I have often written about the importance of connecting with your audience and building trust and rapport. This is because when you present and speak and train you are really educating people with your information and knowledge. And people more readily learn from people they know like and trust. I love the Harvard Business Review quote that goes something like …
Michael Grinder is one of the worlds foremost experts on non verbal communication and gesturing. He talks about the intelligent way of gesturing and that is around making your gesture as you speak, and then when you pause, to breath, to gather your thoughts or to create suspense, you freeze your gesture. So as you are talking, make your gesture, …
When speaking to audiences, dealing with hecklers is always a concern. This is especially the case if you are delivering bad news or talking about something unpopular or contentious. Two ways you can simply deal with hecklers are to one; acknowledge their point of view and right to speak and two; use humour to defuse the situation. And self deprecating …
Benjamin Franklin said “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”. Did you know that if you give people some facts, there is a 5% to 10% retention rate. If you add a visual image retention can increase up to 25% to 30%. If you tell a story with examples and it is …
One of the keys to being a successful speaker, presenter or trainer is to know your audience very well. There are lots of sayings that I have read and around the importance of knowing your audience well. These include, “it is not about you – it is about the audience”, “always put the audience first”, “choose your stories and your …
According to Malcolm Gladwell you have 15 seconds to make an impression and impact in a job interview. In his book “What the dog saw” he describes how the first 15 seconds of any job interviews determines how the interview panel rates you and your ultimate success at getting that job. This and many other studies reiterate the importance of …
