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Whose fault is it when someone interrupts?

Are you someone who hates the sound of silence? Some people find silences very troublesome and can’t resist the urge to fill pauses with rather than sit them out and wait to see what’s coming next. Others prefer to sit back and listen before adding to a conversation. But what happens when these two conversational […]

Visualise Your Next Successful Presentation

If I told you that the secret to making your next presentation a success was to visualise it in advance, no doubt some of you would be wondering if I’d swapped a suit for a string of beads and a headband… After all, visualisation and manifestation are often bundled up together with gamma waves, heightened […]

Using humour to lighten up a speech

Autumn coincides with the political party conference season in the UK. Like many big conferences these are filled with many speeches and most of these are very forgettable. Rhetorical saturation, platitude overload and themes that are drier than dog biscuits translate as a bleak consumer experience for the audience. I have written before about how […]

Kamala’s team brings its A-game

Let’s start this month’s reflection by rolling out the reliable cliché that ‘a week is a long time in politics’. With so many elections taking place this year, I may regret using that line now, but the week in question – August’s Democratic National Convention – is worth mentioning. The Americans sure know how to […]

What “you need to be more confident” really says

“I think you really need to be more confident….” Does this phrase sound familiar? Are you a person who has said this phrase to a colleague in a professional environment? Or perhaps you are a person who has had this phrase said to you instead. If it’s the latter, how did that make you feel? […]

Rhetoric That Works: Projecting Logos

Rhetoric is at the heart of the battle for power in at least 64 countries which go to the polls this year – an extraordinary year in politics. While the Ancient sandals may have been swapped for Oxford brogues, Aristotle’s rhetorical pillars of ethos, pathos and logos have never been more relevant. Just where is […]

Rhetoric that works: Projecting Pathos

What a timely moment to be looking at the role that pathos plays in signifying authority and credibility. If you are in the UK, then this month’s general election campaign provides an excellent opportunity to journey through the anthropological safari park and observe potential leaders up and down the country stake their claim. Meanwhile in […]

Rhetoric that works: Projecting Ethos

There’s an expression which seems to be passed down from generation to generation which says that you know you’re getting older when police officers are looking younger.  This reminds us of our own mortality and is no real reflection on the heavily armed twenty something protecting us from known or unknown peril, however, there is […]

Projecting Authority

Regardless of your politics, few would be betting against today’s Prime Minister (with today being April 1st – fools references notwithstanding) not returning to Downing Street or even Parliament after the next general election. The smart money is on Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, taking the keys to Number 10 sometime this year. So how […]

How to be heard when everyone’s talking over each other

We’ve all been there… Stuck in a room with a group of people who seem intent on talking over each other, whilst not listening to what anyone else has to say… It’s a not uncommon observation that on these occasions the ‘adults’ in the room are seen to be ‘acting like a bunch of school […]