Getting Feedback for a Speech

00:00 So, how can you find out if your speech or presentation was effective? This is actually quite easy, and I'll tell you why.

00:09 By the way, it always bugs me when people talk about public speaking skills as a soft skill, like soft like a puppy.

00:17 It somehow, you know, like judging finger painting.

00:21 No, it's not.

00:22 Public speaking is just as easy to quantify as any aspect of accounting or physics. Let me tell you how.

00:30 All you have to do, if you want to know if your speech is effective, is ask your audience afterwards. But you have to ask them the right question.

00:36 Ask them what messages they remember from your presentation. If they remember all of your key messages, you were affected.

00:46 If they don't remember, you were ineffective.

00:50 Same way you test.

00:51 If your slides are effective when you're done, ask your audience what PowerPoint slides they remember, any slide they remember, as long as they connected to the point it was effective.

01:02 If they cannot remember your slide, it was ineffective.

01:07 Throw it in the trash can or give it as a handout, but don't use it in your actual presentation.

01:14 So if you've got a big presentation to 30 important clients on Thursday, get three colleagues, perhaps people who work in different departments, together at lunch on Tuesday.

01:26 Give them your presentation in the lunchroom.

01:28 When you're done, don't ask them what do they think? Because they're going to want to be nice.

01:32 They're going to say, Oh, good job, Jim, great job, Sally, go get it. That's not helpful advice.

01:39 Ask them what messages do they remember? And because they can't lie about that, they can lie about whether they think you did a good job or not or whether you looked professional.

01:51 But ask them what messages they remember.

01:53 If they don't remember your messages, then you know you're not effective.

01:57 You've got to go back to the drawing board.

02:01 It's very easy to find out now.

02:02 Also, when you're giving a speech for real and people come up to you afterwards, if you're talking to more than 20 people, typically someone will come up and say, Oh, good job, did a good presentation.

02:13 What most of us do is we say, Oh, thanks, thanks a lot.

02:17 Now you can still do that, but what I would recommend is then say, Hey, thanks, tell me what stands out? What do you remember? So when I do that and someone says, Well, you know, T.J., you were just so professional , and you were commanding and authoritative, and you didn't have any ums.

02:33 And your real inspiration is somebody says that to me after a presentation.

02:38 I then know I was a complete, utter failure.

02:43 Because those weren't my messages.

02:46 If they can't tell me specific messages, examples, stories, case studies, I failed miserably.

02:53 So don't be afraid to ask people who come up to you after a presentation with any kind of feedback.

03:00 What do you remember that's honest feedback that you can take to the bank?