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Stephen Covey said that highly effective people have seven
habits in common. Interestingly, over
a period of twenty years of receiving
and giving speech evaluations, I have
noticed that great evaluators also have
seven “habits” in common. These
“habits” are constituted of knowledge,
communication, demonstration, and
insight. When you put these seven
habits into practice, you too can become
a highly effective evaluator.
#1. Understand Why
Great evaluators understand why they are evaluating a
speech. This understanding tells them
what they should not do. They know that
they should not upstage the speaker,
make the speaker feel inadequate, give
the speech, give a summary of the
speech, overly praise the speaker
without giving pointers for improvement,
criticize the speaker and the speech, or
otherwise create no value for the
speaker.
The first “habit” is one of applied knowledge. This
knowledge is that the evaluator has
three objectives: (1) reinforce the
strengths of the speaker; (2) suggest
ways that the speech could be improved;
(3) encourage the speaker. The measure
of the evaluator’s skill is the value
the speaker receives from the
evaluation. Great evaluators are never
self-centered; they focus their energy,
on achieving the above three goals for
the benefit of the speaker.
#2. Reassure
Just like good doctors have a good bedside manner, effective
evaluators have a manner that reassures
the speaker that he or she need not feel
threatened by the evaluation. If
you’ve ever had one of your speeches
evaluated, you know the apprehensive
feeling just before the evaluator begins
his evaluation of your speech. Great
evaluators are sensitive to this
apprehension and try to reassure the
speaker that there is nothing to fear.
Evaluators who do not understand the need for reassurance may
undermine the relationship of trust they
want to build between themselves and the
speaker by doing something as simple as
taking a large pad of paper or a
clipboard with them to the lectern.
That large pad of paper or clipboard may
suggest to the speaker that you are
going to elaborate on a large number of
problems regarding the speech. I take
only one piece of paper, sometimes
folded in half, the smaller the better.
Some evaluators eschew any notes and try
to do the evaluation by memory. I think
that is unnecessary and borders on
showmanship. Effective evaluators use
key words and phrases written in an
orderly manner that allows them to keep
on track while speaking
conversationally.
Facial expressions that are reassuring (especially smiling),
fluid body movements and gestures, open
body positions (arms open, not crossed),
well modulated voice volume and tone all
create an atmosphere that makes it easy
for the speaker to listen to the
evaluator.
#3. Follow a Sequence for Psychological
Receptivity
How do you make someone want to listen to you when they are
afraid that you will criticize them?
Here’s a secret that highly effective
evaluators know. Make the person feel
appreciated before you suggest
ways that he or she might improve!
A speaker feels appreciated by an evaluator when the
evaluator notices and mentions the
things that the speaker did well. Be
specific in your praise. Don’t just
praise the speaker for doing a “great
job.” Tell the speaker what he or she
specifically did and said that you
thought was noteworthy. This
recognition creates psychological
receptivity, a mental state that accepts
what you say. This is the reason why
great evaluators always start off by
recognizing what the speaker did well.
The sequence that you, the effective evaluator will follow
is: recognize what the speaker did well;
make suggestions for improving the
speech; encourage the speaker and leave
him wanting to return to the lectern.
Like the meat in a sandwich, the
suggestions for improvement are
sandwiched between recognizing the
speaker’s strengths and encouraging the
speaker.
#4. It’s Just Your Opinion
Highly effective evaluators are humble enough to know that
what they are sharing is just their
individual opinion and is not
necessarily the voice of the majority of
the audience. So they sprinkle their
comments with “I” statements. Examples
are: “I thought that your opening was
perfect for what you were trying to
accomplish with your speech.” “It
seemed to me that your pauses were a
little too short.” I felt a little
disconnected with your speech because
you didn’t look at me.”
One reason that you make it clear to the speaker that you are
only giving your opinion is that the
speaker will then feel free to accept or
reject your comments without worrying
whether every person in the audience
felt the way you did. This eases the
pressure and let’s the speaker know that
you are honestly sharing the way you
felt about the speech.
Sometimes inexperienced speakers shy away from evaluating the
speech of an experienced speaker. This
is understandable if evaluations are
supposed to reflect the mood of the
audience. The truth is that evaluations
can only reflect the response of the
individual evaluator. Once new
Toastmasters understand that, it is much
easier for them to gather the courage to
give a good evaluation.
#5. It’s Just a Suggestion
“Where the rubber meets the road” in an evaluation is how
well the evaluator’s recommendations are
received by the speaker. If the
evaluator is too pushy, the speaker may
mentally reject the evaluator’s analysis
of the speech. So, effective evaluators
always qualify their remarks by
softening the tone of their
recommendations. Note the italicized
words in the following examples:
“You may want to consider
this method in order to establish good eye contact.”
“When I was a beginning speaker, I too had a problem
uttering too many uhms. Over the past
few years, I’ve learned a way to
overcome that. This approach may be
helpful to you too; this is how it
works.”
“Perhaps writing out your manuscript in outline form
may help you
get away from dependence on the text.”
When you phrase the recommendation like a
suggestion, it will become easier for
the speaker to be open minded about your
suggestion.
#6.
Don’t Just Talk, Demonstrate!
Highly effective evaluators believe that
showing is more powerful than
telling. This is why they
demonstrate, as far as possible, the
improvements that they recommend to the
speaker. For example, instead of
saying, “Jenny, consider trying harder
to establish good eye contact,” you
could say, “I have found that I can
establish good eye contact with the
members of my audience when I think that
they are not a mass, but a collection of
individuals. I’m speaking to one person
at a time! My experience is that if I
hold my gaze with each person’s eyes for
three to five seconds, (demonstrate
this as you speak)
audience members feel as if I’m directly
taking with them. Try that and see if
it works for you.”
Demonstrating is not always possible. But
as far as possible, demonstrate the
improvements you suggest. You will
increase clarity, understanding, and
receptiveness.
#7. Evaluate with Your Whole Self
Great evaluators use their eyes, ears,
mind, and heart when evaluating a
speech. The
eyes
observe the speaker’s body language,
dress, movement, posture, facial
expressions, gestures, and command of
the speaking area. The
ears
listen for vocal quality and vocal
variety, for diction and articulation,
rate of speech, pitch, and volume
modulation. The
mind analyzes the speech structure,
clarity, logic, transitions, and
achievement of purpose. The
heart analyzes the connection of the speaker and the message to
the audience, the speaker’s presence and
self-confidence, the flow and feeling OF
the message.
The above is why an effective evaluation
never sounds wooden or dull. A great
evaluation has a life of its own because
it is delivered from the whole self of
the evaluator.
The Final Question
Sometimes you will hear a presentation that
is so excellent that you find it
difficult to come up with any suggestion
for improvement. Ah! That is a test of
your evaluation skills. In such a case,
I have found this to be very helpful:
ask yourself “What is the one thing,
that when properly done, would have the
greatest positive effect on this
speech?”
The answer to the above question can take
many forms. Applying it to an excellent
speech a few months ago, I realized that
although excellent in many ways, the
speaker did not relate the value of the
talk to the interests of the audience.
Another time, I felt that the speaker
was so intent in delivering a “speech,”
that he forgot to simply and
conversationally talk with us. Having
competed in as well as judged evaluation
contests for many years, I find that all
other things being equal, the person who
wins a District level evaluation speech
contest is one who is able to articulate
the most significant way that the
speaker could improve.
So there you have it. As I mentioned in
the opening paragraph, the seven habits
of highly effective evaluators are an
amalgamation of knowledge,
communication, demonstration, and
insight. The only way to learn them is
to purposely put them in to practice
every time you evaluate a speaker.
After a while, these skills will become
part of you. What that means is that
every speaker you evaluate will get
great value from your evaluation. Even
more important, you would have learned a
skill that will help you in every form
of human interaction. You will have in
your grasp, the power to help another
person grow. |
