STAGE TIME: “You’ve got broccoli in your teeth” – The Life Lesson for Your Presentation
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Ever have someone tell you, “You’ve got broccoli in your teeth!” ? Or pointed to the toilet paper stuck to your shoe? Embarrassing, but aren’t you glad they told you?
We can be so thankful when someone saves us from further embarrassment. As presenters, why do we take presentation feedback so personally, especially when people are really trying to help?
In my program, The Path to Powerful Presentations, I stress that of the habits of great presenters is to crave feedback. It’s not enough to just ask for it.
Last week, while presenting this program in the Bahamas, a question from somebody in the audience prompted me to clarify the two types of feedback we get. Though I mention it on occasion, I feel that every presenter should be clear on the difference.
First, there is coaching feedback, meaning… Here is what you could do to be more effective. Not everyone is qualified to give you this kind of coaching. I’ve seen many people get horrible advice that actually makes their presentations less effective. When I was practicing for my World Championship speech, the Toastmaster clubs that I visited gave me lots of advice. When it came to my famous fall, most speakers told me I stayed down too long. They “felt” uncomfortable, and as listeners, they thought I should get up sooner.
Mark Brown, 19995 World Champion of Public Speaking and my speaking coach, coached me to stay down on the floor longer. His advice was exactly opposite of everyone else. Mark pointed out that many times our job as speakers is to make the audience uncomfortable. Change usually does. Thank you, Mark!
The second kind of feedback is… Here is how I thought / felt as I listened to you. Everyone is qualified to give you this kind of feedback! We need to know what thoughts go through the heads of our audience. This is crucial. My original speech title was Don’t Chop Down Your Cherry Tree. When I said the words “cherry tree,” people gave me feedback that their first thoughts were of George Washington. George Washington? That was definitely not what I meant! But, it didn’t matter what I intended, it matters what their thoughts are.
The mistake I see too many times is when a more experienced speaker gets “Here is what I thought / felt” feedback from a newer speaker. On the outside, the experienced speaker may act cordial, but on the inside, they’re quick to dismiss the feedback due to the other person’s lack of experience. Wrong! Everyone is qualified give you that feedback. Great presenters will welcome it — even if it hurts sometimes… and especially when working on new material and stories.
We need to keep in mind, however, that we should not let one person’s thoughts sway our entire program.
Look for commonalities. If many people think / feel something — and it’s not our intention — we must adjust what we’re doing, or use the feedback for a new intention. In my situation, I used the fact that everyone was thinking “he’s down on the floor a long time” to my advantage. Knowing thoughts is crucial to understanding our effectiveness, and it allows us to adjust our presentation if we’re not getting our intended results.
It is not always easy to hear either type of feedback. To become great presenters, we must be coachable. I’m so glad Mark Brown told me I had broccoli in my teeth! He made me a better speaker, as did the people who told me what they thought and felt.
By the way… Do you have broccoli in your teeth?
Stage time,
Darren LaCroix
2001 World Champion of Public Speaking
P.S. I’m trying something BRAND NEW this weekend — and I’d love for you to be involved! We’re going to attempt to video broadcast three different public speaking educational sessions… LIVE from the classroom!
Below are the details, and you can RSVP online at www.GetPaidToSpeak.com
Friday, January 22nd
“Secrets from a World Champion Coach”
7 pm – 8:30 pm Pacific Time
Saturday, January 23rd
“Speaking Outside of the TM Club for Fun, Profit, and Club Building”
11 am – 12 noon Pacific Time
Monday, January 25th
“Good to Great” Speech Coaching w/ Fripp
6:15 pm – 7:30 pm Pacific Time
This was an excellent article. Never heard evaluation put this way … two kinds.
Thank you.
Darren,
Another newsletter that spoke directly to me…thank you for talking with me about feedback. I needed this very much because sometimes I am offended by feedback because of my thinking.
Thank you,
Patricia
Darren,
Thank you VERY much. I’ve made a copy of your timely article and plan to use it as a handout for my Southern Berkshire Toastmasters Speech Class next Tuesday.
People do need to remember that an evaluation is just more than nuts and bolts. Like vocal variety etc. An evaluator should say too if the speaker’s message was clear, easy to follow and if you as the evaluator, had a thought or went on a tangent because of something said in that speech, by all means tell them. They can use that and build on either a positive tangent or a negative one. Just like Darren said, if the speaker is getting commonalities from their evaluations, its a sign to take notice.
If I may add, the third type of evaluations is the speechless type. This is when people can’t resist clapping or laughing.
Regards