We are coming up to that time again.  Evaluation contest time.  Clubs are setting dates, and Area Governors are scrambling to get everything organized.  Still one of the best resources on Toastmaster Evaluation Contests is from Andrew Dlugan.

Andrew covers reasons to attend, reasons to compete, and ways to win.  A must read for anyone considering entering the evaluation contest this spring.

The 3 critical aspects of a speech evaluation are:

1. Connect with the speaker.
2. Connect with the audience.
3. Give one specific, actionable, and heartfelt piece of advice that will help both speaker and audience on their path.

Simplified of course, but critical.

I wonder whether an iPad could be a useful tool for evaluating speeches. As I wonder this, I also am considering what my fellow competitors would feel about the use of an iPad in the evaluation contest. There’s no rules against it.

Maybe time to start thinking about creating that app???

The recent series of evaluation and speech contests have got me thinking of what is most important, style? or substance?

An evaluation that delivers much needed feedback to a speaker delivered in a poor style will not likely win a contest, and most likely will alienate the speaker. The advice will be ignored.

On the other hand a vacuous evaluation delivered with poise and panache will give you a fantastic chance of winning a contest, but will be of little benefit to the speaker.

Clearly, style AND substance would be preferred. It is quite a challenge to deliver an effective evaluation with style, but it is possible. This should win any contest, but sometimes does not. Why?

I believe that you need to have style and substance that are congruent with each other. Your presentation style needs to match the content. If you suggest having bigger gestures, your gestures should be bigger, but not uncomfortably so. In other words, if you wouldn’t take your own advice, why are you giving it?

Now, there’s an argument for needing to give advice to internalize it ourselves. I have done this and it is a great mechanism for personal improvement. Just don’t expect to win higher level contests if you don’t talk the talk yourself.

Yet another thought provoking post by Seth Godin.  This time the post refers to using price as a competetive advantage.  It was the closing line that hit me though…

The scalable, profitable strategy is to change the game, not to become the most average.

If you want to become the best speaker you can be, you need to stop doing what everyone else does.  A New Year is fast approaching.  Use 2010 as an opportunity to redefine yourself.  Here are some ideas:

1. Compete in all the Toastmasters contests.  Yes, even Table Topics.
2. Prepare.  Prepare your speech.  Prepare for the contests.  Talk to the speaker before the meeting.
3. Join an advanced club.  Start a new club that pushes the envelope.
4. Present outside your club.  At a job group, Kiwana’s, Rotary, etc.
5. Push the limits of all of the Toastmaster roles.  Act out the Quote of the Day, do a backwards meeting, etc.

You left your comfort zone when you joined Toastmasters.  You regained it by being a member for a year or two.  Now is the time to push the envelope again.  Join me, and have fun!