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Meanwhile lets just say that we are proud Luan de Burgh contributed a whooping 247 entries.
Let’s talk about sentences. Each day is made up of hundreds and thousands of this structured group of words we string together as we speak to family, friends, colleagues, clients, strangers and pets… and we rarely pause for thought. However, how often do you stop to think about how those sentences are received, especially in […]
There is a quiet pressure that accompanies any first professional meeting. Whether it is a pitch, a panel event or a first conversation with a new client, boss or colleague, the same question will be whirring in the back of the mind – how do I come across well? In the heightened sensory environment of […]
Once upon a time, learning someone else’s language was a highly coveted skill. To be able to converse in a tongue that was not your own gave you an edge in the days when vocabulary dictionaries, grammar guides and hours of study were the cutting edge (and only) tools available. Then the smartphone came along […]
Assessing risk, anticipating outcomes and predicting likely decisions is part and parcel of working in sectors such as law and business, but do you spend too much time worrying about outcomes you can’t affect? Sports psychologist Dr Steve Peters, author of the Chimp Paradox, frequently speaks about the need to ‘control the controllables’. He argues […]
Who do you know who has a strong voice? Who do you know who commands attention, trust, respect, authority, just by the way they talk? And what does ‘having a strong voice’ mean? Often when I start conversations about using a strong voice, assumptions are often made that ‘strong’ means loud to the point of […]
Let’s start this article off with you putting yourself in the mindset of being at a social gathering. The process of making a new acquaintance tends to follow a particular pattern. An introduction is followed by cordial chit chat, as conversationalists size each other up, before the inevitable question – “what do you do?”. What […]