#elbowgate and the pantomime of politics

Politics

I’m coming to the #elbowgate party a bit late. All the same, it’s too glittery a rhetoric issue for me to ignore. If you haven’t heard of Elbowgate, here is a brief summary: While votes were being gathered in the Canadian House of Commons on a contentious bill, a brouhaha was created when Prime Minister…

Do you know how to be charismatic?

Charisma, Politics

  The word charismatic gets thrown about quite a bit.  I’ve heard people call someone “charismatic” when I would have labelled that same individual “bombastic a**hole.”  I’ve also encountered people I would label as highly charismatic that others describe as inaccessible or aloof. The last year has been an interesting study in political charisma, with Justin…

Value Judgements

Confidence

  Among our many hang-ups with public speaking is that we make value judgments about the feelings and energy we experience when we give or think about giving a speech. When we think of speaking, many of us assign words like ‘bad’, ‘scared’, ‘crappy’, or ‘terrible’ to ourselves as individuals instead of to the negative…

Are you listening?

Audience, Tactics

Want to speak? Be prepared to listen. Really skilled communicators, really dynamic and engaging speakers  actively and intimately listen to and observe their audience.  By giving his audience his full attention, a speaker is able to figure out what the audience needs to perceive, needs to feel, needs to hear in order to adopt the…