I recently got a great email from a client named Colin. We’ve done extensive work with his company over the last five years, and Colin will occasionally reach out and give me a great idea for a blog post or a podcast. Colin listed for me the ways that his colleagues can reach him: work email (which […]
BLOG
Category: Meetings
There is this flawed perception that comes up in workshops all the time. And that perception is that “presence” is primarily created by the way one dresses, acts and speaks. We hear it all the time. First-time participants in our workshops want to separate the overall presentation performance into separate buckets: “Okay, let’s work on […]
We had a great conversation with clients recently, in one of our Persuasive Communication Skills Workshops. And the topic of this conversation was typical. We were discussing with participants the need for getting to the point in the 21st century business world. And several of the participants were politely but firmly pushing back, concerned that I was coaching […]
Your audience will only remember a small percentage of what you say. Some studies suggest it will be less than 20%. Fact. Other studies suggest that the average adult attention span is now about 8 seconds. Bummer. So what do you do about it? Focus on all three aspects of the audience experience: Make sure […]
Here are some stats that will shock you: The average American employee attends 62 meetings per month, half of which are described by those same workers as a “total waste of time.” That translates into 31 hours per month, per employee of unproductive time. In addition, 45% of those polled felt “overwhelmed” by the number […]
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 […]
So often in preparing to communicate, we make a fundamental mistake: we enter a messenger mindset. Rather than establishing a clear goal and aiming to persuade our audience, we set out to inform, to update, to share. On this path, we end our inquiry with a period: here’s what I need to say, full stop. But […]
It’s a common occurrence in the business world. You prepare a meeting, presentation, or speech for a certain length of time, only to find out that you have a lot less time than you planned for. Sometimes we even learn our fate as we are walking into the presentation. We’ve spoken a lot lately about […]
“Getting them to embrace their humanity in front of an audience is a leap, and often times, people don’t want to do that…When you are talking to an audience, you are trying to move people, and the best way to do that is to talk to them like they’re people.” – Bryan Gildenberg, Chief Knowledge […]
Most people communicate selfishly in the workplace. Sorry… I apologize for that harsh opinion. But I believe it to be true. Most people communicate with their colleagues, customers, vendors, and suppliers based primarily on their own needs, wants and goals. Most people build their communication (presentations, meeting agendas, negotiation points, talking points) based on what […]