Forbes Coaches Council

No PowerPoint, No Problem

Posted On February 24, 2020 BY

Originally published at Forbes Coaches Council, January 2020. I’ve learned from years of teaching workshops that nearly everyone starts their preparation for a presentation by planning a slide deck, whether that means opening up a new Microsoft PowerPoint, repurposing an old one or two (which often results in a Frankenstein-like creation of mismatched fonts, colors, […]

How To Build A Next-Level Team

Posted On January 15, 2020 BY

Originally posted with Forbes Coaches Council, December 2019. Putting together a team that works well together, tackles their goals efficiently and produces meaningful results might seem like an easy equation. Hire top talent, and let them work. But even the most gifted employees will flounder without one key component: clear, consistent communication. Let’s imagine a team […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, November 2019. Have you ever gone into a presentation or a sales meeting convinced that you were about to deliver a slam dunk, only to come out feeling like you threw brick after brick? Have you ever introduced a new initiative to your team with great confidence that […]

The True Cost of Poor Communication

Posted On September 30, 2019 BY

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council. We all aspire to be better communicators. We all know that communicating well will help us accomplish our goals, impress our colleagues and our superiors and generate business. We all want to feel confident and project leadership. But while we see the benefits of good communication, we generally think about […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, August 2019. Many of us likely want to become better communicators, whether your goal is to speak clearly, concisely or persuasively. As individuals, we can work to improve our own communication through preparation and practice of a few crucial underlying skills. We can set out to know our audience, hone […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, July 2019. We all face many moments of persuasion in our careers: convincing an executive to back a new initiative, selling a product or service to a new client, bringing our teams on board to change strategies. But perhaps the most important and nerve-racking persuasion opportunity is much more personal: […]

When we think about communication in the workplace, all too often we focus on the delivery part: what we will say, what our slides will look like and how loudly we should speak. All that’s important, but what about the other side? Before we speak, we need to listen. And when we do speak, we need to make sure […]

Originally posted with the Forbes Coaches Council, May 2019. Think about what makes you feel engaged, productive and motivated at work. Is it feeling like a cog in a machine? Is it the feeling that you have no meaningful understanding of the people leading you? Is feeling alone and isolated? Of course not! Healthy, happy […]

Originally posted with the Forbes Coaches Council, April 2019 Maybe this has happened to you: You walk into a conference room fully confident that you’ve prepared well and put together a crisp, persuasive presentation that will instantly wow your audience. The proposal you’ve developed is clearly the right choice, and you know the numbers that support your […]

Originally published with Forbes Coaches Council, February 2019. Death by PowerPoint. Or as Dilbert put it: “PowerPoint poisoning.” It’s software that is so despised that it has been banished by Amazon and banned from military strategy meetings. It’s easy to hate on PowerPoint. After all, it’s often the single common denominator between all the boring presentations and too-long meetings we […]