From MSN – Say this, not that: 5 ways to give feedback that gets results:

1. Say this: ”I noticed that you’ve missed a few deadlines lately.” Not that: “You seem disinterested in your work lately.” When giving feedback, it’s important to focus on an employee’s specific behavior, not the impression you had of it. Telling an employee that he or she “seems disinterested”  or “appears disengaged” is actually a comment about your perception or impression of the employee – which comes across as a judgment – when in reality, the employee’s perceived disinterest could be the result of something unrelated to work. Focusing on the specific behavior that led to that impression opens up the door to have a clear discussion about the reasons why, rather than making the employee feel judged, alienated or confused.

This is a great point, unfortunately somewhat hidden away.  Here’s what I take away from that paragrap:

Observe the symptom, identify the cause.

Wrong:

“By relying on pages of notes, you limited your hand gestures which prevented you from making as great a connection as you could.”

Right:

“Many speakers worry about trying to remember everything they want to say.  Notes can help with that.  I recommend telling stories as they are much easier to remember and allow me to forgo the notes and be real with the audience.”

Simply instructing the speaker that notes hindered their speech is not enough.  Address their resistance.  Identify the cause.  It might take some teasing to get to the real culprit.  It will be worth it though, as the speaker will be able to address it and make the change.

Lots of uproar over the Groupon SuperBowl ad:

It just goes to show that you let your audience know your intentions with your message.

If you are in the Portland, OR metro area, and you want to exercise your evaluation muscles, come give Feedbackers a visit.  We are a specialty club focused on evaluations.

Some of the things we do differently than a regular Toastmasters club:

• We have 3 evaluators for each speaker
• Sometimes we do a round robin evaluation
• We have more time for longer speeches, such as seminars
• The General Evaluator has 5 minutes to evaluate just the 3 evaluators
• Evaluators can focus on one aspect of a speech, such as vocal variety, gestures, etc.

We meet every second Wednesday, 7pm at the Beaverton Library.  We meet tomorrow, the 9th of February.

Our facebook page is here.

Following on from my previous post on 30 minute evaluations, I received a comment from Richard with a link to some great ideas on timing.

I like thinking of ways to improve the standard roles.  I believe each one can be significantly adapted and played with.  As examples:

• What if you acted out the quote of the day?
• What if the word of the day was “um” or “thing?”
• What if the table topics were gestures you had to make while making up any story?
• What if you had a group speech?
• What if each evaluator evaluated all of the speeches?  the whole meeting?
• What if you had every role be hot seat?
• What if you ran the meeting backwards?
• What if the whole meeting had to be silent?
• What if you change the room configuration?

Very interesting video on Darren LaCroix’s site about Jackpot Toastmasters:

“The home of the 30 minute evaluation.”  I would love to know more about how that is structured.  Is that one person evaluating for 30 minutes, or a round-robin format?  I am sure Jackpot Toastmasters has some great experience they could share.

There’s an interesting comment by Michael Erwine on the post:

Yes! Talk about doing something different!!!

I love the idea of talking an idea and pushing it out to the edge. 30 minute evaluations are a great idea. Who says you have to be exactly like every other Toastmasters club in the world. Establish your own focus.

I gave a talk at a District Conference about pushing clubs to the edge. One thought experiment was: “What if your club dues were $100 a month?”

The 1st blush answer is that you wouldn’t get many members but…

On 2nd blush you wonder, “Who would join?” Answer, folks who were very serious about improving their speaking. Then…”what could the club offer them at that price level?” Hmm…$100 x 12 (months) x 20 (members) = a yearly budget of $24,000 dollars.

Heck, you could even get Darren LaCroix to help you out at that level.

The major point is not (necessarily) to up your club’s dues to $100 a month but to expand your thinking about what can be offered…and not lock your club in to thinking cheap.

Rock on Darren and (as you always do)…

Do Something Different!

Think differently