calculated way we thought was best.  How dare someone attack our good judgment?

Feedback sometimes feels repetitive.  Suggestions nag at us. That’s because old habits are hard to beat.  We need to understand that feedback is our key to growth. The better we become, the more refined and “picky” that feedback needs to be.

The feedback is not the thorn, it’s the rose, a gift.  It’s a building block to greatness.  It prevents you from stagnating at the level of a good performer.  It will put you a step ahead of your competition.

As a speaker, that tiny suggestion may be just the edge you need to make a difference in people’s lives. Or that minor tweak might be what makes your speech memorable.  Or that tiny “criticism” may make a difference in your bank account.

Learn to ask for feedback on the tiny things that can sharpen your talk. Not only demand the nit-picky suggestions…expect them. Always be open to new perspectives.  Then be ready to take your speaking to the next level.

2009 Copyright by John Kinde

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Just read an excellent article by Lisa Braithwaite on metaphor.  In the article about the use of metaphor in the Tour de France commentary, Lisa talks about Phil & Paul’s excellent use of color to make a potentially dull 3+ hours, exciting.  The commentary is there to add a story to a sporting event.  The story makes the event come alive rather than just be a copy of what you can already see.

When you think of it compared to a PowerPoint presentation, Paul and Phil and not merely reading their slides, they are capturing the essence and making it come alive.

Evaluate your speeches and presentations.  Have you made the topic as interesting as you could?

Posted under Public Speaking