Many people have a funny habit of apologizing and downplaying their thoughts and opinions the moment they begin to voice them. I first noticed this trend a few years ago while sitting in a meeting, and I have become acutely aware of it ever since. It is highly likely that you do this without even…
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…
There is a by-election in the Ward 12 area of my hometown. A seat on city council, left vacant by a counsellor who rose to the ranks of federal MP, is currently being eyeballed by no less than 29 candidates. Among those who declared their intention to run is 22 year old Nicole Szymanowka, who…
Note: This is a longer post than usual, but it will give you a jump start on making your 2016 “Become a better speaker” resolution reality! Whether you love or hate New Year’s Resolutions, they have most certainly filtered past your field of awareness at least once over the past few weeks. And most…
I’m currently reaching to new audiences through a series of guest posts on a variety of blogs. Naturally, I don’t want to leave you in the dark, faithful reader, so for your ease and convenience, here is a teaser and link to my latest guest post. This post was featured on Young Upstarts. For many…
I’m currently reaching to new audiences through a series of guest posts on a variety of blogs. Naturally, I don’t want to leave you in the dark, faithful reader, so for your ease and convenience, here is a teaser and link to my latest guest post. This post is featured on Success Consciousness. 3 Surprising Confidence…
Each method we use to communicate has its own ups and downs, its own source of comfort or anxiety. When we communicate in person, we have a wealth of information to take in. We can see the person’s body language, hear the tone of their voice, feel the energy or vibe. Sometimes that…
The message doesn’t always have to be new to have impact. How often do we go looking for information on the same old topic? How many times can we hear a similar message from different people and still be interested? Sometimes we don’t need new information – we just need to hear it from a…
There’s been a lot of flap in gender politics over the quality of voices. Many have vehemently said that we shouldn’t judge someone based on how they sound. I agree with this. We shouldn’t. But expecting people to not make these judgements is about as unrealistic as the old cliche about not judging a book by…
Here are some questions you need to ask yourself when working with an audience: Do you listen? I mean it – do you really listen to what your audience is telling you? Have you turned of the internal chatter? Are you taking in what they are telling you, or are you trying to think of…