Sri Lankaka Club Symposium - Bahrain Toastmaster Magazine SLCS Toastmasters Bahrain - Epitome 01

SRI LANKA CLUB SYMPOSIUM TOASTMASTERS Issue October-November 2013 3R THE 3 “R” S OF EVALUATING Review, Reward and Respond According to David Hobson DTM, “Evaluations are the lifeblood of toastmasters meetings; they are what keep members coming back for more.” He is right. Toastmasters Club is the place where the members learn their trade. Where else would this be more apparent than in an evaluation session. In an evaluation, the evaluator carefully listens to the speaker, watches closely and provides the scope for improvement for the speaker. He provides this in an encouraging way. The evaluator has to realize that speaker has put in a lot of effort, and has gone through a long period of thought and effort. The hard work must be recognized, if a speaker is to be persuaded to give his next speech with commitment and enthusiasm. This is how the cycle of speech and evaluation takes place. Indeed the evaluator has to Review, Reward, and Respond. The reason for the speaker to make that speech should be known before hand, so ref erence can be made to that objective, in reviewing the speech. In a typical Toastmasters meeting, the Speaker will be making a project speech, from a manual, which describes the objective of the speech. It also contains the questions addressed to the evaluator, which would help the evaluation. Even in non project speeches, the evaluator should ask the speaker about speech objectives. Once it is known, it will be easy to compare and to point out the extent to which the speaker has met the objective. It may look like obvious, but too many evaluators miss this important point. It will also make the speaker receptive to the evaluation and feel that it has added value . So the first point is that evaluation set the speech against the objective of the speech. Once the speech has been reviewed, the speaker has to be rewarded. And the simple one would be to say the speakers have met the objective of the speech, or a significant part of the objective etc. The evaluator should always pick the good aspects of the speech first, and praise them. http://slcs.toastmastersclubs.org http://slcs.toastmastersclubs.org This works wonders for a speaker as he/she is recognized and also encouraged. Some of the words that can be used to praise the speaker are : Admirable, animated, appealing, articulate, balanced, candid, charming, commanding, confident, creative, dazzling, dramatic, electrifying, enjoyable, entertaining, explicit, fantastic, finest, forceful, gripping, honest humble, imaginative, inspiring, jovial, knowledgeable, lively, natural, noteworthy, organized, passionate, penetrating, persuasive, pleasant, precise, realistic, resourceful, self assured, sensitive, sharp, sincere, skilled, suggestive, supportive, sympathetic, tactful, thrilling, timely, understandable, upbeat, useful, valuable, vibrant, warm, witty, zestful. There are many more. Using these words will make the evaluation specific, while also encouraging the speaker. The second point therefore is that the speaker should be rewarded. The third role of the evaluator is to respond to the speaker, analyzing what you heard, saw and felt. This includes the message, the words used, and how effective they were; the gestures used and how natural they were; and the feelings that were evoked and how the evaluator’s feelings were affected. The evaluator should actually refer to the actual situation so the speaker can follow what is said, and more importantly what the evaluator would recommend where improvements are needed, these involve facial expressions, the eye contacts made by the speaker, and eye contacts. In effect the evaluator should not only point out the improvements, he should also state how the improvements suggested would improve communication. MOH’D SALIE ACG/ALB SLCS MENTOR It is very difficult to state everything in the usual three minutes evaluation time , so he should select the most important points to emphasize and those which would improve the effectiveness of the speech. This is where the language will come into assistance. The language should be such that it should be precise and not verbose. Evaluator works in different ways: as a motivator, as a facilitator and as counselor. The evaluator has to provide honest reaction in a constructive way. The evaluation need not be too detailed, but it should mention what the speaker did well, something that could be improved and specific recommendation for improvement. Review, reward and respond will help in that direction. Evaluator works in different ways SRI LANKA CLUB SYMPOSIUM TOASTMASTERS JOURNEY OCT-NOV 2013 08

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