Saturday, November 28, 2009

Joy of figuring out where you are












Every now and then it is great to sit back and think about where you are metaphorically. Most of us instead just get stuck on the details of the feedback we received on the very last speech we gave.


On her Upside Down Speaking web site, under the Resources tab, Melissa Lewis has an excellent free tools page. It contains a three-page Acrobat file on doing a quick self-assessment with four different forms which you can download and print.


Form “A” has seven lines labeled 1 through 10 for marking how you feel about the following aspects: confidence, authenticity, persuasiveness, organization, customization, integrating visual aids, and answering questions.


Form “B” has a cloud with 59 items for either circling as strengths, or check-marking as needing more work.


Form “C” asks five questions about positive or negative experiences.


Form “D” asks you to reflect on the previous three forms, and then decide what are your two biggest strength and areas in need of improvement. It concludes by asking you to describe your goal as a speaker.


Her tools page also has a printable sheet for making wallet-size encouragement cards which you can carry and read just before you get up to speak.

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