Articles

Speak Up – Make Your Voice Sizzle!

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(We spent all last year answering the question, ‘Does Your Presentation Suck?’ Each month provided details on a specific aspect of your presentations content to help you decide how much it sucked and what to do about it.) Reader reaction was quite positive and appreciative. We heard from people who routinely deliver presentations at work, support … Read more

What if Your Business IS the Best Choice?

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Late last year, we discussed some strategies to consider when you realize you’re not the right choice for a product or service your prospect needs. It earned lots of positive comments and some people even indicated that they had never even thought about some of the strategies mentioned. 

So, this topic should be obvious – ‘What if Your Business IS the right choice?’ Some of the brief 10 steps will be obvious, too, … but, some won’t. So read and heed.

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From Suck … to Sizzle

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Back in January, I began a year-long series discussing the broad question, ‘Does your presentation suck’. Rather than make a statement like ‘Your presentations suck’, I opted to ask lots of diagnostic question instead so you could decide for yourself if your presentations suck and, if so, how much. 

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WordPower – Your Laughable Redundancies

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We’ve gotten into some sloppy habits regarding redundancy. While this tendency may not be a major problem in verbal or written communication, it does waste words and the result is often amusing. Unless you’re a comedian, you probably don’t want people chuckling about what you say or write. So, here are some reminders:

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Why I Hate 3 x 5 Note Cards

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Very high on my list of Workplace Presenter ‘Worst Practices’ is using the simple, seemingly innocent little 3 x 5 note cards for speaker notes. They’re way too small to be of much value. Good idea for high school debaters or for storing recipes maybe, but not for workplace presenter notes. And, if you do use a large-enough type that’s easy to read quickly, you’ll need a lot of the cards and will spend way too much time changing them … or picking them up when you drop them.

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You’re Not Listening!

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(Looks like it’s time for my annual rant about poor listening skills in the workplace.)

As workplace communicators, we obviously spend a lot of time each day communicating verbally. Therefore, we spend a lot of time listening … or should. Problem is, we don’t listen very well. Especially those of us Type A Driver Entrepreneurs. Sound familiar? We regularly fall victim to one or more of these seven Barriers to Listening:

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