Evaluate to Motivate – 4th August

We were thrilled to hold our first ever workshop during our last meeting. Speech evaluations are an essential part of the Toastmasters educational programme. Indeed, it is the feedback from these evaluations that enable speakers to develop an awareness of what they are doing well and what they need to improve.

Our Toastmaster of the meeting was Vice-President Education Fahad and he quickly introduced our trainer this evening, Linda White. We started off with an interactive session on what constitutes the key ingredients of an effective evaluation. In no particular order. An effective evaluation, should be encouraging, complimentary on what the speaker did well, give specific recommendations and not digress. It is also important not to forget that evaluations are for the benefit of the entire audience and not just the speaker!

We only had two speakers this evening, both of which received several evaluations and an interactive evaluation from the audience. Our first speaker, was Stephen ‘The Emergency Plumber’. Stephen shared with us his work as an emergency plumber, including how his very first intervention, tightening a tap pipe, went and the fact that he so far “never flooded the same room twice!” The audience enjoyed the sharp conclusion to the speech, the confidence projected by Stephen and his vocal variety. His three evaluators, Natalie, Eleanor and Edem. Provided further feedback on eye contact and how to introduce the speech’s topic.

Speaking second was Vice-President Mentorshop Edwin ‘An Inspiring Speech’. Edwin began his speech by recounting JFK’s 1963 civil rights address and how this was the perfect speech at the perfect time. This speech also ties in with the three core principles by which Edwin’s wants to live his life, namely treat others as you would want to be treated, be responsible and give equal opportunities to all. A better structured was recommended as feedback by the audience. The three evaluators, Yvonne, Eddie and Ayokunle then suggested more eye contact, a slower pace to let the words sink in and enable more empathy.

The workshop was then wrapped up was more feedback from the audience on speech evaluations and on the workshop itself. The workshop was thoroughly enjoyed by all including our numerous guests from other Toastmaster clubs!