Speak With Confidence
ChatGPT: When Your Technical Skills Are Eclipsed, Your Humanity Will Matter More Than Ever
That’s the title of an insightful article from The New York Times by Aneesh Raman and Maria Flynn. It states “A.I. could usher in a world of work that is anchored more, not less, around human ability.” As speech coaches, we can only respond with “Whew!” Fascinated, we turned to A.I. and asked ChatGPT to summarize it. Here’s what we got: The article discusses a significant shift in the skills valued in the economy, driven
Conference Presenting: Back to Basics
It’s that time of the year when organizations are gearing up for client conferences. Below are three suggestions that I find myself reminding all of my clients to include in their presentations. Give your listeners a reason to listen. We call this a benefit statement, or I often refer to it as W.I.I.F.M. (What’s In It For Me). It answers the question, “What is your presentation going to give listeners?” Think about your overall message
The Unique Challenges of Neurodiverse Communication in the Workplace
As an Executive Communication Coach, I’m thrilled to see Neurodiversity becoming more recognized and celebrated at work. However, its nuances in the workplace can cause frustration and miscommunications. For example, if you work with someone who rarely makes eye contact, you might assume they are shy, nervous, or uncomfortable. Using eye contact is an essential nonverbal communication behavior that most of us use automatically in work interactions. Eye contact helps people communicate their interest and
Why Your Team May be Failing at Presentations
Usually, team presentations are done when the stakes are high and the consequences are critical, requiring subject matter experts to weigh in on their topic. These presentations are most often geared toward complex projects, strategic alliances, acquisitions, etc. Of course, they all have large sums of money involved. Team presentations have many more challenges than individual ones. Most teams preparing on their own without a speech coach will spend all of their preparation time on
Controlling Nervousness Before Speaking – 30-minute Recorded Webinar
Whether you call it ’nervousness” or “anxiety’ or “fear of speaking,” it is a widespread experience for many people worldwide; you are not alone. The good news is that it can be controlled. In this 30-minute recording, we discuss the ‘real causes’ of this experience and some tools and techniques to control the nervousness. WATCH NOW
“84% of employees expect this job perk—but most executives think it’s a ‘waste of time’”
Can you guess what it is? Answer: Eighty-four percent of employees expect their employer to provide the training and education they need to stay up-to-date with changing skills in their industry, according to a recent survey of more than 800 C-suite executives and 800 employees from online learning platform edX. But senior managers aren’t seeing that way according to an article in CNBC by Ece Yildirim. The article shares that employees value their career development
Artificial Intelligence is Fake
Now, before you jump to conclusions, allow me to be clear with a few definitions and thoughts. The growing nervousness and fear that AI will take over our educational systems and produce future generations of bot brains and wobbly children is ridiculous. That is just the start of the pervasive concerns that writers and artists fear about losing their jobs. Let’s not even start with the apprehension that educators face about their societal roles. One needs only to
Why Do They Say “Look”?
Have you noticed how many times a political candidate or commentator will say the word “look”? Why do they say that? Well, let us zoom the picture back a little and think about this. Linguists and psychologists have introduced us to what they refer to as “representational systems.” They tell us that people are prone to expressing their feelings, attitudes, opinions, and using one of three ‘representational systems.’ They have named these to be Visual,
Tips for Leading Effective Meetings
Our coaching team appreciates the challenge of masterminding the right mix of talent, personalities, and action items. Fortunately, easy tweaks often go a long way to enhance comfort, participation, and awareness of nuances in a team member’s behavior. Recently, I worked with a senior leader in financial services who felt it was his responsibility to control the agenda and results of all meetings; in fact, he considered it part of his job. He was baffled that his