Laurie

The New Boss-Dynamo or Dudsville?

by Laurie Schloff, Senior Coaching Partner Hal Gordon, a member of The Professional Speakers group on LinkedIN provoked my thinking about what style of leadership is working well these days. Mr. Gordon prompted us to reflect on the November 12 issue of the Economist, which included a fascinating article on “The Cult of the Faceless Boss.” According to the article, the recent economic downturn has caused companies to reject flamboyant CEOs in favor of executives

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WE SEE RUDE PEOPLE

by Laurie Schloff/Senior Coaching Partner Bravo to columnist and author of the new book I See Rude People by Amy Alkon. Fed up, she invoices telemarketers for interrupting her evening peace, and makes considerate calls to tell others they lack consideration.  I was shocked to find that Amy lives in California.  We communication professionals in the Northeast thought that perhaps the cold well….made people cold.    Seems like there just isn’t motivation for minding manners anywhere. All people want

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ALL TOGETHER NOW: TAKE A DEEP BREATH

by Laurie Schloff/Senior Coaching Partner World peace is getting harder to imagine.  It seems that there’s a daily news headliner about losing it. Kanye West just jumped on the stage and grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift in the middle of her acceptance speech at the Video Music Awards to announce who HE thought should have won. Come on Kanye, a lot of us are bonkers about Beyonce too, but somehow we learned it’s just

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How To Know If You Need a Communication Coach

by Laurie Schloff, Senior Coaching Partner Our coaching team at The Speech Improvement Company was delighted to hear that Google CEO Eric Schmidt knows the value of having a good coach. We’ve often been asked how to determine when engaging a communication/presentation coach is a good idea. So, here are five good reasons for working with an expert in communication: 1. You’re in a more visible positon than ever and you know your communicaiton prowess

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How Obama Talks: Why Obama Needs a Teleprompter

Commentary by Laurie Schloff “When Obama’s telempromter screen shattered abruptly at a White House press briefing last week, the audience held its collective breath. Obama’s communication strength lies in his ability to deliver a prepared, pre-written speech, not to ad lib, “wing it” or be impromptu. Communication coaches observe that this difference in skill depending on context is not unusual at all. In fact, John McCain (remember him?) was way more smooth when responding to

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