Tag Archive for 'General Evaluator'

The trouble with suggestions

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Dan Smith, DTM
on 30 June, 2009
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I’ve been hearing so much of the word “suggestions”. One very senior General Evaluator last week used the word at least every minute during their evaluation.

  • “If I could make a suggestion…”
  • “One suggestion that I would have…”
  • “Now onto some suggestions…”

A well-used signpost becomes a distraction for the audience and a crutch for the speaker.

Let’s stop wasting time talking about it and instead use that time to give relevant, targeted, and useful suggestions.

As an evaluator, emphasise what the speaker did well that audience can learn from, and areas that the speaker could improve that would also help the audience.

Leave your personal comments for a private conversation with the speaker and perhaps in the written evaluation.

General Evaluation at Shanghai No. 1

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Dan Smith, DTM
on 1 April, 2009
in Speech and evaluation
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Last Monday night our VPE was the GE at Shanghai No. 1 at their 499th meeting. It was a longer evaluation than is often possible and you can see it here or below but some of the key points are below:

  • Utilization: Use whatever happens to get across your message.
  • Frame the message and prepare the audience.
  • Say less; communicate more.
  • Take your time. When you do, speak with a purpose.
  • Share the emotional component of the message, not just the content. Communicate feeling AND information. They’ll remember the feeling long after they forget your information and will forget your information immediately if they don’t like the feeling they get around you.
  • Everytime we stand up, we’re looking to expand our skills. There are no small roles, only short ones. When you have a short role, it’s a concentrated experience to use in refining your skills.
  • Set the frame – when you speak, identify the criteria for success or at least the guidelines that you are working towards.
  • There are no excuses – don’t make them for yourself or give them to other people. Just give your best. Always.
  • When things go wrong, strive to make the problem invisible. Make it look as though it was part of the plan.
  • Give your audience the gift of your message. They are VIPs (Very Important People) so if you don’t have a point to saying something yet, think of one.
  • Great evaluators highlight examples of great things that we can learn from, highlight ways that we can improve and presents the combination of the two for the benefit of the audience. Speak of “the speaker” to the audience rather than speaking to the speaker. Give your personal evaluation for the speaker later.
  • Have a great introduction. Introductions set the stage for the audience and help them get more from the presentation. The easiest way is to write one yourself.

More thoughts from an evaluator

Published
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Dan Smith, DTM
on 28 December, 2008
in evaluation and upcoming meetings
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We’re always watching evaluations. Sometimes the General Evaluator will evaluator the evaluators, but rarely for more than a few moments. CAT Secretary Wendy Wang ACB ALB did a particularly good job at Lighthouse yesterday afternoon.

I especially liked how she broke up the five evaluators into four ’styles’ of evaluations. It was a speech marathon so there were a lot of evaluators, though each had a different style. Instead of just describing each the style of each evaluator, she highlighted the similarities and differences.

To me, this showed that Wendy wasn’t just passively watching the meeting, but that she was analyzing and thinking critically about what she was observing. And, as one of the evaluators myself, that made me know that at least one person in the audience was paying attention!

It’s the same when we give individual evaluations. A great evaluator won’t just repeat what was said but rather will add a layer of analysis so that the audience can understand the lessons contained in the speech more deeply. Like reading a review of a film might help us better appreciate it, or listening to a book review might help us better understand it, an evaluator can not only highlight the strengths of a speaker but can help their audience grow and become even more.

To me, a great evaluation is a mini-training session. The evaluator uses the speaker as a stimulus to which they respond to the audience – highlighting the strengths of the speaker as examples that the audience can emulate, and areas for improvement that the audience may seek to amend in their own speaking.

That’s why evaluations are so important. They can be more demanding than table topics. More challenging than a prepared speech. More varied than being the Toastmaster of the meeting.

CAT is preparing our members for the coming evaluations contest through the next few months. As well as our usual array of training sessions, we will be having evaluations of evaluators and having some CC-level speeches so that we can get more used to evaluating at per contest requirements. One of our members competed at the District (National) contest last year and we have an array of other experienced members.

Hope that you can join us!

Thoughts after a General Evaluation

Published
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Dan Smith, DTM
on 20 November, 2008
in evaluation
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I had a lovely time visiting one of my favourite Clubs in Shanghai last night. As GE for the meeting, I had the following thoughts that I wanted to share:

  • Introduce with purpose and impact. Providing a little bit of information about a speaker helps prepare the audience for the information that’s coming while also providing the introducer – such as the TME – with a great opportunity to learn how to make introductions.
  • Keep focused on the purpose with each session. It’s tempting to allow the flexibility of the Toastmasters program to lose structure. By keeping sessions focused around manual projects and specific training outcomes, we can help ensure that sessions remain relevant and interesting rather than indulging a speaker’s need to spend time on the stage.
  • Time on stage is valuable. It’s attention that you take from your audience that they could be spending on the rest of their life – or time that they could be using for their own speaking. Treat that attention with respect, appreciation and humility. Make their investment in you worth their while.
  • If you have too much time, finish early. Extend breaks. Expand the time available for Table Topics or Evaluations. But all that being done, finishing a meeting on time – or early – is a great thing, and certainly better than allowing a meeting to drag on.
  • Evaluations serve the speaker by providing feedback, but they also are intended to serve the audience: Highlight the speaker’s strengths as examples for them to copy, and use what you see as the areas for improvement as lessons for us all.
  • Every time you speak is an opportunity for you to learn and refine your skills. Even a 30-second slot is a chance for you to demonstrate your best skills for those 30 seconds – so use that time.
  • When you have a projector, use it.
  • When you have a warmup session, keep it relevant to speaking.

Finally, say everything that needs to be said. Then stop.