uGoGirlFriday

How to give feedback that facilitates excellence

In preparation of my speech in front of more than 1000 high-school and college students, I attended a Toastmasters club meeting yesterday. For those who do not know, Toastmasters is a non-profit organization developing public speaking and leadership skills through practice and feedback in local clubs since 1924.

I have observed two Toastmasters gathering in the past but yesterday was the best one yet. Not only were the speakers and facilitators great, the equipment they use during the club meeting were all high end – you can tell from the laptop’s functionality that its specs, such as the ddr and video card, are really top of the line.

Anyhow, what I really like best about the club is that, it does not only teach you how to speak well (there are a lot of training schools and programs for that), it also provides immediate evaluation of the speaker. In fact, this is the only organization that provides instant feedback. They even designate an ah counter (one who keeps count of those who use fillers like ummm and ahs), a timer (one who ensures that each speaker does not exceed the recommended time for each type of speech), a gems and germs hunter (one who finds grammatical errors and great quotations during the club meeting), and a general evaluator per meeting!

What’s really great about it is that you learn how to give feedback or evaluate in a manner wherein you are adding to the self-worth of the person you are evaluating. As you know, giving feedback, or pointing out rooms for improvement that will be readily embraced by the recipient is never easy. In fact, it’s an art that you do not master overnight. Here are three tips on giving feedback which I noted down from the meeting that I’d like to share with you:

1. Believe the person has a potential to improve.
2. Forget yourself, be there for the speaker.
3. Manage your words massively; watch your language.

Once you’ve applied those when evaluating, then you can be sure to be able to provide a helpful feedback – one that facilitates excellence.