So, you’ll be presenting as a team. Super! Make sure you know what position you’ll be playing. One of the biggest mistakes I see in team presentations is when one person on the team is speaking — and the others on the team don’t exactly know what to do with their bodies. “Just because you’re …
Perhaps the hardest part of telling a business story is resisting the temptation to finish your story yourself. I call this “The Power of Shhhhh.” It’s where you stop talking. Be quiet. Let your story and its lessons sink in. People hate a vacuum, and will often rush to fill it with their own conclusions. …
How can you develop a culture of storytelling at your organization? Four quick tips: 1. Meetings: get into the habit of starting each meeting with a story. Ask for others to share stories. 2. Contests: you might have an “employee of the month” contest: why not try a “employee story of the month” contest? 3. …
Do we really need business cards anymore? I find that when I go out to meet people, I’m more inclined to exchange LinkedIn information. Other people I know exchange electronic contact info to stay in touch. When someone tries to hand me a business card, I usually try to ward them off. I know I’m …
Sometimes, voice typing can come in handy for really unexpected reasons! It’s October 1, and it’s freezing. My poor fingers are now cramped from typing in a cold room all morning. Google Voice Typing to the rescue! I’ll open up Google Docs, activate voice typing, and talk through a first draft. I can always go …
Some people feel scared or nervous before they deliver a speech. To gain confidence, they might go somewhere private right before they speak and strike what’s called a power pose. This is a broad, expansive gesture like putting your arms over your head and looking up. It’s a classic pose of someone who just won! …
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 …