http://coachlisab.blogspot.com/2011/05/is-your-speech-too-speechy.html

The best part of college is that you could become whatever you wanted to become, but most people just do what they think they must.

I feel this way about Toastmasters.  It works really well when inexperienced speakers join a club.  They see how experienced members make eye contact, come out from behind the lecturn, and tell stories.

The problem is that experienced Toastmasters rarely push the bounds of what is possible.  Your speech can be anything.  Take a risk.  Be yourself.

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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

Andrew Dlugan gives a comprehensive evaluation of Obama’s inaugural speech, reminding us that we need to:

1. Start with a Strong, Simple Speech Outline
2. Craft Impactful Lines
3. Employ the Magical Rule of Three
4. Amplify Words by Drawing Contrasts
5. Thread Your Theme Throughout Your Speech

While most of us will not have the opportunity to deliver such a speech, we still have the opportunity to impact our audiences every time we speak to them.  Take Andrew’s evaluation and use it as a blueprint to improve your speeches.

The correct answer is five!  The reason being that deciding to do something is not the same as doing it.

If you have been putting off addressing your fear of public speaking, now is the time to do something about it.  Communication is a concrete skill that will help you in these hard times.  You can become a better interviewer, increase your network of people, and communicate better in general.

Will Toastmasters make you a better speaker?  The answer is no.  See here.  There’s only one person that can make you a better speaker… yourself.

Take this moment to tell yourself that you are going to become a better speaker this year.  Let Toastmasters be the framework for making that happen.

One of the most popular posts on this site is the evaluation advice given by 2008 World Champion of Public Speaking (WCPS) LaShunda Rundles.

Vikas Jhingran won the WCPS in 2007 and also has some advice about evaluations:

I discovered that the process of getting and giving feedback is highly underrated, but very critical to the speech crafting process. Toastmasters teaches you to spot your weaknesses and ask for specific feedback and then maximize that feedback by identifying what will work for you and applying it.

Vikas Jhingran Profile – Toastmasters International – Answering the Swami’s Question