Why do you need to learn to evaluate a speech presentation? As leaders, we often need to provide honest feedback to others so that they can improve. Evaluating others helps us develop analytical skills, empathy and self-awareness. It also helps us, as the evaluator, become better public speakers as well, because we become more aware of our own strengths and shortcomings.
On 19th June, Shirley Childs delivered a valuable workshop on how to effectively evaluate a presentation. We could see people writing notes as she had plenty of good tips.
An easy-to-remember acronym to ensure we evaluate all techniques used in a presentation is G-L-O-V-E-S.
G – Gestures
- Were the speaker’s body movements and facial expressions appropriate?
- Did the speaker make eye contact with the audience?
- How well did the speaker make use of the floor space (stagecraft)?
L – Language
- Was the language appropriate, vivid, clear and eloquent?
- Were the words and pauses used effectively?
O – Organisation
- Were the transitions between introduction, body and conclusion clear and
effective? - Was the purpose of the speech clear? Was the structure clear and easy to follow?
V – Voice
- Could everyone in the audience hear the speaker?
- Was there vocal variety? Change in rate, volume and pitch?
E – Enthusiasm / Emotion / Energy
- Did the speaker show enthusiasm for the topic?
- Did the speaker harness any nervous energy?
- Did the speaker project or evoke appropriate emotion? How?
S – Special
- Was there an X factor or a WOW factor to blow you off. Leave this till last as it will uplift the audience in a huge way and put everyone in a positve mood.
Shirley has kindly shared her framework which she and many experienced evaluators and public speakers use. You can download the accompanying notes for her workshop,