Slides from my "Art of Effective Evaluations" workshop given in June 2015. This is a part of the Toastmasters Success/Communication Series. Instead of using the canned slides, I created my own presentation based on my 16 years of experience as a Toastmaster where I've given over 250 evaluations, and heard at least 2,000.

1. The Art of
Effective Evaluation
by Sharon Dawson
June 10, 2015
@SharonADawson
linkedin.com/in/sharonadawson

2. Goals
• Learn how an evaluation is structured
• Watch examples of real Toastmaster
evaluations
• Learn what phrasing to use
• Learn the sandwich approach
• Practice evaluating an Icebreaker Speech

3. 10 Behaviors of Effective Evaluator
• Show that you care
• Suit your evaluation to the speaker
• Learn the speaker’s objectives
• Listen actively
• Personalize your language

4. 10 Behaviors of Effective Evaluator
• Give positive reinforcement
• Help the speaker become motivated
• Evaluate the behavior – not the person
• Nourish self-esteem
• Show the speaker how to improve

5. https://youtu.be/usDaF4K5pGE

6. An Evaluation Is Not
• About you (the evaluator)
• A chance for you to ramble on about an
unrelated topic
• A chance for you to comment on another
speaker
• Harsh
• The Grammar Police

7. An Evaluation Is Not
• One size fits all
• Only gushing praise
• Your (the evaluator) chance to use gimmicks,
inane techniques
• Gushing over how pretty/handsome the
speaker is

8. Structure of an Evaluation
• Outline project goals
• Strengths
• Suggestions for improvement
• Summarize

9. Tell me something I haven’t heard
• Don’t summarize what the speaker said
• Don’t include a lot of quotes from their speech
• Focus on how they said it and how it made you
react

10. How would you like to hear
• “I couldn’t hear you Carol from the back of
the room, so I don’t know if you met your
speech objectives. But thanks for speaking
today I look forward to your next speech.”
• “Don't pace back and forth so much Jennifer,
it is distracting to the audience.”
• “You didn’t convince me, so you failed this
Persuasive Speech David.”

11. How would you like to hear
• “I had a hard time hearing you in the back of
the room, so perhaps you could speak a little
louder next time Carol.”
• “I was a little distracted by your pacing
Jennifer.”
• “The goal of your speech was to persuade us,
but I didn’t feel persuaded to accept your
viewpoint David.”

12. Phrasing: Avoid “You” “Should” “Must” “Don’t”
• BAD: “You must let your hands relax when you
speak."
• GOOD: “I’ve found over time and with practice
that I was able to release my hands and let some
natural gestures flow.”
• BAD: “Don't walk in front of the PowerPoint
projector.”
• GOOD: “It’s helpful to stand to the righthand side
of the projector so you can still see the slides and
gesture to them but not block the presentation.”

13. Phrasing: Include “I” “My” “Me” statements
• "I felt that my reaction would have been
stronger if you had included a picture of your
dog."
• "It seemed to me that you would have
accomplished your purpose more easily had
you limited your talk to three points.“
• “It appeared to me…”
• “A technique I have found useful is…”

14. https://youtu.be/2MgMJVcloXQ

15. Sandwich Evaluation
VS

16. Sandwich Evaluation
• Positive
• Suggestion for improvement
• Positive
• Suggestion for improvement
• Positive

17. Sandwich Evaluation Structure
• Introduce speech objectives
• Comments that are a mix of positive and
suggestions for improvement
• Comments that are a mix of positive and
suggestions for improvement
• Summary of 3 positives and 2 suggestions

18. Sandwich Evaluation in Practice
• “I loved your clear speaking voice Ellen, and would
enjoy some vocal variety added in the future. I
could easily hear you from the back of the room.”
• “You've improved from your last speech John by
hardly using your notes. Perhaps the next time you
could set your notes down on the lectern instead
of holding them in your hand. I noticed you made
eye contact with each person in the room even
with your occasional glances at your notes.”

19. Sandwich Evaluation in Practice
• “Deb, your quote from Maya Angelou gave me
chills. I felt a little more time to let the impact
of that message sink in before you moved to
your next point would have allowed us to
reflect on it a bit more. I commend how you
repeated that quote in your call to action at the
end.”

20. Make Your Own Sandwich

21. Before the Evaluation
• What are speaker's personal goals for the
speech
• Be aware of level of speaker (new member,
halfway through CC, ACB, etc.)
• Read project
• Read evaluator’s guide for project

22. Out of their control
• Avoid giving feedback on things over which the
speaker has no control.
• If the speaker cannot do anything about a
deficiency, don’t give negative feedback
• If it’s a logistical issue like with the room layout,
mention to Sergeant At Arms but not during
verbal evaluation to speaker

23. https://youtu.be/CZTIrSxgqVM

24. Summary
• Positive Reinforcement
• Evaluation is a mini-speech
• On topic with speaker’s objectives
• Make the speaker want to come back to the
club and speak again