SELF STUDY AND IMPROVE (‘Traits’)

I am a member of Toastmasters. Many years ago, a fellow member of our club offered to video several of us presenting speeches for evaluation. Part of the evaluation was a study of the video he took as we presented.

I thought I’d made a fair fist of my speech. When the video of my presentation was played back, I discovered (along with everyone else) a number of ‘anomalies’:

• I overly shuffled and the movement was out of sync with and detracting from my presentation.

• I scratched my posterior on two occasions.

• I once picked at my nose.

• Several times my eye movements were out of context in not supporting my trying to reach the audience through eye contact.

Without the video revelation, I would have been unaware of these unconscious actions.

These days, videoing on mobile if using an iPad makes the whole process simple. My suggestion is that readers consider having someone video presentation for the sake of weakness awareness as a precursor to improvement.