Are you listening?

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…

Experts of Everything

Don’t be intimidated by the level of prestige of your audience members. Just because a room is filled with C-level execs doesn’t mean they are collectively CEO of Everything. Speaking to a crowd of academics and researchers? Don’t cower before their gigantic brains.  I’ve met plenty of PhDs that couldn’t find their backsides with both…

Subject to Fashion

Charisma comes in different flavours and styles, and absolutely experiences fluctuation in fashion.  Like most kind of fashions, the “fashionable” characteristics that make us consider one person or another charismatic are both a reflection and creation of our current culture.  Different social cultures – and I apply the term “culture” to both small groups, self-selected…