Guide to Becoming a Successful Toastmasters Evaluator & Lessons for Life
By: Duneesha Fernando
Tags: Evaluation, Public Speaking, Toastmasters, Constructive Criticism, Personal Growth

Toastmasters program offers a valuable skill set which consists of public speaking, communication as well as leadership skills that help an individual improve himself/herself, and move up in the career ladder. Out of the set of skills that the Toastmasters program offers, my personal favourite is providing evaluations. A speech evaluator has to listen as well as observe a speech delivered by a fellow Toastmaster and provide an evaluation that spans for 2–3 mins.

It is important that a speech evaluator has some prior experience of delivering speeches in front of an audience. This experience would be helpful for the evaluator to put himself/herself in the shoes of the speaker and provide a successful evaluation. It is also important for the evaluator to have an understanding on how to provide a successful evaluation. I believe that this blog would have important tips which would be of assistance for novice evaluators.

In a Toastmasters Pathways project, the evaluator would receive the evaluation sheet before the meeting commences. Before arriving at the meeting, the evaluator should go through the evaluation form, especially the “Purpose Statements” and “Notes for the Evaluator” sections. This would help the evaluator prepare on what to expect from the speaker.

A sample TM speech evaluation sheet

A successful Toastmasters evaluation should follow the Hamburger method. Just as a hamburger has bread, meat and bread, a successful Toastmaster speech evaluation should start with positive feedback, followed by points of improvement and end by restating positive aspects of the speech. It is very important to note that criticism delivered in the meat section of a speech evaluation should only be constructive criticism. At this point, I would also like to highlight that a Toastmasters speech evaluation should strictly evaluate only the speech and not the speaker.

Hamburger method of TM speech evaluations

At this point, I would like to provide you with a worksheet that I use when providing evaluations. I came up with this evaluation sheet by myself, and iteratively refined it until I felt that this could be used as a general template by any Toastmasters speech evaluator. The evaluator is supposed to listen/observe the speaker while he/she delivers the speech and quickly take down notes in this evaluation sheet. The section “You excelled at” corresponds to bread, and the evaluator can mention 2 or 3 positive feedback points on the speech under that section. For example, suppose the speech had an “Attention grabbing opening”. Then, mention that under “Point” and provide an example that captured your attention.

My TM speech evaluation worksheet

The section “You need to work on” and “To challenge yourself” are the meat. In these meat sections, the evaluator should constructively criticize only the aspects of the speech that he/she observed. Always try to provide examples from the speaker’s speech to point out places which could be improved and try to explain how such places could be improved by providing examples. For example, suppose the evaluator thought that the speaker could have used the stage more during the speech. Then he/she has to mention that under “Point” in the “You need to work on” section together with an example of what was observed and a suggestion on how the speaker could improve on that aspect. The evaluator could suggest the speaker deliver the 3 stories which depict 3 stages of life from 3 lateral positions in the stage.

It is also important to identify the difference between the 2 sections; “You need to work on” and “To challenge yourself”. While the evaluator should identify mistakes or points of improvement in the “You need to work on” section, in the “To challenge yourself” section the speaker should be provided with a few suggestions that should be incorporated in future speeches. 3 points covering both sections would suffice considering time limitations.

Last strong statement corresponds to bread and there the evaluator should restate a few strong positive aspects of the speech that highlight the strengths of the speaker, which at the same time would encourage the speaker to continue his/her Toastmasters journey.

The footnote, “Consider the following aspects in your evaluation” contain aspects Toastmasters are expected to follow when delivering speeches. “Special competencies specific for the project” are aspects specific to each pathway project. For example, in the “Researching and Presenting” project, “Well Researched” is a project specific competency, while, in the “Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring” project, “Shares personal experience as a protégé” is a project specific competency.

The techniques that you learn and practice during Toastmasters evaluations would surely come in handy during real life as well. For instance when providing appraisals for colleagues at office, one could provide effective feedback by following the evaluation procedures followed in Toastmasters. Researchers and academics could also improve the quality of reviews that they provide for research papers by following the techniques learnt during Toastmasters evaluations.

I hope that novice Toastmasters evaluators would find my blog useful when starting their Toastmasters journey. I have included a downloadable version of the TM evaluation worksheet at the end of the blog too… Happy evaluating !!!

Link to the downloadable version of TM evaluation worksheet : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u9XryNxxy_uxVMgUpVFveXOthnfjsYqa/view?usp=sharing