The eminent Shakespearean actor Ralph Richardson once said, “The most precious things in speech are pauses.” It’s not only true for the thespian performing a soliloquy from Hamlet, but also for anyone delivering a speech or presentation. Pauses in your speech serve several important functions. First, they help control breathing, which is fundamental to your success as a speaker. Natural pauses assist your breathing by giving you time to draw ...

Understanding others, how they process information, how they like to receive information, how they like to interact, allows us to build a good working relationship which is critical to persuasion. It is important to note that building a good working relationship is an ongoing process. It means you continue to understand each other so you can communicate well. Behavioral science has shed new light on what makes us who we ...

As soon as a new visual is revealed, everyone in the audience immediately looks at the visual because it is new news to them. They have seen and heard the speaker for a while, now they have something new to focus on. The visual is new news, the speaker is old news and new news will trump old news for the audience’s attention every time. Problem: Since the speaker has ...

No one likes to be the bearer of bad news. To make matters worse, whether you are a corporate CEO or President of the United States, having to deliver bad news leaves you wide open for major scrutiny. One has only to look at the barrage of criticism heaped on officials for their handling of product recalls, current events such as the global pandemic or foreign affairs to understand that ...

People who present on a regular basis, and those who don’t, are often so preoccupied with the content of their presentation that they neglect the purpose or objective of the presentation. Some examples of objectives are to inform, to educate, to persuade, to establish thought leadership, or to advance the sales cycle. The presenter’s job in putting their presentation together is to first ask themselves what they want their audience ...

A colleague of mine related to me how disappointed he was in a conference he recently attended. He was eagerly looking forward to the presentation of a case study that involved how one company solved a problem similar to the one his team was having. Here was his opportunity to learn some things that he could bring back to the office. What did he take away from the session? Unfortunately, ...

Many businesspeople have asked over the years how they can project more “executive presence” in their meetings and presentations. Mastering the three V’s will give them presence when they must be in front of people. The three V’s of executive presence are: Visual: How you look Vocal: How you sound Verbal: What you say When asked to lead a meeting or give a presentation, many people tend to focus most ...

Have you ever written an email, report, proposal, or business letter and felt it perfectly conveyed your message only to discover it was not received or interpreted the way you intended? Miscommunications mostly surface at the receiving end. That does not mean the reader is necessarily at fault. It means the communication process has broken down. The breakdown only becomes evident after the message has been received. Thus, it is ...