‘Business communication’ Archives
What to say after the performance?
You're standing in the lobby of the theater...the audience is leaving and a few are staying behind to greet the performers. Finally your friend emerges from the theater face flush from the rush of performance. They look to you...their eyes widen a bit and their eye brows rise up....they're asking for your thoughts...your opinion ...your [...]
What day is that job?
What day is that job? I had traveled across the country to deliver a workshop for a company that was facing a tough challenge: their business focus was shifting and the team was resistant. I had arranged with a colleague in the area to work with me to lead exercises designed to reveal personal stories of the team members’ first encounter [...]
3 warning signs that your meeting is going wrong.
How many times has one of your meetings gone wrong? When a meeting goes wrong, it's as if no one is at the meeting at all. Even worse, a bad meeting can damage the group's effectiveness. When I've seen this happen, I've wanted to rewind the tape and see what happened. One minute we're moving smoothly through the agenda: getting things [...]
How Rebecca Solnit writes – might change the world
“Books are boxes” she said with a light in her eye, “I discovered them when I learned to read. Reading allowed me to open the boxes and unpack all the treasures inside.” Rebecca Solnit was speaking to a group of about 30 people on the Stanford Campus as part of a free program called How I Write . Books, Beautiful Books I [...]
7 Business Fashion Rules: Jeans at an off-site
Somethings about business never change....like the neck tie. Men still wear neck ties as a symbol of seriousness about the business. Heck, some men even fret about their neck tie knot cleavage! (You do know about knot cleavage don't you? The little wrinkle under the knot of the tie.) But blue jeans have definitely come into the [...]
Turn your Doodles into a Career
Can your doodles be a new career? Lynn Carruthers turned her doodling into a career and she can teach you how you can too. Now she attends meetings and conferences and draws images on a big piece of paper. She captures the ideas that are being talked about in words and images. It's called Graphic Recording and it's a powerful tool in [...]
How connected are you and why?
These three men were sitting in the Austin Airport. I looked over at them and was struck by the sight. I imagined that they were all texting to each other. How often do you check your mobile device? And why? There is a battle for our attention...for our focus ...for our personal 'bandwidth'. When do you pull out your mobile [...]
Howling At The Moon
Assignment: NRF speaker support. January 19, 2010 One of my favorite scenes in the movie Moonstruck is when the grandfather played by Feodor Chaliapin Jr. is walking his dogs. When they arrive at the bridge, the full moon shines down on them and the old man asks, “Why do you keep me waiting? Come on, howl! Howl!” The dogs stare at him as [...]
When you present: Who is it about? You or them?
When you make a presentation either live or written who is it about? For a clue, take a look at the first word of the sentences in your outgoing emails. Did you look? What is the word? In most cases it's the word "I". "I am writing this email to let you know that I expect action by..." Most of us make presentations because of an internal [...]
You have the right to remain silent….but your body is talking loud and clear.
How do detectives learn how to talk to a suspect? Do they watch Law & Order for hours? Nope. They go to School. They get intensive training on techniques to establish rapport (to see how the suspect responds truthfully) to exerting dominance to get a confession. Recently I went along on one of these training sessions. And it was [...]
The Added Value of Improvisation in Business
I spent a week in The Netherlands with this great group of 4th year business students considering this question: Is there an added value of Improvisation in Business? And if so, what? And further, how do you get it and demonstrate the value (and by value I mean revenue)? My two and a half hour lecture/demo was attended by students, faculty [...]
An Offer You Can’t Refuse
I got a call on Friday to appear in Las Vegas on Wednesday at a CFO conference as The God Father. What are the questions going through your mind right now? Here are the questions I had: How can the 'fair haired' guy next door look like Marlon Brando? And Why do they want Marlon Brando at a CFO conference? Drop me a note...and I"ll [...]
There you are!
I knew there was a reason I still read the morning paper! Today Dear Abby had some advice about charm. She said: My mother used to say there are two kinds of people in this world: those who walk into a room and their attitude says, “Here I am!” And those who walk into a room and their attitude says, “There you are!” The [...]
Want to Engage the Audience? It takes character.
When business needs to make a presentation they turn to an in-house subject matter expert and PowerPoint . This is the norm....the status quo . If you want to engage the audience sometimes a little drama is what you need. In this case a large silicon valley company wanted to demonstrate how their technology worked...so they brought me in [...]
