A Great Last Moment

At our Toastmasters Spain-Portugal division contest in Marbella last weekend I witnessed more or less 21 public speakers. Female speakers, male speakers. Speakers from at least six different countries. Advanced speakers and very advanced speakers. All but two jumped into the lake of potential for improvement.

In my seminars I always ask the same question. The other day in Krakow, Poland, I asked Agatka. “How do you feel, Agatka, when you applaud a speaker and the speaker runs away like a chicken?”

“In some way I feel disrespected”, Agatka answered.

Exactly. Every time we finish a speech and instantly run away while our audience is giving us their applause, every time the moderator of an event wants to shake hands with us and we are already gone – we disrespect our audience.

There is a better way. Sometimes the solution is not out of reach. It’s an easy solution: Stay after you verbalize your last words.

Smile at your audience. Look at them. Let the applause punch your cerebellum. Take the beating. Be strong and… stay!

After five seconds you look at the moderator of the event, you stretch out your hand and let the moderator come to you.

This is respect, this is authority, this is a great last moment.