Purpose and Roles of an Evaluator
Standard Evaluation: Use the one page from the manual for the project being presented. Each is a list of questions or some rating system.
Evaluation Presentation Tip #1: When giving the oral evaluation, instead of reading aloud the questions in the book, just respond to them. Example: "How effectively did the speaker use gestures? I thought that …". Instead, just respond "The use of gestures by the speaker was …".
Evaluation Presentation Tip #2: No need to give a short replay of the speech. The audience already heard it. Instead, talk about how it met the objectives of the manual project and ways it could have been done better. Using examples from the speech to make your point are certainly valid to given.
Whitewash Evaluation: Some evaluators get up and rattle off a bunch of "wonderful's" and "goods" and offer not a single thing to improve. That is a "whitewash" evaluation. Why did they bother to speak? For ideas on what kinds of suggestions to offer, see the attached notes from Lois Harger's evaluation training of 08-02-2004.
Closing an Evaluation: Evaluators struggle with how to end an evaluation. A very common way is to say "I look forward to your next speech". That is lame! The best way to end an evaluation:
- Briefly summarize the strong points and ways to improve - use one to three words per each
- Tell the speaker the thing you liked best about the speech
Three Evaluation Methods
Three ways to perform a speech evaluation:
- Tell and Sell - the evaluator talks, the speaker listens
- Tell and Listen - the evaluator talks, then the speaker is allowed to respond
- Problem-Solving - the evaluator engages the speaker in a two-way dialogue aimed at leading the speaker towards making his/her own evaluation
Tell and Sell is by far the most common evaluation method used. It assumes that the evaluation is on target. Advantage: brevity. Disadvantage: speaker gets defensive.
Two ways to do a Tell and Sell evaluation:
- The usual way:
- point out all the good things the speaker did/said
- point out one or two things the speaker could improve upon
- end on a positive note
- Another approach:
- point out one or two good things the speaker did/said
- point out one or two things the speaker could improve upon
- point out one or two more good things the speaker did/said
- point out one or two more things the speaker could improve upon
- point out one or two more good things the speaker did/said
- end on a positive note
Tell and Listen allows feedback on the feedback. Advantage: prevents defensiveness, builds relationships, and, helps the evaluator improve. Disadvantage: more time needed.
Problem-Solving is done by a pre-meeting briefing between the speaker and evaluator. During the evaluation, the evaluator asks the speaker questions such as "did you do X" and "how did you feel about X". Advantage: most effective. Disadvantage: most difficult to do and most time consuming.
Helping a Speaker Grow via an Effective Evaluation
Guidelines for building and maintaining self-esteem with an evaluation:
- Be Genuine - Honestly attempt to help the speaker improve. The speaker must perceive this sincerity.
- Recognize Strengths - Sincere deserved praise fuels growth through increased confidence.
- Recognize Improvements - Emphasize areas where improvement is noticed. Let the speaker know that something worthwhile has been accomplished.
- Avoid Value Judgments - Concentrate on the behavior exhibited, not the person. This is especially important when evaluating someone who is nervous or lacks confidence.
- Create Motivation - Help the speaker realize further improvement is possible. Show the speaker how to improve even more.
Ten Behaviors of an Effective Evaluation
The ten key behaviors of an effective evaluator are:
- Show That You Care - sincerely and genuinely attempt to help the speaker improve. Also, avoid the well-intentioned "whitewash" evaluation, one that lacks constructive suggestions for improvement.
- Suit Your Evaluation to the Speaker - adapt to the needs, goals, sensitivities and experience level of the speaker. The more experienced the speaker is, the more the evaluator needs to dig to find ways to improve. Experienced speakers will accept practically anything that is sincere. At the very least, tell very experienced speakers about things you were confused on or how you felt about something. On the other hand, novice speakers need to be handled more gently. Keep the suggestions to the one or two that will have the most impact for future speeches. Find out about the speaker's personal goals. Recognize symptoms of fear or insecurity.
- Determine the Speaker's Objectives - talk to the speaker before the meeting begins, preferably a day or two. Discuss what the speaker feels are his/her speaking strengths and weaknesses. Review the manual objectives. Ask if any other considerations are needed.
- Listen Actively - pay close attention throughout the entire speech. Sit erect, be fully alert.
- Empathize with the Speaker - try to consider the speech from the speaker's view point.
- Find Areas of Interest - become curious about the speech topic and note how the speaker develops it.
- Summarize - pick out the main ideas and conclusions and make your own mental outline or summary of the speech. Giving lots of specific details are unnecessary.
- Personalize Your Language - when evaluating, you are describing the effects of the speech on you. Thus, use phrases such as "my reaction was" or "it appeared to me" or "I felt that you". Avoid phrases such as "you should have" and "you failed to" and "your opening was". When offering improvement suggestions use phrases such as "I suggest" or "I would have felt a stronger impact if you" or "a technique I find useful is". Avoid phrases such as "you should/must" and "try to" and "good speakers do it by".
- Give Positive Reinforcement - speakers need to know that their efforts are paying off and they need recognition for their accomplishments. However, your praise must be deserved.
- Help the Speaker Become Motivated - people who never attain their potential often fall short because they fail to recognize their potential. Thus, the evaluator should remind the speaker that his/her goals are worthwhile and attainable. Encourage the speaker to improve for the next speech.
- Evaluate the Behavior, Not the Person - this was mentioned in the self-esteem section. It bears reemphasizing. When you evaluate, you have the capacity to produce an emotional response. The evaluator's purpose is to help the person learn to communicate more effectively.
- Nourish Self-Esteem - The evaluator is there to help the speaker grow. End your evaluation on a positive note (but please, please, please, not that worn out phrase "I look forward to your next speech". Surely, you can find something better). Make the speaker feel rewarded, accepted and accomplished.
- Show the Speaker How to Improve - we saved the most important item for last. Three things to do this:
- Focus on what the speaker should be doing vs. what the speaker should not be doing.
- Select the one or two areas that can have the biggest degree of improvement in the next speech.
- Present the recommendations in a positive way. Give specific suggestions and examples. Show the speaker HOW to improve, not just WHAT to improve.
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