It made me laugh out loud. In a profession where certainty is so rare, here’s a case where a marketing text message saved hundreds of innocent, Russian lives on New Year’s Eve 2011. Give the marketing guy a medal please Mr Putin. Black Widow attempted New Year Moscow attack but blew herself up by mistake…
‘Stroking’ is an important skill to master, for people who want to be more likeable and socially confident. To keep things simple, a ‘stroke’ in human interaction, is simply a physical or verbal sign that we like, care or understand another human being. The simplest examples abound- [one_third]Physical strokes as follows- Listening attentively A touch of the hand…
Journalists tend to be a pompous bunch when it comes to language and ‘corporate speak’. They seldom do anything that entails real responsibility, are often the most scathing when they suspect evasion and artful vaguery in others. Add the fact that journalists never have to deal with the cynicism and venality of other journalists –…
I had a great chat with a colleague today. She’s an ex-investment banker. One of the UK’s ’40 people in investment banking under 40 to watch out for in 2011′. She’s smart, funny and worth listening to. As we chatted about clients and business development, networking and lots of other things, she told me a great…
Oscar Wilde made a good point when he said that- ”Playwrights tell lies to make a general truth” And as presenters we often have to do the same thing. We have a point to make and we want to make it powerfully and well. And if we have any soul we’ll realise that we’re…
Here’s a great thought for entrepreneurs. That the skill is not in having the idea, but in being able to convince your customers, partners, employees and investors that there’s merit there. So maybe public speaking, persuasion and influencing skills are second only to having the idea in the first place. From Diane di Resta’s interesting…
Further to the post earlier this week on the language you must use if you want people to think you’re a bit of a knob or a management consultant (I know!), here’s a much more comprehensive list of ‘things you should never say if you want people to- listen to you. Sleep with you…’ The…
The best presenters have a flexible vocabulary that allows them to ‘fit’ the message in terms of level, language and tone to the audience in front of them. Poor speakers tend to choose jargon, cliches and terms from the word bag marked- ‘corporate tosser’. (Jerk for our US readers).
In my last post I talked about the pointlessness of passion. And here are a few speakers who were brilliant with no discernible passion… Because it’s my opinion (and only an opinion) that- If you look at the most often mentioned ‘great speakers’ you’ll sometimes find passion, but more often you’ll find other things that…