Do you think a World Champion of Public Speaking knows a thing or two about effective evaluations? I do. Which is why I was interested in the advice LaShunda Rundles, the newly crowned 2008 World Champion, gave on the August World Champions’ EDGE conference call.
LaShunda talked about how we, as evaluators, like to give feedback. We just love to add value. Nothing pleases us more than providing feedback to a speaker that will improve them or their speech.
Speakers, and most especially speech contestants, need to be selective of which advice to take. LaShunda cautions that taking in too much feedback can impact your message:
When you take too much information from folks and you are trying to please someone from every direction, you are going to jeapardize the authenticity of your speech.
LaShunda has advice for speakers who receive a lot of feedback:
You need to listen to your heart, and filter those things out.
As an evaluator, we need to be careful with the feedback we give. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Why am I giving this particular piece of feedback?
- Will the speaker or the speech directly benefit from my feedback?
- Is this the kind of feedback the speaker has requested?
- Would the speech be noticeably better if the speaker incorporated my feedback?
- Which of my areas for improvement will provide the biggest immediate impact.
When evaluating a speech, we need to consider what the recipient needs. What we need is not important. Focus on the speaker. Give them a gift.
Posted under Toastmasters
This post was written by john on August 28, 2008
