Every year after a Toastmasters' contest, I have a bunch of learnings to progress as a better speaker and a better person irrespective of winning or loosing in the contest. This year was quite interesting because even before the contest I learnt a few lessons.
The Rehearsal Recordings
When I was listening to my rehearsal recordings during the first few days, when I was not too confident with the script it sounded humorous. However when I was too much familiar with the script, I could feel a sense of overconfidence exhibited as slight arrogance when I listened to the recordings. Voila! this turned out to be a lesson for this year. No evaluator would dare to point this out to a speaker.
How Humour Works on Stage
In a humorous speech the audience should recognise the speaker as one among them and relate to each and every word uttered. A tone of over confidence or arrogance will spoil the whole show. So I had to work hard to underplay my tone and body language to bring back the humour. I had to redo it again and again and I heartfully felt that underplaying when you are confident about something is a big challenge.
Being Diplomatic
This is true in life as well. Isn't it? When we are not too confident about something, we are diplomatic. Experience and familiarity brings confidence but at the cost of loosing our diplomacy, showing up as arrogance. This happens by default and if we don't conciously work against it, we might become that arrogant person no one wants to befriend.
This Year's Result and learnings
Apart from learning this precious lesson I am glad that this year, I came first in the club contest for the first time.
Be Diplomatic always & Underplay when required!
During a speech, or in professional and personal lives we might have to underplay at times though we know everything. Being diplomatic not only makes others happy but also brings a sense of satisfaction to us, promoting us to a better human being.
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