For anybody looking to improve their public speaking skills, there ain’t no better way to learn about the craft than by picking up a good book. While you can learn a lot from blog posts (especially Communicate You I hope!) there is still no substitute for an in-depth book, written by an expert. In this post […]
Think about the situation. Your boss at work has just asked you to do a presentation at next week’s meeting about a key milestone the company has just achieved. At this stage most people will do one of two things: Instantly open up PowerPoint and start dumping information onto slides Write out a script on paper […]
According to a Business Insider article written by Ira Kalb of USC’s School of Business: “Our brains evolved in a way to protect us from harm. As part of our protection system, we like to have choices. We know that if we don’t have choice in a dangerous situation, we may not find a way out of […]
A coupe of weeks ago, in the ultimate guide to storytelling, I wrote about how stories are easier to recall than facts or figures, because they activate lots of different parts of the human brain – in a sense, listeners experience the story. In this follow-up article I outline a classic storytelling structure that has […]
A couple of weeks ago I called to University College Dublin for a chat with Barry Brophy. Barry has nearly two decades of experience helping people make presentations in both the private sector and as a college lecturer. He has developed specialist Masters Courses at UCD that run across all disciplines. Barry is also the author […]
Communication is supposed to be about the transfer of emotion. Communication is supposed to be about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help them understand why you’re excited (or sad, or optimistic or whatever else you are.) Communication is not supposed to be about Death by PowerPoint! With this blog series my […]
Let’s picture the scene. You are sitting in an audience waiting for the next presentation to begin. For the past hour your time has been consumed by data, bullets and lots of technical information. Now imagine the next speaker takes to the stage and launches into a PowerPoint presentation full of complex text and cluttered […]
I’m delighted to introduce an interview with Matt Abrahams. Matt is a passionate, collaborative and innovative educator and coach who teaches Strategic Communication for Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and Presentation Skills for Stanford’s Continuing Studies Program, and De Anza College. Matt is also Co-Founder of Bold Echo, which is an industry leading communication coaching consulting practice. During […]
Communication is supposed to be about the transfer of emotion. Communication is supposed to be about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help them understand why you’re excited (or sad, or optimistic or whatever else you are.) Communication is not supposed to be about Death by PowerPoint! With this blog series my […]
Toastmasters is a community of over 345,000 members in 15,900 clubs in over 140 countries. Each year thousands of those members gather for the annual convention, culminating with the final round of an International Speech Contest, to produce the World Champion of Public Speaking. For readers not already familiar with Toastmasters, check out my introduction to the organisation here. In this blog […]