I gave a very good speech. But I didn’t get voted as the ‘best speaker’ – Why?

Public Speaking Article # 1 (for toastmasters club members)

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

I gave a very good speech. But I didn’t get voted as the ‘best speaker’ – Why?

Have you ever given the best over all speech but didn’t get voted as the ‘best speaker’?

Have you ever been to club and watched this happen?

Have you ever wondered WHY is it something this ever happened?

In my experience, these could be the 10 possible reasons:

1) The audience may not be experienced enough to know a good speech from a not so good speech.

2) Some of the audience members go with their ‘gut feeling’ when it may not be the ‘right’ thing to do

3) A popular crowd favorite speaker was competing against you.

4) The ‘Halo’ effect comes into play – the speaker you are competing against is known to be ‘good’. So whatever he does – even if it’s a bad speech, is considered good.

5) The audience has voted on something that was ‘different’ about the speaker which in no way was related to the speech (could be very good attire, good speaking skills, good vocabulary or even good looks)

6) Sympathy vote – Ever had a very young speaker or a handicapped person win a prize simply because of their condition or nervousness?

7) Audience having ‘pre-conceived notions’ about what constitutes a good speech or good speaker

8) Personal bias – I don’t like that guy or that woman

9) Having wrong standards of judging – Oh him! He has been speaking for 10 years and she has only 2 years speaking experience. So let me encourage her today.

10) Toss of coin – Both were good. So let me flip a coin and decide.