Ready Set Go

July 15, 2019

Starting Out Strong

If you are following along with my posts I’m assuming you have decided which path you will work on. Not sure? Go back and read the last post on picking the “right” path for you. Got it? Great. Let’s get you off to a strong start and complete level One of your path in 5 easy steps.

Step 1 - Your Ice Breaker

Time for your first step to being a better speaker and leader. Actually, you already took your first step by picking your path but who’s counting, right? You are! Taking that first step is sometimes the hardest so congratuate yourself on having already taken it and let’s focus in the second step - giving your Ice Breaker. “What is the Ice Breaker?” you might be asking. Each project in Pathways focuses on a specific skill, moving you closer to your goal at the complation of the path. In the case of the Ice Breaker, the goal is to figure out what your starting point as a speaker. What are the strengths you have already and what are the areas where you can improve? After you give your speech you will receive feedback in two ways. Your speech evaluator will provide a 2-3 minute evaluation and will fill out a written evaluation form (you should make sure to print out a copy of the evaluation form and bring it with you on the day of your speech). How well did the feedback match up with your perception of the speech? Very often we are our own harshest critics. Start listening to how others perceve you as a speaker. Once you are done, decide how you want to store your evaluation forms. Some people like to scan or take a picture of them and upload them to the E-portfolio section of Basecamp (Click on the image between the search box and the settings gear on the top right of the Basecamp screen to go to your Base Camp Profile. You’ll find a link to the E-portfolio there).

That wasn’t that hard, was it? OK, maybe it was for you but you still took another step forward. Let’s keep the momentum and look at the second project in Level 1.

Step 3 - Feedback and Evaluation

I know, I skipped step 2 but we already talked about that above… Similar to your speech for the Ice Breaker, you get to choose the topic for your first speech in the Feedback and Evaluation project. Pick something that excites you. You will likely find that speaking about something that’s important to you gives your speech energy and excitement that the audience will notice. Similar to your Ice Breaker, you will receive feedback from an evaluator in both a 2-3 minute evaluator and the written feedback form. This time, pay particular attention to the feedback because are are going to apply it in the next step. What are the things the evaluator liked about the speech and how you presented it? What are the things the evaluator noticed that can be improved upon?

Step 4 - Apply the Feedback

You’ve now given two speeches (your Ice Breaker and the first speech in Feedback and Evaluation). Now it’s time to prepare for your next speech where you can apply the comments from your last evaluation. Note that you have a choice to make - you can apply the feedback and present the same speech you just gave again or you can come up with a totally new speech and apply the feedback to it. The choice is yours - just make sure that you take the feedback into account. After you give this speech, you’ll receive the same two kinds of feedback (the 2-3 minute evaluation and the written evaluation form). I see a pattern here. How about you?

Step 5 - Your Turn To Be the Evalutor

Congratulations, you’ve completed 3 speeches aready! Take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come since you decided to start this journey. Now we are going to change things up a bit. It’s youre turn to be the evalutor. Pay attention to how the project talks about evaluating someone else’s speech - the language is worded specifically to call out the behavior and impact you observed. As the project calls out, Concentrate on the action, not the person. Use “I” messages when you give your feedback. “I” messages keep the focus on behaviors, not the person. Think about how this style of feedback made you feel in your first 3 speeches. You will be assigned to provide feedback for someone else’s speech. Remember, you’ll provide a 2-3 evaluation and fill out their evaluation form. Now, here’s the tricky part - someone else will give you feedback and your evaluation. This is the same 2-3 minute evaluation and written evaluation form that you’re getting use to already.

And with that, you’ve completed two of the three projects for Level 1

Step 6 - Researching and Presenting

The final project in level 1 is a speech where you present a topic that you have researched. Like the last speeches you’ve done, this should be 5-7 minutes in length and can be on whatever topic you choose. Where the purpose of the first two projects were to establish your starting point and then to understand how to give and receive feedbac, this project focuses on organizing a well structured speech and how you can imcrease the likelihood your listeners will accept the information you provide by backing your examples up with other sources of information. When you’re done with the speech? You guessed it, an evaluating.

Now that you have completed all three projects, make sure to mark the level complete in Basecamp and ask your Vice President of Education to log into Basecamp to unlock the next level for you as well as marking you as having completed Level 1 on the Toastmasters website .