You must have observed that I am no longer regularly writing since January 2009.  It is because I have been busy  collecting materials for the books which I intend to write, and write the draft of my speeches,  conducting seminars, and writing articles for my new website – jefmenguin.com – which you can now visit because it is already content rich just like this blog. You may read articles arranged in various categories like leadership, management, personal development, comunication, etc. The resources category by itself is already filled with ebooks (very great ones from Scribd.com and ChangeThis), powerpoint presentations, videos, and articles from other bloggers.

I am creating a new blog – blog.jefmenguin.com – which you’ll be able to access in a month of two.  At first, I thought of closing this blog, but after much thinking I thought that deleting this blog is unwise. This blog still ranks high in google and yahoo search engines and people who are looking for public speaking seminar, customer service seminars, or stress management seminars in metro manila will still find this blog in the front pages of these search engines. Also, people still write their comments and email messages of thanks after reading some of the articles. This blog must therefore continue serving its readers.

Jef Menguin Workshops and Seminars will stay. This time, my entries will be focused on the lessons I have learned while conducting workshops, speaking before a group of managers and leaders and students, or even presenting a proposal to a prospective client who usually request for leadership, communication, and team building sessions. I was not able to capture these lessons. I intend to do capture them now, and share these lessons with you. And just like the way we do it in toastmasters, I will tell you about the “strengths” and the “points for improvement”.

Slowly, I will cleanse these pages. Unrelated topics must go. The good ones may find its place in my new website, and the not-so-got ones will be expunged from the internet universe forever (that is, if some good souls did not copy-pasted the entries on their websites).

Observe that I have already changed the template. This is the start of the new beginning.

That’s all for today friends. Please visit jefmenguin.com, share the beautiful articles to your friends in Facebook and Twitter, and please leave your beautiful message.

God bless you.

I am the greatest.” When Muhammad Ali was in his prime, he thought that he was the greatest. Until old age made him kissed the canvass.

Many people associate greatness with success. The more successful the person seems to be, the greater he becomes. The world view a person to be great when he is able to acquire something which most people are just dreaming about. Thus, we declare somebody to be the greatest athlete of all time, the greatest opera singer, the greatest action star, the greatest writer, the greatest leader, etc. But time passes, and after a century, records will be broken, great names will be forgotten.

Success is temporary. It can be here for a moment, but only for a moment.

Success, oftentimes, is a game of Palo Sebo. Some have to struggle throughout their lives. They embrace the greased bamboo pole to can move up. Sometimes, it means kicking the faces of those who are following them, to move an inch higher. But when the prize is almost within their reach, they slide down. Energies wasted, they cannot go back again even if they want to. There will only be one great person, one winner in the Palo Sebo of success. Others will remain losers.

People play Palo Sebo at work. They play Palo Sebo in churches. They play Palo Sebo in schools, in government, in the smallest organizations. They play Palo Sebo everywhere. When I looked into the content of the seminars and workshops I have attended in the past, they all seemed to say the same things; set your goals,aim big, you can if you think you can, you can be the best, you can change the world. The unwritten, unsaid curriculum is that in the play of Palo Sebo, eveyone, but one, is bound to fail.

I don’t deny the fact that you can be successful. In fact, all of us can be more than successful. We can do that when we stop playing the Palo Sebo of Life.

It has been said many times before, and you will hear this again: whoever who wants to be great must be a servant.

Are we ready to become servants?

Finding local training is not usually a problem – but finding a training that will efficiently and cost-effectively meet your needs is a completely different matter.

That’s why I’ve put together some tips for you to help streamline your search for a local public speaking training that will actually meet your needs.

Tip #1:
Before you even start your search for local public speaking training, are you 100% clear about what your most desired goals, outcomes and results are? Imagine that you’ve already taken the public speaking training – what can you do now that you couldn’t do before the training? Make a detailed list of your goals and desired outcomes.

Tip #2:
What kind of time are you willing to invest in your training and how quickly do you need to reach your goals and desired outcomes? If your time is limited this is a critical question. Local adult night school classes might be good if you have no time to train during the day. Weekend intensive workshop trainings can be a better solution than night classes because the training is condensed to a short time frame.

Tip #3:
Look for a trainer who has a lot of public speaking and training experience. It’s one thing to be a great public speaker, it’s quite another to be able to train others to be great speakers. You need to find a trainer that has tons of real-world experience in public speaking, but also a long track record of training others.

Bonus Tip:
The absolutely best local public speaking training – or not local for that matter – will be small group workshop intensives. I’m talking about workshops that are 10 or less people in the training – and are entirely facilitated by the experienced public speaker / trainer. Think of it like taking a Karate class – you want The Master personally training you. And small-sized classes mean that won’t get lost in the crowd so you’ll be able to get all your questions answered and get lots of personal attention and feedback.

Summary:
When it comes to finding the best local public speaking for you, first determine what your goals and desired outcomes are so you can evaluate each training based on your goals and outcomes. Second you need to figure out what kind of time you want to devote to training. Third, look for trainers that not only have lots of public speaking experience, but have lots of teaching and training experience because great speakers are not necessarily great teachers. Finally, look for a workshop intensive with the group size limited to 10 people or less so you don’t get “lost in the crowd” and so that you’ll get lots of personal attention and feedback.

By David Portney

Website: http://www.bestpublicspeakingtraining.com/

Dr Ralph Smedley, in his book “Personally Speaking”, reduced the complexities of speech evaluation to four simple questions:

            1.  Did the speaker have a purpose, and did the speaker make good on it?

            2.  What did I like best about the speech?

            3.  What definite thing should the speaker do to improve the speech?

            4.  Did the speaker “make a sale” to me?

Although Toastmasters International has developed a great deal of materials to aid us in the art of ‘growth’ evaluations, nothing yet published captures the role of the Evaluator more clearly than those four questions. 

Let’s take a closer look at these questions and see how they come into play during your next opportunity to serve as an Evaluator of a speaker.

1.      Did the speaker have a purpose, and did the speaker make good on it?

If the speaker is working from either the Basic or Advanced C&L Manuals, the purpose of the project will be known to you.  Then it is a matter for you to determine if the speaker met his/her obligations in that regard.  Obviously, in your role as Evaluator, it is a primary responsibility to read and understand the speech project IN ADVANCE OF THE MEETING, if possible.    As you listen to the speech, keep asking yourself if the stated purpose of the speech is being met.

            2.  What did I like best about the speech?

Here is where you need to ask yourself a series of questions:

            What type of opening was used and did it get the audience’s attention?

            Was there a smooth transition to the body of the speech?

            Was the body well constructed, easy to follow and have a logical flow to it?

            If data, statistics, or quotes were used, did the speaker cite the sources?

            Did the close seem appropriate to the purpose of the speech and was it well done?

            Were the speaker’s gestures, appearance, dynamics, and manner appropriate to the speech?

After you have answered the questions, you will need to decide which of these impressed you most and aided the speaker to get the message across.  Pick out the ones you felt were central to the success of the speech and comment on them.

3.  What definite thing should the speaker do to improve the speech?

            In the limited time you have for the evaluation, you will be limited to one or two suggestions to the speaker.  Here it is important to bear in mind the speech purpose and relate your suggestions to it.  For those who are more advanced speakers, try to avoid comment on basics, such as eye contact, gestures, rate and pitch, unless they have a definite bearing on the acceptance of the speech by the audience.  Rather try and point out how some facets of the speech could have been improved.  For example, limiting the topic so as to cover fewer points in greater detail, or how the (opening)(body)(close) could have been made stronger.  [NOTE:  When pointing out what could have been improved, also provide examples of how it could have been done better.  In other words drop the other shoe.]

4.  Did the speaker “make the sale” to me?

            Regardless of the purpose of the speech, be it to inform, entertain, persuade, or educate, the final test is whether the purpose was accomplished.  No matte how well the speech was delivered from a speech mechanics standpoint, if it didn’t “sale” you then it failed the final test.  A humorous speech which provokes no laughter or a persuasive speech which doesn’t persuade fails the test and the speaker should be aware of how the speech was received in terms of the speech purpose.  If the speaker didn’t make the “sale” you may want to include the reasons for the failure in your evaluation, or if time, or sensitivity is a factor, talk with the speaker after the meeting when you will have sufficient time to explain your reasons for feeling as you do about the “sale” part of the speech.

Dr Smedley was also insistent that a Toastmasters speech evaluation should be “helpful, is always friendly in tone, and never harsh, biting, discouraging or sarcastic.”  Knowing the speaker is the best guide to how “softly” or how “realistic” your evaluation will be.  A novice speaker needs more encouragement and so your suggestions need be phrased in such a manner as to be gentle.  A more seasoned speaker may be anxious to have his or her speech evaluated with more of a fine line approach.  Veteran speakers, having developed the self confidence needed to develop speaking skills are more apt to look to the evaluator for in depth analysis of his or her performance.  Whether you are evaluation a novice or veteran, a good evaluation is like a good cup of coffee………strong enough to get your attention but not so strong as to leave a bitter after taste.

So let’s try and incorporate all of these points into a mock evaluation.

            “Thank you, Madame (Master Evaluator)(General Evaluator), my fellow Toastmasters, most welcomed guests, and especially, John.”

            “Your purpose tonight was to present a controversial issue and persuade us to your point of view.  Controversial the topic certainly was and persuasive you certainly were.  I can’t speak for others but I’m now ready to vote for the upcoming bond issue, thanks to the persuasiveness of your arguments.”

            “I felt your skillful use of statistics and logic were the keys to the “selling” of your point of view.  By pointing out the consequences of failing to pass the bond issue with believable statistics and then applying sound logic to the alternatives we face, you brought a strong focus to the problem.”

            “By urging us to vote in favor of the bond issue you made us a part of the decision process and challenged our thinking on this complex, controversial issue.”

            “While it was a well crafted speech, I have two suggestions to offer for your consideration, which I believe could enhance this effective speech.”

              “ The first would be to craft a more attention getting opening, such as “Think of it.  There’s an attempted break in to your home.  You reach for the phone to call the police, but all you get is a recorded message that no police are available and you should phone the county sheriff’s office for assistance.  That could be just one of the negative results of a “NO” vote on the city bond issue next month.” Delivered with feeling such an opening could be highly effective.

            “Also, in addition to urging us to vote “YES” on the bond issue, you might revisit your opening, by saying something like, ‘I hope if you ever have to phone the police, there will be someone there to answer the phone.  Will there be?  It’s up to you.”

            “With minor changes, John, I think you have a speech you should consider sharing with other organizations in our city.  With your skills as a speaker, I’m sure you’ll change a lot of minds on this vital subject.”

 In this mock evaluation, all four questions Dr. Smedley posed have been answered and the speaker would feel good about his performance while getting some help on how to make it even better.

I tend to concentrate less on style than on purpose.  We each develop our own style as speakers.  Unless a speaker’s style interferes with getting his/her message across I don’t mention it as a part of my evaluation.  Some of the finest speakers in America violate the basic protocol we teach new members, yet they are highly effective.  Tom Peters, the noted author of the book “In Search of Excellence” breaks every rule in the book.  His jacket is always unbuttoned, he paces back and forth without purpose, carries a legal note pad around while speaking and goes of into tangents.  Yet he draws overflow audiences because his messages is so powerful that most people never notice the “speaker protocol” errors. 

We, as evaluators, must concentrate on identifying the speaker’s strengths, and offering the speaker our help in overcoming weaknesses.  By answering those four simple questions and doing so in a friendly, helpful manner, we can meet our evaluation purpose.

Developed by: 

Jim Smith, DTM, PID

District 40, Region VI

Visit http://jefmenguin.com and http://jefmenguin.wordpress.com for more public speaking tips.