Whatever your profession, you also need to be a professional communicator. ETC is pleased to share these essential Bits & Pieces to help you polish those skills.
” The most precious things in speech are the pauses.” Sir Ralph Richardson, famed 20th century English stage and film actor “Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.” Martin Farquhar Tupper, 19th century English writer and poet ‘The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” … Read more
A reader recently asked a question about using speaker notes when delivering a presentation – ‘I need to use reading glasses to see my notes and that makes it difficult to focus in on audience members’ eyes. Now what?’ My Answer – Simply create actual speaker notes instead of a copy of your outline, or … Read more
Some of my favorite often-heard comments from over 30 years of facilitating Time Management workshops: You can’t save time – you can only spend it. So, spend it wisely. Don’t say ‘I don’t have time.‘, because you do have time. Instead say ‘I don’t want to spend the time … ‘. You’re in charge of … Read more
‘What the Dog Saw’, Malcom Gladwell, Hachette Audio, 2008. Gladwell is the best-selling author of ‘The Tipping Point’, ‘Blink’ and ‘Outliers’. This book is a most interesting collection of the best of his writing from over a decade with the New Yorker. I enjoyed a second helping of it, especially because he narrates it.
‘Smarter, Faster, Cheaper – Non-Boring, Fluff-Free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business’, David Siteman Garland, Gildan Media Group, 2011. Lots of good and simple ideas for marketing and promotion that avoid being dumber, slower and expensive. A fun listen by an entrepreneur, speaker and author.
Nothing says more about your credibility, power and confidence as a presenter than what you do – and don’t do – with your eyes. Here’ are my responses to two very interesting recent reader questions about eye contact.
Question – ‘What if I look at someone in the audience who isn’t looking back at me? Then what do I do?’
Some gems on listening from Zweifel’s ‘Communicate or Die’.
‘Listening is one of the best-kept secrets of effective leadership … when we speak, we learn very little, because we merely say what we know already. When we listen, we may learn something new, while bestowing on others the gift of our attention. ‘
Sales guru and successful business coach Diane Helbig offers this advice about what your email address says about you and your business, from her book, ‘Lemonade Stand Selling’.
‘If you want to be taken seriously, you MUST have an email address where the domain name is not aol, gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc. Your domain name should be your company name, tag line or something that directly relates to your business.
‘Outliers, the Story of Success’, Malcolm Gladwell, Hachette Audio, 2008. I experienced Gladwell’s amazing content again, this time as an audio book read by the author. Well worth the read … or listen.
How you practice is often more important than how much. Last month’s ‘Communicate Confidently’ eLetter article on practicing presentations generated several reader questions. Here’s a summary of some of the comments I offered in my email responses: