Talk to the Human™

Have you heard (or read) opinions about how competing, and even winning, a Toastmasters contest has no real value in “regular” speaking?

I have, and I find it very confusing. With the exception of some very specific types of speaking, such as debates, I can’t understand why people have trouble translating great contest speeches into great speaking in general.

In a previous post, I wrote about some lessons I learned from watching contest speeches, especially at the top level. In this entry, I’ll describe how those same lessons apply to “regular speaking” (if there is such a thing).

First was, Have a message. In contest speaking, I think this is the single most important aspect of a winning speech. This is such an obvious need for any presentation, including project reviews, performance discussions, and any training that I can’t imagine how you wouldn’t see the correlation. No matter when you talk, without a message you are just blabbing. Right?

Next was Tell your own compelling story. While much of our corporate-style speaking may seem to be devoid of storytelling, the fact is that it is still the best way to make your point stick. It may be true that your boss only wants the brief facts without anything “extra”, but the fact is this is still an invaluable skill to have. You should be ready to back up your point with a story in case the boss wants more detail.

Use humor appropriately. I’ve had a couple of rare bosses with no sense of humor, but in a majority of cases even the most stoic of bosses like a little humor thrown in. Appropriately for those circumstances does mean to use caution and keep it professional, but it doesn’t mean you can’t elicit an occational chuckle.

Finally was Set the stage with grand and normal gestures. In this case, you may stay with more conservative gestures, but again the watchword is appropriate. Yes, it would be rare to use the type of stage presence that the Champs have used to win those awards. But knowing and practicing the appropriate gestures for your topic, audience, and stage is still a skill that will make a positive difference in any presentation.

The next time someone tels you that contest speaking has no bearing in “real” speaking (be sure you use the air quotes in your response), remember these tips. You can most certainly apply those skills you learn while competing. They wouldn’t just apply to professional speaking, but to corporate, volunteer and most other types of speaking.

In Part one, you learned the first steps to creating an Icebreaker speech; the first speech you will give in your Toastmasters club.

For this lesson, we’ll take our example message and work on our opening remarks. You may wonder how we can craft these without determining our three main points, right?

Good call. Let’s draft out those three points first. In part four (after developing the closing in part three) we will deal with developing those three points further. But for now we can use a farily easy technique to draft out these points.

For the example message, lets look at a basic chronological Icebreaker speech.
First Point: Where I grew up
Second Point: Where I work
Third Point: My family and hobbies

For the opening, we want to:
1. Avoid pointless pleasantries
2. Make our promise
3. Provide a road-map

What are pointless pleasantries? Things like “glad to be here”, “nice weather”, “Mr. toastmaster”, or anything that doesn’t add to the value of your conversation with the audience. Better to open with a powerful question, a story or a relevant quote.

What about the promise? “In the next five minutes you are going to learn a bit more about me and what brought me to this Toastmasters club”

And the road-map? This is just a way to let them know what those three main points are.

“Dr. Stephen Covey says the seventh habit of highly effective people is to ‘Sharpen the Saw.’ In the next 5 minutes you are going to hear a bit about my life, and what brought me here to sharpen my saw with you. First, you’ll learn about where I was raised, then what I do for XYZ company here in Wichita. Finally you’ll hear about what I like to do with my off-work time and why I’ve added Toastmasters to my life.”

Then you’ll finish the opening with a transition to first main point:

“Of course, being a Toastmaster isn’t what I thought I would be doing when I grew up. In fact, would you believe in high school I wanted to be an Architect? Here’s what really happened…”

That is a simple opeing for the Icebreaker speech. Next would be that first point about growing up. We’ll discuss that more later in the week, along with the other main points.

Tomorrow, we’ll work on the closing statement. This is where you want your best story or other material. You may look to tie it to the opening, such as “I may not have become an Architect, but now I …”

The rest of the closing tomorrow…

<Editors note: Here is an excellent (and recent) related blog entry from Craig Valentine. http://www.craigvalentine.com/open-your-speech-and-open-their-minds/>

I read another great post today on Men with Pens. This post, titled How to find your writing voice leads with the same picture as this post (yes, I stole it). My point: when you want to find your speaking voice, you may want to start by examining your writing voice.

In fact, the main reason I read writing blogs like Men with Pens is to improve my speaking. After all, how can I write great (or even decent) speeches if…I…can’t…write???

Just a thought…

<Note: Part Two of the Icebreaker post is being pushed to tomorrow>

Are you a member who struggles to understand (or care about) the Distinguished Club Program?

Imagine yourself at a running track, and all of your Toastmasters club members are there too. You are there to improve your communication, leadership and running skills. You join at the starting line, and you receive your CC and CL manuals. Around the corner of the track is a finish line, with your Lt Gov Education & Training (me) holding the tape out for you. Off to the side, our District Governor stands holding a cartooninshly large megaphone and periodically yells “Keeping the Promise!”

A little confused? Think about running the track as completing your next CC, AC, CL, AL or DTM award. Think about your fellow members running at different paces, some looping back once in a while to encourage (mentor) newer members to move forward. Imagine Paul McDonald lapping us all every few minutes.

Now, let’s use that visual to imagine a couple of typical types of clubs:

First, the President’s Distinguished club – all of the members are making progress toward the finish line. Every now and then, someone crosses the line and you hear “Keeping the Promise” come from the megaphone. When a new runner steps up to the starting line, another member loops back to encourage and support them as the begin their run. There are signposts along the path – 3 speeches to go! - to let members know where they are in their progress. No two members are running at the same pace, but everyone is cheering each other on. From time-to-time, club leaders pull off to the side to stretch (officer meetings) and learn some new running techniques (TLI). Twice per year, a few members go back to the starting line and the club president holds up a flashy and colorful finish line for the fall or spring contests. Throughout the year, members work their away around the track and cross that finish line. Ding! The DCP status is updated.

What about the club that doesn’t believe in turning in awards? This club has a group of member all near the starting line. Some of them are jogging in place. Some of them are even sweating pretty hard under the workload. There is lots of talk, and they are having a good time (like the other club). But no one is moving toward the finish line. When a guest comes, they see nice people who seem to be doing good work, and they join. Then, as they finish a few speeches, they wonder why no one seems to be crossing the finish line. While some of the members seem to be in good shape, it’s confusing because they seem to be running in place.

Does running in place help you stay in shape, or get in better shape? Maybe. But running forward (toward your goal) does a better job. Translation: Just speaking in front of a group can help, but using manual objectives and practicing new skills really helps you to become a better speaker and leader.

Is your club running in place? Worst yet, are guests and new members seeing you running in place and getting confused by the message?

Here is the part people get wrong: The DCP isn’t a goal itself, it is a scorecard. There are two ways to improve your score:

1. Run up the score.  This works if getting a high score is your goal. But it doesn’t do much for the club (or members) overall.
2. Achieve your goals and support your fellow members in achieving theirs. Setting the right example personally and directly helping others will make you and your club successful. Plus, the score will take care of itself.

What is the downside of #2? You can’t wait to start that in March and make your goals in June. However, if you start now (in July) and work with all of your members  to find their goals (including the ones who need 12, 18 or 24 months for their next goal) then it will work for you and your club.

Toastmasters can be a fun place when you are running in place, but it can be more fun and beneficial to you when you lace up those shoes (open that manual) and start moving toward the goal. Be realistic, support your fellow members and see yourself improving. Remember, focus on your gaols and those numbers take care of themselves when you are Keeping the Promise!

This is a quick compilation of some Marketing Posts from our District 22 Blog:

A case for a strange idea - this post describes an idea to support low-member clubs and help some clubs make distinguished status this month

The Club VP of Education: Key to Membership Retention – this describes how the VP of Education can (does) play a critical role in member retention

Making the visit – Spring 2010 - Although it’s dated for Spring 2010, the thoughts about Area Governor visits apply to any visit – spring or fall

Area Governor Expectations - This was surprisingly popular. There are some useful myth-busters here to help Area Governors understand their job expectations

Who’s the Coach? - This posts had two purposes. One was to advise members on some methods to coach thier own club. The other was to solicit volunteers to volunteer to be official club coaches for clubs in our district.

There are other posts about membership and PR subjects that will apply again this year and can apply to your club, area or district.

This Thursday I’m giving a speech about how to create your own introduction.

Key points: you provide the introduction to the MC (or Toastmaster). The introduction should meet these three criteria:

Set the Stage
- What does your audience need to hear?
- How will they be helped?
- What can they expect?

Establish credibility
- Why you?
- Why now?

Avoid the irrelevant
- Titles and certifications that don’t apply
- Self serving
- Extraneous information

If you are the one providing the introductionm remember these points:

Don’t improvise
- Use what the speaker gave you

Don’t surprise
- Make sure the speaker knows what you plan to say

Don’t upstage
- Avoid “I” stories (i.e. “I saw him speak and…”)

Conclusion: Put together an introduction for every presentation you give. Even if it’s not used, it will help you focus your presentation and plan for what the audience needs.

What important things have you learned about Public Speaking, Leadership, and Networking this last year? Were there any pieces of advice that turned out to be misleading? Here are my top three lessons learned, and the three things that I feel need to have their myths busted:

1. Thanking the Audience:
Myth: “Don’t thank your audience because they should be thanking you.”

If you find that you are saying this out loud, please stop! The two are unrelated. You can thank one another. The audience does this by clapping, buying your products, or asking you to come back. You can (and should) thank them by saying “Thank You for having me here today”, and then giving them a conclusion that they can remember.

Not long ago I was standing in front of a room presenting my Planned Spontaneity program. Things were going well, including some good audience interaction. I used my normal “before I conclude I’ll take a few questions” line, since, like most of my topics, this one lends itself nicely to having a Q&A session. That went well, and I timed taking the last question so I would have at least five minutes to give a conclusion. Then, I said, “I want to thank you for inviting me out today, and for the wonderful lunch…” but before I could transition into my conclusion, the organizer stood up to bring me my gift (a really nice coffee mug w/chocolates inside) and the applause began. And no…I wasn’t over time.

I’m not sure about the lesson learned here. I think next time I’ll try “Before I close…” to transition from the Q&A into my “thank you” to see if the next group lets me give my conclusion.

2. Apologize:
Myth: Never apologize.

If you make the kind of mistake that requires an apology, then give one. If, say, you kick someone as you walk past them “working the room”, then say you are sorry. If you toss an audience member a free piece of candy (or whatever) and miss, say you are sorry. You get the idea.

Avoid apologizing when there is nothing that can be done about it, or if it’s just something to make you fell better about you own errors. For instance, never apologize for being “unprepared”. The audience won’t know unless you just plain suck. If that happens, apologize for sucking, not for being lazy about your preparation.  

If you have a situation where they have to wait while you fiddle with papers or something, instead of apologizing, consider giving them a short “talk amongst yourselves” exercise while you get your collective stuff together.

Once, at a Toasmasters contest I needed a minute to finish the winners certificates when I was given the results. I followed a more experienced Toastmaster’s advice and asked eveyone on the room to find someone nearby and introduce themselves, exchange club information and mention one thing they are getting out of being in Toastmasters. I had time to get my papers right and lined up, and then just needed to reign them back in. Plus: some folks met people they might not have spoken to otherwise.

3. Reusing material:
Myth: Every speech should be new. 

On the show Jeopardy, this would probably be the answer to “What method of speaking can you use to ensure one-dimensional growth?” I’m not suggesting that you never try new things. Of course you should try new things, new topics, and new approaches.

Also, I’m not suggesting that you just recite the same drivel over and over to “get credit”. Instead, from time to time you should look at material you’ve used before and see if you can improve it and deliver it more successfully.

There are a plethora of speaking lessons out there that are being taught and retaught every day. Most of them are rock solid (especially many of the lessons in Toastmasters), but not every one is on-target. Don’t be affraid to seek a second, or third, opinion and do some of your own research. By speaking and learning from those that have “been there and done that” you’ll pick up some good tips and avoid some of the bad myths.

This week I’m going to add something new to the blog: The weekly column. Starting early next week, I’m going to do a weekly post on a series of topics. The first series will be about habits of successful entrepreneurs. This will be loosely based on a similar concept to Covey’s Seven Habits, and based on my experience and learning how to be successful as an independent consultant.

The reasons?

Like the book reviews on Sundays, this will be something I intend to do on a regular basis.
I can cover a variety of topics over a specific period of time.
Reader can have something to look forward to.

This might be something you could try for yourself, as a writer or as a speaker. Come up with a topic and spread it out over a few weeks, and work on one point per week until you have your topic covered.

Expect to see the first weekly column this Monday evening.

Have you found yourself with an opportunity to give a presentation, and no idea what to talk about? Maybe you are trying to decide on that next Toastmasters speech topic. You are about to learn a method that you can use next time you have to give a presentation.

Think about three things that you are good at, and that the audience could have an interest in. It could be anything; doing taxes, car repair, designing aircraft, public speaking, fishing, car racing, bowling, blogging, Xbox…you get the idea.

Take those three topics, and come up with a single idea about each. For the above ideas, for instance you could use using a specific tax software, the best equipment for bass fishing, and how WordPress makes you a better blogger.

Give those three topics to the meeting organizer, and ask which topic would work best for that audience. Try to do this in advance. Then, when you have your answer you can prepare and deliver a presentation that works for you and your audience.

Now all you have to do is be good at three things, right?

What do you do when PowerPoint fails?

Here’s the good news: PowerPoint never fails. The bad news, only you (the presenter) can fail. That is, of course, from the audience’s point of view.

That may sound a bit unfair (especially if you read it aloud), but it’s really not. Any aspect of your presentation can cause problems (i.e. lost notes, lack of practice, or bad slides), but you control how you handle those problems. In the case of a busted PowerPoint presentation, you have two choices that are totally dependent on you:

1. Be prepared so you can recover:
- Have other visual aides (i.e. handouts, flip chart, etc) ready if they are critical to your presentation
- Have the slides printed in case you were planning to use them as notes
- Practice your presentation with and without the slides, so you can work it either way
or

2. Fail because you weren’t ready

Your call.