“You all know the next speaker…”

Can I let you in on a little secret? Not everyone knows the person that you are neglecting to introduce, so you always need to properly introduce someone. This common oversight only gets worse when the person comes up and gets right into the content without introducing themselves after a misguided introduction.

When someone introduces a speaker as “a person that needs no introduction”, you will alienate everyone in the audience that doesn’t know the speaker from Adam. It also has the unintended effect of that are unfamiliar with the speaker feel like they are not connected with the rest of the group, which makes the speakers job far more difficult.

As a speaker, you need to make sure you have written an introduction and provided it to the person that will be introducing you. I wrote a post on this last year that you should check out.

Even when writing and providing an introduction, sometimes people will introduce you as the speaker everyone knows. When this happens, and it happens a lot, you as a speaker need to know how to recover from this major speaking faux pas. Whether it is in a Toastmasters club, association meeting, or other event; you have to assume that there is a large part of the audience that doesn’t know who you are or what you can do.

If you are being introduced as someone that everyone knows already, then you have a moral obligation to introduce yourself to the audience. If you have a powerful opening  that draws people into your content, consider developing an alternate introduction that draws people in while establishing who you are and why that matters.

To do this, you need to develop the same parts that you would have written and given to the person that introduced you. That means you have to provide your expertise on the topic, a statement that gets people’s attention, and compelling reasons for the audience to listen to what you have to say. This allows you to quickly let people know who you are, why you are there, and what you hope to accomplish. When you have soothed people into the speech, you can then get into the meat of the content.

Another gesture you can make to people who do not know you is to acknowledge them while speaking. This allows you to establish the connection with them to make them feel like they are a part of the group that knows you. Doing this makes the speech stronger, and establishes that you care about the audience.

As speakers and introducers, you must continue to be vigilant in stomping out this habit. Continuing to not introduce speakers can kill the credibility of the speakers and make it so people don’t want to join the group.

Spread the word by sharing this article with others.

1. You Haven’t Explained What is Required of Each Officer’s Role

Your club members might not know what each officer in a club does. As part of your club succession planning, you should have each of the current officers explain what their position entails and how they help the club. You should also provide written and spoken overviews of each officer role and how it contributes to the success of the club.

2. The Unfilled Roles Have Too Much Responsibility

Clubs put a lot of work on a few key roles. The executive team in the club should make every attempt to spread the work of the club across officers and committees. Not doing so could leave one or two positions open because people have the perception that it is too big of a job for one person.

3. The Current Person in that Role Did Not Fulfill Their Obligation to the Club

Did you not fill an abandoned officer position? Not doing so during the year might have left a gap that another officer or team of officers filled. Without that person there supporting the club, people might think that the position is undesirable or they don’t feel that the club needs that person anymore.

4. You Haven’t Asked People Personally

There are people in your club that want to help out, but you just need to ask. Whether they are shy, or just don’t know the role. You need to add a personal touch to get them to step up and take on additional responsibility.

5. Current Officers Have Not Developed Committees of Successors

Each of your officers should be building a team of potential successors. Toastmasters wear many hats outside of their clubs, so building a team helps spread out the work of running a club. It also makes succession easier, because committees are filled with people that understand what the officer does and how they can step up and fill their role.

6. You Have Not Demonstrated How Officers Benefit the Club

When officers do a good job, you should recognize the impact their role has on the club. If the work the club officers do is invisible, then your club members will not know how they contribute to the success of the club.

7. Leadership Program is not Stressed in Your Club

If you are not highlighting the Toastmasters Leadership program, then you are not demonstrating how being an officer helps members get their Advanced Leadership goals. Not doing so can hurt the growth of your club and accomplishment of club goals.

8. There Was No Nominating Committee

Having a nominating committee of past officers and mentors helps your club select the officers that will lead in the future. Nominating committees are important, because they take the burden off of the current leadership and gives impartiality to the process.

9. You are Scrambling at the Last Minute to Fill Roles

It is June and you haven’t talked about filling the roles. Getting all of the officers assigned can take time, so you should have started your planning before April in order to make sure you have the right people in the right positions before the July 1st deadline. It also gives current officers time to mentor new officers and transition responsibility cleanly.

10. The Club Does Not Understand How Officers Help Accomplish DCP Goals

If your club is not emphasizing the DCP program, then your members don’t know how officer selection affects their Distinguished Club Program Status. Having an officer list submitted is one of the goals of the DCP program and not having it stymies your goal accomplishment for the coming year.

Being an officer can be a very fulfilling task in any organization. Make sure that you are demonstrating the role you play in your club and how being an officer gives you deep satisfaction in helping a club reach its goals.

I hope you are doing well in finding officers to lead your club this year.

photo credit: S.Su

I have observed hundreds of speakers in the past four years of my Toastmasters membership. It hasn’t mattered if those speakers are brand new or old-timers, you can always tell when they have not practiced. I see it in the reliance on their notes, the overuse of filler words, or the lack of structure in the presentation. If I can tell, your audience can tell, and you are going to lose them.

So why aren’t you practicing?

Do you feel that you do not have enough time? Do you not know what you really want to say? Did you sign up to give a speech, so now you are going to give one whether you are ready or not? Do you think that it is just not your style?

My favorite excuse is, “I am not going to be a professional speaker, so I don’t need to practice. I want to keep it real.”

So you think that only professionals practice? You think practicing will make it seem unnatural? What about Steve Jobs? He is not a professional, but he spends hours practicing his presentations. So do successful sales presenters, pitchmen, and professionals. They have all taken to heart the advice, “Practice until it looks natural.”

The most “natural” speakers spend hours practicing for a 10 minute speech.

You have to practice.

If you want to be effective as a speaker, then you must schedule time to practice your presentations. It doesn’t matter if it is in a Toastmasters club or for a presentation to a trade group. The habit is important to develop, because it will allow you to get your point across, make your audience believe your message, and deliver value to the listeners.

Most speakers have a 5 to 1 rule for practice. That means that for every minute of your speech, you practice for 5 minutes, so a 10 minute speech would be practiced for 50 minutes. Is this the most important speech of your life? Then maybe you should make it 10:1 or more. The point of the ratios is to give you a time to schedule to get up there and give your speech.

Is practice boring, silly, or downright painful? Yes it is, but everyone that has ever done anything important in life has practiced. Whether it is in sports, music or art, every profession requires a level of practice. It doesn’t matter if you are an amateur or professional; if you are passionate about what you are doing…practice.

You audience will thank you.

It has been some time since I dug into the topic of evaluations on this blog, so I am glad that Goldsmith’s book piqued my interest in talking about it again. The evaluation process in Toastmasters is beneficial to our members, and when done effectively, can truly improve all members of a club.

In the Toastmasters evaluation materials, we always talk about using the sandwich method. “The Sandwich”, means that we point out areas for improvement between two positive comments on the speaker’s speech. This is done to motivate the speaker to improve by building on their strengths.

On paper it makes sense to do that, but does it work in practice? I ask, because I too often see many members only talk about what they like about the speech but never about what they need to improve. No speaker is perfect and by helping speakers discover their weaknesses, we can help them improve in their speaking.

That is one of the key principles in, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Goldsmith points out what the weaknesses are in our abilities and pushes us to correct our faults that are holding us back. It is something that I see lacking in many evaluations, but not all.

I can tell you from personal experience, that there are three people in one of my clubs that let me know what my weaknesses are. Though to a new Toastmaster, I might seem good. To more experienced speakers, I am stiff and robotic in my delivery at times. While many people would hate to have that pointed out – over and over – I love it. It gives me a reminder of what I need to improve on and my progress in removing that flaw from my speaking.

Do we need to eliminate the positive comments? No, because I agree that they reinforce the speaker and let them know what they are doing right. What we need to improve is our tracking of what people say are our weaknesses. It wouldn’t hurt to keep a log of what people say you need to improve. This allows you to target the areas you have the most negative feedback from and discard the areas where there are only one or two comments of it being a weakness. Then you can focus on improving the target areas one at a time. Targeting one weakness can help eliminate feelings of being overwhelmed by areas for improvement.

Evaluations are important to the Toastmasters educational program. They help you learn what you are doing well and what you need to improve. So as you get up to give one, think about how you can target key areas that the speaker can improve. What are their weaknesses? If you are a speaker, think about how you can track feedback you are getting and then improve one thing at a time.

You can get there.

Project three in the basic manual of Toastmasters International is titled, “Get to the Point”.  The project has the speaker work on identifying both a general and a specific point to their speech.  Most of us don’t have a problem identifying the general purpose of our speeches.  If you are a professor, your speeches inform.  If you are doing an after dinner speech, you typically are there to entertain.  If you are speaking at a graduation, often you will want to inspire.  Often times, lost in all the emotion of a rousing motivational speech, the specific point is lost.

The specific point of your speech is the action item.  It is the DO of your speech.  The graduation speech needs a call to action.  A persuasive speech requires you to ask people to act on your message.  Even a lecture moves your students to further investigate your main points.  As a speaker, we often times have several themes we want to get across in a presentation.  But all of your themes must support one main idea that you are trying to get across.

My process for developing a speech goes from back to front.  The first thing I do is come up with my specific point of my speech.  What’s the main idea?  What is my BIG thing?  That point is what drives the development of your speech.  That is what instructs you what should stay in and what material should be on the cutting room floor.  Your main idea is the one thing that you want people to remember about your time in front of them.

A great speech has to have pieces and those pieces have to move your audience through a roller coaster of emotions.  Think about the great speeches you have heard through your life and undoubtedly there is one key phrase or idea that has stuck with you all these years.  That was their BIG thing. What is your BIG thing?

Stevie King is a member of Athens Toastmasters Club 1779 in Athens, GA.  He is currently competing in the International Speech contest where he will be involved in the Region 8 finals on June 27.

You can read Stevie’s district winning speech as well as follow his contest preparation at his blog www.stevieking.wordpress.com.

The reason is Intention, which I discussed in an earlier post . If your intention is not in the right place, then you will come off as self serving and petty, which is death for a speaker.

So what is the proper intention?

Last week, I was on a teleconference with one of my mentors, the fabulous Patricia Fripp and one of her partners in crime, the Contrarian Consultant, Alan Weiss, PhD. After listening to the call, I started to read through Alan’s blog  to gain insight into topics discussed on the call. This morning, I came upon a podcast on The Secrets of Million Dollar Consulting.

In the podcast, Alan answered the question of what the proper intention is when speaking in principle number one of Million Dollar Consulting. It is “to improve the client condition.”

As you are speaking, you are not there to make money, sell a product, or make a name for yourself. You are there to improve the lives of the audience. Making money, making a name for yourself, and winning contests is an outcome of improving the lives of the people you speak to. When people see how you change the lives of others, they will gladly pay you for your time.

So get out there and start speaking to change lives.

I joined Toastmasters recently to improve on my speaking skills and to gain some new insights in the industry of public speaking.  I was concerned going into the organization because I feared that either I was going to find a “coffee club” or advanced people in speaking that they were not interested in assisting in my quest to get better or just very competitive to win speaking contests.  Well instead of finding the click that I feared, I found a very open and inviting group.  Those who are just starting out in overcoming their speaking fears, people who are developing into a speaker, and those who are so polished that I am looking forward to sounding like them some day.  Everyone was open and honest with each other and wanted to help each other improve.

I have learned so far that public speaking is not an innate talent.  Although we may have the calling to go into speaking, speaking is something that should be practiced and refined.  Refining what you do is a part of becoming that polished speaker.  Having poise in front of everyone is indispensible in any situation whether it is in front of 1,000 people or just 1 person.  Having poise and polish under pressure is indispensible.

My goal for Toastmaster is to continue to hone my speaking skills and develop that exterior self confidence and poise that I feel that I have inside myself.  I am here to develop my whole self and put sometime in the development of what I find vital for my industry and career.

About Katie McCartney

Katie has been practicing Real Estate since April of 2007, and recently received from RE/MAX Affiliates the brokerage’s 2008 Rookie of the Year Award.   She believes real estate is working with you to manage the project of selling or buying a home.

Katie started her career in Management Information Systems right here in Columbus, Ohio 10 years ago.  SK Ventures embodies her desire to see technology used more effectively as a meaningful and useful tool to assist businesses in their never ending quest for prospects, leads, and just plain relationship building.

Katie lives in Worthington, Ohio with her husband of 9 years, Sean who is an IT Network Manager for The Ohio State University’s Business and Finance.  Katie and Sean have one child, Ron (2) and one fur child, Edy (6).

You can read more of Katie’s writing on her blog at: www.katiemccartney.com

Public speaking is not a skill which is unattainable; rather, it comes with experience and knowledge of what your audience wants.  It is helpful for many business professionals to ensure that their children get involved with public speaking from the time they are well into junior high.  There are many programs for young children to encourage speech-writing, impromptu speeches, and debates.  If you want your child to be able to speak in front of a committee or large audience, it is helpful to enroll them in these types of programs from an early age.

Once your child reaches junior high, there is a multitude of after-school programs that are academically based.  The University Interscholastic League (UIL) is one of the largest programs within junior high and high schools in the state of Texas, and participates in debates, persuasive speaking, and impromptu speaking, where the child is given a subject and must come up with a speech within five minutes.  While this type of extracurricular program is unique to Texas, many other states participate in state wide debates, and other speech-writing activities.  It has become progressively more important to educate the new generation in terms of public speaking due to the large amount of speaking business professionals have to do on a daily basis.  With the job market becoming even more competitive, it is imperative that the new generation be avid public speakers to be able to impress potential employers, as well as corporate sponsors.

Furthermore, a solid educational background will assist children in speech-writing, not only for these competitions, but also later on in life.  Ardent readers will be better informed, and therefore more apt to create well-written and rehearsed speeches; it is more important now more than ever that your children become well educated outside of school through reading literature and current events.  All of this starts with the parents, when their children are young enough to be conditioned as to how to read and speak in front of large audiences.  If they receive this training while they are still young, they are more apt to carry this with them to adulthood.

Public speaking is a very important skill to have all through your life, and it can make a difference when you enter the job market as to whether you can impress a potential employer with your skills during an interview, or impress an audience during a conference.  It is this fact that makes it so important to establish these types of expertise very early on in life.

This post was contributed by Heidi Taylor, who writes about the online colleges and universities. She welcomes your feedback at HeidiLTaylor006 at gmail.com.

At the front of the room was a young woman, obviously nervous about getting up to give a Table Topics. As she nervously gave her heartfelt answer to the Table Topic, you could see it in the faces of everyone in the room…it wasn’t disgust…it was a compassionate understanding.

This is why we are here.

What was written on the faces of the club wasn’t condemnation, it was admiration. It was an admiration for this young woman who knew that becoming a better speaker was something that would benefit her throughout her life. At that moment, she is not there to become a professional speaker, winning a contest, or give 10 speeches. Standing there in front of the club, she only wants to improve herself…today, right now.

This is why we are here.

In his prepared speech today, my friend Michael talked about our intention and how often we subscribe to the “Mañana Plan” and always put off until tomorrow what we say we intend to do today. It was a great speech and it was reinforced by the people that came up and demonstrated that they had gotten off of the “Mañana Plan” and on to the path of taking action to accomplish a speaking goal.

This is why we are here.

Having intention is a start, but how are you taking action to move forward and accomplish your speaking goals? Isn’t it time you got off the “Mañana Plan” and on to becoming a better speaker?

Follow in the lead of millions before you and get up there and speak. You will be glad that you did.

photo credit: bored-now

“In first place representing the Central Division at the District Conference….”

Not me.

“I Am Jack’s Broken Heart” – Fight Club (1999)

 Sitting there after the announcement of the winner, I was surprised. I had just spent the last three hours being told by people that they thought I had won…then the results. I didn’t even place. For the next few hours I ruminated on what had happened. What lines could I have fumbled, what message did I not deliver…then I realized something.

I put too much pressure on myself.

Going up there, I was filled with terror and I found it hard to keep from shaking uncontrollably. I kept asking myself, “Why are you so afraid?” Then when I sat down after the speech, it dawned on me…I had put far too much into this. I had spent so much time thinking about the desire of winning that I forgot about the most important thing – having fun.

Later that night while looking over the video of the event, I learned something. This was a good speech well delivered and other years it might have won. However, what defeated me was me. No other competitor beat me. I beat my self.

I realized that when you are competing in speech contests, you decide the message, you decide the delivery, and you decide how to prepare. No one else decides those things, so in the end, the only person that can beat you is you.

If you don’t deliver a needed message, if you don’t prepare, and if you don’t connect with the audience – these are all things you can control. So why don’t you?

Because the only person that can defeat us…is ourselves.

What do you think?

If you get a chance, check out my new site: http://youngprofitpros.com/

It is a learning resource for young professionals looking to forge their own path in life.

To see my division losing speech, check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtMN-xXpQdM