You’ve been asked to deliver a presentation. It may be to your team, a local lunch and learn, or if you’re lucky you’ve been invited to deliver a pitch that could win you that big contract. Hurray for you! You’ve known about this presentation for weeks. But you kept putting off sitting down and beginning to prepare because… You’ve given this same talk before; It’s just a team meeting and doesn’t really matter; You hate presenting and are hoping they cancel;...
Continue reading...Preparation and Discovery
From 43% Pointless to 100% Meaningful
After learning from a 2010 survey that as much as 43% of conversations were deemed pointless, I began to dig deeper into my interactions with clients, coworkers, workshop participants, and frankly anyone that would pay attention long enough in a conversation for me to discover more. What I discovered was a collection of obstacles to communicating effectively as diverse and numerous as the individuals themselves. As I took a step back and looked at all of the obstacles, three themes emerged:...
Continue reading...Why take action now?
Over the past several weeks I’ve been sharing with you some of the misconceptions I’ve encountered regarding becoming an exceptional communicator. Now I’d like to share with you why this is important now and how the predictions of the future of work are the driving force for you to start strengthening those skills now. Beginnings Over several years I observed how leaders struggled to formulate just the right slide deck to gain approval for million dollar projects. As I worked with...
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