I am reading Marshall Goldsmith’s, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, and it has been enlightening. As a leader, it has given me perspective on the habits that hold leaders back and keep them from attaining their true potential. What struck me about the cases presented in the book was the use of 360 feedback forms with the persons that were being coached. As a Toastmaster this interested me, because we are always giving feedback to our members, but are we doing it correctly?

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.

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