Communication is not only an essential life skill, but is also one of the earliest survival skills that humans learn. As we grow up and learn how to be a functioning member of society, the need for effective communication skills grows in importance and increases in complexity. This is especially true for those in leadership roles. No matter the company or team you lead, you are going to be working ...

Mortimer J. Adler, who later co-founded the Great Books course that profoundly influenced liberal education in the 1950s, completed Columbia University’s four-year baccalaureate program in three years. But the University did not let him graduate because he didn’t take the required swimming test. We generally assume that educational requirements should match workplace needs. That doesn’t seem be the case for all colleges and universities. Nobody but a lifeguard needs swimming ...

If you're trying to give a persuasive presentation, I recommend doing it as a five-part process. We have found this five-part structure will keep you most focused on the audience and therefore most likely to succeed in persuading them. It applies to an audience of any size. Part 1. Opener. The opener has a single purpose: to make the audience feel a pain that can only be relieved by adopting ...

"The most precious things in speech are pauses." So said the eminent Shakespearean actor Sir Ralph Richardson, and it’s not only true for the thespian performing a soliloquy from Hamlet. When delivering a speech or presentation, you can’t deny the power of the pause. Pauses in your speech serve three important functions. First, they help control breathing, which is fundamental to your success as a speaker. Natural pauses assist your ...

I've suggested, in the past, that few people suffer from a genuine fear of public speaking, but almost everybody is nervous about it. At Communispond, we have always treated this nervousness as beneficial. One of our most cited presentation tips is to change this nervousness to excitement and use it to your advantage by letting it increase your energy level. It’s gratifying to see that science seems to be catching ...

Cross-cultural communication is defined by Gotland University as “a process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating one's cultural differences through language, non-verbal gestures, and space relationships.” In business, cross-cultural communication plays a critical role in successfully carrying out business with teams and stakeholders in other areas of the globe. When the communication is effective, everyone benefits from increased bandwidth, institutional knowledge, and competitive advantage. Ineffective communication, however, can offend, confuse, or ...

In a sales meeting, the kind of question least likely to put your listening skills to work is the closed question: “Are you concerned about costs?” That may sound like a substantive question, but when the customer answers “yes” or “no,” the conversation stops. Furthermore, it generates almost no information. That your customer is concerned about costs is meaningless. Who isn’t concerned about costs? “How have you been managing cost ...

The concept of executive presence has captured the imagination of the business press. When I did a Google search on the term, it came back with more than four hundred million hits. One of the search results was an article from Business Insider that suggests that the seven aspects of executive presence all begin with “c”: composure, connection, charisma, confidence, credibility, clarity, and conciseness. This may be a tour de ...