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I am currently in Paris, France running a series of two-day executive communication skills workshops for one of our top clients. The participants came from all over EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa.) In today’s workshop, we had executives from France, UK, Morocco, Italy, Portugal and Egypt. It was an outstanding group, and a thoroughly enjoyable day. In […]

It is  early on a Tuesday morning, and I am up early preparing for a couple of weeks of Executive Communication Skills workshops with our largest client. The participants will come from all over Europe, and the Middle East. I have advocated many times in the past that we all should “know our audience.” And […]

We recently finished an intensive workshop with one of our top clients. The topic was Executive Communication Skills, and the goal was to coach a small group of about 10 rising executive stars in the art of persuasive, executive-level communication skills. We covered a lot of ground over the two days, but one topic worth […]

There will be no politics or political preferences in this post. But I will make a critical, although seemingly obvious, point. We advocate to our clients all the time the importance of not only strong preparation for your presentations, but we also advocate for time spent on practice. We separate those two concepts into two […]

In the 21st century business world, very few things are NOT global in some way, and successful professionals and organizations have no choice but to be thinking about how to reach and connect to a global audience. There are a few things we encourage our clients to do when they are speaking/presenting/meeting with a global […]

My colleagues and I always talk about the five ingredients for great communication. And those five things are as follows: Clarity, brevity, context, impact and value. Now, as you think about the last line I just wrote above, which word do you think is most important? Clarity, brevity, context, impact and value. Which of those […]

A virtual team is a team that is spread out over many locations, connected by the wonders of electronic communication. The hardest part of the Virtual Team is that the group rarely sees each other face to face, and in many cases, team members have never met in person. Despite an abundance of tools that […]

I have been keeping a running list of lessons and reminders my wife and I regularly share with our children. And over the last several weeks, here are some of the ones that I wrote down: Always show gratitude when someone does something nice for you. You will never go wrong saying “thank you.” If […]

Clear, persuasive communication skills are a source of competitive advantage in the workplace. The people who can get make their point clearly, get to the point quickly, and make a persuasive case will get noticed and be in demand. Period. But not everyone communicates at the same level of skill. Some have natural comfort or skill, […]

My wife Emily and I are proud parents of two great kids, one age six, and one age sixteen months. We’re also both voracious readers, and we’re always looking for ideas and insight on better parenting. And much of what we read boils down to this: As a parent, will you make decisions that solve […]