Saturday, April 1, 2017
Evaluation
When I thought of how I communicate all I could think of is I speak so that others can understand me and if not I do what's needed so that people get a clear understanding of what I'm talking about. In every speaking engagement or conversation I've had so far in my life, I give eye contact, I do make some facial expressions which aren't bad like they use to be. I just breathe and go with the flow. I want to have the audience remember some of the things I've said to them. I also want to be a good listener as well in which I am; it took some practice for me to stop wanting to always jump in the conversation while the other person is speaking instead of being a great listening ear. When I'm speaking I often doubt myself because I may think I didn't engage the crowd enough but others will always tell me how great I was and how they love listening to me speak. Others think I'm a skilled professional at speeches or just talking period whereas I don't think I'm that great. I can say that others especially people who don't know us seem to be better at evaluating us.
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The test has obviously presented you with new information. Doesn't if feel good to know others think more highly of you than you think of yourself.
ReplyDeleteI also doubt myself often about whether I am engaging others or not. As a trainer, I want every single person that registered for my training to be able to take home at least one new learned item. But then I also have to do this with a huge variety of learning styles (just like a teacher in a classroom). I almost always use a powerpoint slide show so that there are visuals for those that need them, but I verbally talk as well and then I try to have at least one hands on activity and then facilitate large group and small group discussions. Even with this variety when I read the evaluations at the end of the trainings I will still get feedback saying they wish it was all lecture, or they wish the powerpoint matched my verbal presentation word for word or they didn't like that they had to participate in a discussion. I know going in to it that I am not going to please everyone, there are too many learning styles and some trainings I am using a curriculum that does not allow for any flexibility in who I present (such as our new Federally required health and safety pre-service training that has to be read verbatim and all activities are pre-determined by the curriculum developers). But I still allow that to consume me sometimes and I have to learn to be more relaxed. There is always going to be something out of my control and just like we won't always have the answers for every question we are asked, we are not always going to be everyone's favorite speaker.
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