by Mark Kretschmar
What are you trying to accomplish?
When every communication starts with an answer to the above question, the odds of success are much higher. Think about it. Without an answer to that question, how would you know if the communication was successful or not? This is the difference between “responding” and “reacting.” That flame-mail you sent was a reaction. If you had asked yourself, “What do I want to accomplish with this e-mail?” you likely would have done it differently.
A classic example
I was recently working with a great non-profit with a …
by Bob Goodyear
When making a presentation, have you ever said something that made the audience laugh? Was it planned? Did it catch you off guard? What did you do? Did you continue speaking as though nothing different had happened? Sometimes handling a laugh is very difficult for a speaker. Let’s talk about this for a moment.
Recently I had the opportunity to listen to a few speeches given in a college business presentation class. The presenters were asked to talk about a personal experience. All of the speeches were good and each …
Read MoreBy Kelly Vandever
Storytelling as a mentoring tool has been around forever… well, I say that because there’s a Biblical record of the prophet Nathan telling Kind David the story of two men, a rich dude and a poor dude, and about the rich dude took something precious from the poor dude which enraged David… and then Nathan dropped the moral of the story on David, that he was the rich man. The story was the vehicle to demonstrate for David why he was in the wrong… and if you know the …
Read MoreBy Natalie Gallagher
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t know it well enough.” – Albert Einstein
One of the biggest challenges speakers and writers face, especially those who are experts in their field, is how to make complex information accessible and relatable to the audience. Whenever I address this topic with my clients, the immediate push-back I get is “I don’t want to dumb it down.” I expect this reaction, because most of us are not only attached to our work, we’re attached to being experts in our field.
However, making something …
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I’ve led within large organizations and small. I’ve led in the military, in business, and on nonprofit boards. I received my Masters in management science. I’ve read hundreds of books on the subject and taught leadership to managers from over 200 organizations.
Yet it’s still hard for me to capture in just a few words the essence of leadership.
Rather than go on and on about all the amazing things you could do to be the best leader you can be, we’ll discuss three wacky, unconventional things you can do that …
Read MoreBy Mark Kretschmar
You learned it in college; you may have learned it in high school: Select a topic of interest to the audience for your presentation. This rule isn’t so much “wrong” as it is distracting. Of course you should be speaking of something which interests the audience. Where this rule gets in the way, like most rules, is the implications and ramifications of its assumptions.
When an “interesting topic” becomes the driving force behind your presentation, you feel you have everything you need and you forget the Presentation Prime Directive: Make your …
Read MoreBy Bob Goodyear
Creating a great audience connection is key to making a great presentation. It’s easy to say but sometimes it’s very hard to do. What does it take to create such a connection? Let me share 3 tips that I’ve learned over the years that have helped me.
Know Your Audience
This is such a key for making a great presentation and connecting with your audience. I’ve written previously about questions you should ask to get to know your audience before you show up to speak. While these questions will …