Icebreakers: those awkward exercises at the start of a workshop that are supposed to help participants warm up to one another but in reality just annoy everyone in attendance. Sometimes, however, they are necessary. But how does one go about giving an icebreaker that doesn’t make the audience want to throw their notebooks at you?…
Do you struggle to find time to practice your speech with your packed schedule? The idea of grinding through your speech over and over for 30, 60, or 90 minutes at a stretch can make anyone turn into a master procrastinator. Practice is absolutely essential for delivering a good talk, but you don’t need to…
If you give presentations, it happens to you: you get a question and you have no idea how to answer it! This is a simple fact of presenting, and if if hasn’t happened to you, it’s only a matter of time before it does. But there’s no need to let your audience see you sweat and stammer. …
Ahh, the delight of being assigned to give a ready-made, communications-department-massaged, cororate-HQ-approved presentation…complete with a script and soulless slide deck… Dealing with pre-approved, canned corporate presentations is a reality for many, many employees. There’s lots of reasons why some companies don’t give their employees much (or any) say in their presentation slide decks or script.…
Do you find yourself getting slammed with jittery nervousness right before you get up to give a talk? Many people get a rush of public speaking jitters when they get up in front of their audience, even if they don’t feel nervous when preparing the presentation. And while that nervousness might go away a minute…
Ever had to give a training presentation or speak on a topic that you didn’t have a lot of knowledge or experience with? What if you needed to deal with a snarky co-worker at the same time? Theresa has to deal with this, and she needs to demo a buggy software to boot! In this…
Today we’re tackling a question that I get All. The. Time. This question from Sandy is on a lot of people’s minds: Hi Lauren – you’re a very energetic presenter, and I’m hoping you can help me inject some energy into my presentations. I’m an civil engineer and need make lots of technical presentations. The…
You can find Mike Kerr on Twitter @HumoratWork Does your workplace have an office clown? Is your office environment one that encourages a hearty laugh, or is humor seen as something that isn’t sufficiently serious – or even unprofessional? Workplace that have a hearty dose of humor as part of their culture often boast…
Is your speech plagued by umms, ahs, and other pointless filler words like “so, like, y’know,” etc? I’ve got a question from Tamara on this very common issue: Hi Lauren – I find myself saying “um” and “ah” a lot when I give a presentation, and I hate it! It’s distracting and makes me…
The first few minutes of your speech or talk are critical. Putting together a really solid opener can be tricky, and Ian is looking for advice on how to create stronger openers will grab his audience’s attention from the start: Hi Lauren, My name is Ian, and I’m in the financial sector. I give lots…
