Speakers can improve performance by tracking elements of their presentation.
Years ago when I was employed in a corporate health coaching role, the majority of clients I worked with were seeing me for weight loss. At that time, tracking apps, such as MyFitnessPal, were becoming popular to track performance, caloric intake and exercise habits. I found it interesting that the clients I worked with who used an app to track their performance – what they ate and how much activity they were engaging in – lost significantly more weight than those who did not track their performance, calorie intake or exercise.
Atul Gawande, general surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and newly appointed CEO of the Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan Chase healthcare partnership is a firm believer in the science of performance. In his book, “Better”, one of his suggestions for performance improvement is to “count something”. He writes, “If you count something interesting, you will learn something interesting.”
And finally, Andrew Davis, best-selling author and keynote speaker (he’s listed on the top 20 list of Meeting and Conventions magazine’s Favorite Speakers) relentlessly tracks his performance – from objectively watching video from EVERY speech he delivers to determine what worked and what did not work to the percentage of speaking engagements that come from referrals. In fact, Davis collects data on 210 different items for every speaking engagement he does! A little OCD? According to Davis, the more systematic you are, the more speaking engagements you can get, the faster you can raise your speaking fees, and the more successful you become as a speaker.
What are some of the items Davis tracks? A few examples include (1) where the speaking leads come from (email inquiry, website, referral, another speaking engagement), (2) what he ranks his own performance after a speaking engagement, (3) his conference speaker score for his speaking engagement, (4) written thank-you’s to the meeting planners/organizers. Davis notes that it does not matter what you track, just that you track something so that you can start noticing trends and know where to make adjustments or put more focus. Over time, this list of tracking items will expand, and you will start seeing results from where you are putting your efforts.
Bottom line – create an excel spread sheet and start tracking something about your speaking engagements. Tracking along with reflection will improve your performance.