Almost everyone dreads Q&A, although they should be the most interesting and productive part of any speaking event – speakers are often worried that they’ll be put on the spot and unable to answer and listeners don’t want to be subjected to long, boring diatribes by audience members who are riding a particular hobby horse. […]
Interest in emotional intelligence (EI) has bloomed over the last few years and has become a standard concept in general and applied psychology, as well as in applied business settings. Private and public sectors have recognised the important role emotions play in our actions and, therefore, our performance. Although this interest or understanding of EI […]
Every time I talk about something I like to give examples from my professional or personal life. I have many friends all over the world, former co-workers, high school mates, people who, as a lifelong professional, I’ve crossed paths with and then remained friends. One day I get a message from a friend. She has […]
“Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.“ Dale Carnegie When you’re invited to speak to an audience, what are the first questions that come to you? “Who are my audience?” and “what shall I speak about?” Succeeding to inspire and interest our listeners is […]
In today’s fast paced, multi tasked and attention deficit world that we find ourselves in, the question often comes to my mind “ Am I listening enough?” or on the other side of the spectrum “Am I being heard enough?” Recent statistics have proven that the average attention span for a human being in the […]
Successful people in life are those who are better at taking decisions. And, success is not always about the decision itself as much as about taking the decision; i.e. the act and its timeliness. Gladwell (2005), in his book “Blink”, states that the best decisions are often those that are impossible to explain to others. […]
Soft skills are gradually becoming more and more the hard skills of today’s workforce requirements. It’s just not enough to be well educated or trained in technical skills without developing the interpersonal and relationship building skills that help people to communicate and collaborate effectively. Soft skills have more to do with who we are than […]
The “ability of connecting with anyone instantly” is something that we all had within us at some point in our lives; so what happened to us to lose this valuable ability? If we look at 7 year olds and under, you can see clearly that they can easily make friends. Can you remember what it […]
“She can’t be writing from her head! Someone is telling her stuff!” “He can’t have gotten those ideas out of that tiny head! He’s a researcher/copier! That is what he is!” “Look how she deals with people! She is a hypocrite!” Some people seem to just know how to do it, say it, get it, […]
Ask any stand-up comedian about their worst nightmare. From the rookie getting on a stage for the very first time to the veteran having made thousands of people laugh, the answer would be unanimous. And that answer would be… the infamous “tough crowd”. Whether you are a professional trainer or a corporate professional having to […]
