I got a special offer in the mail on Saturday. It was marked “Urgent”. I felt puzzled. After all, the mail isn’t an urgent medium. The postal service takes its time. But I skimmed the letter, anyway. It offered me 20 bucks if I would do a thing. I don’t even want to know what …
You’re a bit psychic. You may not know this. But you can forecast the near future pretty well. For example, you can look at a stranger’s face as she walks toward you in a crowded airport. With one wordless glance, you know where she’s going next. In a split second, you’ve analyzed her facial expressions …
Consider these four questions. You’ve seen headlines like these in your social media feeds: Who suffers more: Alzheimer’s patients or Alzheimer’s caregivers? What’s more important: presentation content or presentation delivery? Office work or remote work: which is better for productivity? Why would anyone need to go to college when they could just take online classes? …
Three years ago, I organized an online web conference. At the request of an organization, I interviewed three of their Subject Matter Experts to get background information for a presentation. The following photo is a re-creation of what I saw in this online meeting: Uh-huh. That’s right. For almost the entire interview, I stared at …
In the 1990’s, I worked for a company that changed its dress code. We went from business formal to business casual. Employees accepted this change readily. I felt like I got a raise, because my dry cleaning expenses almost disappeared. And the comfort of ditching a suit for the dark jeans, tee-shirt, and blazer combo? …
Being a part of a team or ensemble can be fun and uplifting. And for the audience, a great team is a joy to watch. Ask any sports fan. They’ll tell you this is true. In contrast, let me describe the on-screen action I saw in a recent online group presentation. Maybe this will sound …
Authenticity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. To show our care and compassion for others, we often need to put aside our feelings. There are higher truths that need to be served. Ask a mother whose child has fallen off a swing set. The child is bleeding and crying. Does the mother give in …
I love meetings. But I understand why you might not. A friend recently shared a workplace anecdote. One day, she and her colleagues gathered together for a meeting. For the first few minutes, they shuffled papers and fumbled with their phones. Then they stared at each other. Finally, someone said it. “Hey, what’s this meeting about?” …
Apparently, I have Impostor Syndrome. An estimated 70% of us do. Even so, I don’t feel I should write this post. Who am I to write about my own experience? I don’t even know how to spell it. Is it Imposter Syndrome? Or is it Impostor Syndrome? E or O? That’s the essence of Imposter Syndrome. …
After a student gives a class presentation, I’ll sometimes conduct a quick poll. I’ll ask the entire class: on a scale of 0-10, how nervous did the speaker appear? The audience might give the speaker a 2 or a 3. But the speaker? A nervous speaker might rate themselves a 7 or 9. That’s a …