Speaking tips blog
Communication matters. What are you saying?
There in the back
Had a chance to sit in the rear of a large crowd today. And it just underscored the need to have constant and deliberate eye contact no matter what the size of the audience. In this case, the presenter's eyes rarely reached halfway back, and with the stage lighting,...
Speed talking
As someone who talks like a firetruck late to the blaze, I appreciated Steve Crescenzo's blog entry today (about speaking too fast, and communicating with folks of another tongue in general). I've gotten the same reviews from my international students many times. ...
Lost in translation
I chaired our local Toastmasters' meeting today. That's always fun. So much to learn from attempting to get so many details together. We were doing this as a demo meeting in conjunction with an employee work-life program to promote both Toastmasters and their humor...
Meeting status report
Followup to my thoughts of yesterday. Had several meetings today. One had an agenda with times and goals and it finished within one minute of time and accomplished exactly what was stated. One had an agenda without times or goals, and it finished on time but...
What I’m going to tell you
Had a speaker I was working with the other day express shock that I recommended removal of an agenda slide from their PowerPoint. "Shouldn't I tell them what I'm going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what I told them?" That is one method. And not one I...
Meetings
As most of America (and the world does), I have the "opportunity" to sit in a lot of group meetings. And I spend the vast majority of my time in them figuring out one of two things: 1) how much this meeting is costing the organization (and was it worth it), or 2)...
The most important person you’ll talk to
Just back from a few days off with the family. A rare vacation -- no agenda, no places we HAD to go, nothing we HAD to do. Nice.Except for the desk clerk at the "award-winning, customer-driven, best-in-the-chain, excellence-is-our-standard" hotel we stayed at. My...
back in the saddle
As expected, it took a tech support call to get the blog working, bu it appears that things are moving along now. I see a few differences from the admin end, but I hope you see precious few on the client end.Never trust when everything "should" work correctly.
Don’t forget. Please.
Been pounding the keyboard rehashing course materials. Have seen precious little in the way of presentations of late. Thus the quietness. It'll pick up.I did work with two folks this week and in helping them hash out their message, both essentially said, "What I want...
possible interruption in service
My ISP just notified me they'll be upgrading their blog software to the new version of WordPress (yay! I don't have to do it!) and that "this should not effect (sic) your site". The change will be made on March 30 -- they've given an 8-hour window, so I don't think...
Communications training
Overheard someone tonite say, "I was in communication training this week..." My ears perked up, and I butted in the conversation and inquired as to what sort of training it was and how he liked it. The response was interesting. At least to me.Now granted, our...
Not even remotely
I am frequently blessed (asked, forced) to attend sessions that are handled via remote technology (most often teleconference, usually with web conference). I think this is one of the toughest ways to effectively communicate, but the principles are the same. Rule #1...
