Looks like you enjoyed our discussion of Gesturing Worst Practices last month. Except, of course, for those of you who thought I was describing what you do – sorry about that! So, how do you gesture more effectively? Fasten your seat belts for a quick spin around Gesturing BEST Practices.
Articles
I Don’t Get … The Plural They
Looks like this new rant category is catching on with readers. Thanks for your feedback and suggestions. I’ll post a new one each month in various content categories.
Hand It To Your Audience
My executive coaching clients often ask what they should do with their hands when presenting. Short answer – use them effectively to add value to their message and audience. Presenters have two wonderful visual aids – and what they do, and don’t do, with them also says a lot about their confidence and credibility as a presenter.
KISS Your Verbosity Goodbye
Time to deal with an often unpleasant reality. As business leaders, we spend a lot of each day writing – emails, reports, proposals, marketing materials, evaluations, even texts … well, you get the picture. We should all add the title ‘Workplace Writer’ to our business cards.
Introverts Make Great Networkers!
I recently got a call from a reader who admitted to being very introverted, but still wanted to improve her networking results. I thought other introverts might benefit from what I shared, so here’s the essence of that conversation:
Slow Down … You Talk Too Fast!
Once you’re comfortable speaking up with more volume and vocal energy, it’s time to slow you down. An important component of your vocal delivery, your pace or rate of speaking can also impact your audience’s attention, interest and opinion of you. So can your ability to pause effectively.
Embrace Permission Marketing
Ever meet someone at a networking event who turned you off quickly with a negative first impression? Or, who really annoyed you with ineffective follow up? I have – lots of times. I call them ‘Networking Slugs’. They earn that designation for different reasons, but mostly because they don’t practice the simple art of Permission Marketing. Here’s what Networking Pros do to avoid that title when networking or building relationships:
Your Own Words
A regular reader enjoyed the ‘End Strong’ feature piece last month and it prompted him to ask a question. ‘Do you have an opinion on opening or closing a presentation with quotes from other people? I heard long ago that you want the audience’s first and last impressions to be of your own words, not those of someone else.’
Stop Using ASAP ASAP!
If you’ve been reading my periodic articles on workplace writing and communication techniques and strategies in ‘Communicate Confidently!’, you’ve encountered one of my favorite rants – ‘Specific beats Vague’. So, whenever you have a choice between a vague word, like ‘several’ and a specific word like ‘four’, opt for the specific word.
Taking it to the Top
A new client recently engaged Effective Training & Communication to thoroughly enhance his client communication strategies and tactics. A part of that process is to take his typical Elevator Speech up several notches. What follows is a summary of the exercise I created for him. Follow the steps, fill in your particular details and really take your elevator speech to the top.