Situation: Have you ever been told you talk too much with your hands? Perhaps someone said to you, “If we tied your hands together, you couldn’t talk.” During my one on one coaching engagements with executives, I routinely get asked, “What do I do with my hands?” When it comes to hand gestures during presentations, most people fall at either end of the spectrum. They either barely move their hands ...

With the Thanksgiving holiday rapidly approaching, many people reflect on what they are thankful for. However, reflecting on what you are grateful for but not sharing that gratitude with the one who provided it, is a wasted opportunity to brighten someone’s day. William Arthur Ward once said, “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” Sharing gratitude is similar to providing feedback to ...

It’s well-known that Socrates didn’t lecture his students. Instead, he used a method of instruction that came to be known as the Socratic Approach, also known as the Socratic Method. Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines the Socratic Approach as, “A method of teaching or discussion, as used by Socrates, in which one asks a series of easily answered questions that inevitably lead the answerer to a logical conclusion.” Because his students ...

Have you ever been in a meeting, virtual or face-to-face, and suddenly found yourself being put on the spot by a question or by being asked for your input? Is it just me, or does this invariably seem to happen during the 30 seconds you “space out” from time-to-time during meetings? Or with the recent rise in remote working, rather than being “spaced out”, you were distracted by a barking ...

We’ve all attended meetings or presentations, both virtual and in-person, and left wondering what was that all about or why was I asked to be an attendee? If you’ve suffered through one or more of those, or perhaps worse, conducted one of those, then there probably wasn’t much thought put into the preparation stage of the meeting or presentation. By considering the following checklist, you’re more likely to have a ...

With so many virtual meetings these past several months, a number of behaviors are becoming very noticeable. One behavior is the tendency for the facilitator to look at the face of the person on their computer screen asking a question, or they’re looking elsewhere. When that happens, it often appears as though the meeting leader is distracted or uninterested in the question or questioner. This often sets a negative tone ...

We’ve all attended virtual meetings these past several months and it looks like we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In every meeting, whether it’s virtual or face-to-face, the challenge for the speaker is to keep the attendees engaged. The challenge for the attendees is to stay engaged. Fostering engagement begins before the meeting even starts. Begin by connecting your content to your audience. What do they ...

A quick glance into the flight deck of any commercial airplane and one can be overwhelmed by the number of different dials, lights, instruments and equipment. The more sophisticated the aircraft, the more training necessary for successful outcomes for each flight. The same is true for managing a large virtual audience. The presenter (the pilot) must be interesting, organized, and informative while addressing technology issues; trying to stay on time; ...