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Love them or loathe them, summer parties are part of the annual calendar of professional and social activities… and attendance is usually required at all levels. For some these will be a calendar highlight and for others these will be anxiety-inducing hours of excruciating awkwardness. I am frequently asked for tips about how to navigate […]
This month I’m returning to the topic of panel discussions and focusing the spotlight on the person who, if doing their job properly, makes the panel tick like a metronome – the moderator. In previous sessions we’ve looked at what makes a good panel discussion and how to stand out on a panel so part […]
We’ve all been there… sitting through a panel discussion where one guest drones on with vague insights, another rattles off jargon-heavy monologues, and the rest simply nod along. But then, there’s that one panellist, the person who captures the room. They’re engaging, relatable, and make you think. So, what makes the difference? In my previoius […]
What are your thoughts on panel discussions? As we all know, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t and in this first article of three I’m going to take a closer look at what works and what doesn’t. I spend a lot of time coaching people on how to present. A little like a tennis […]
Using video to engage used to be preserve of those who had extremely deep pockets and the benefit of a technical team to produce the lights, camera, action experience. No more of course. We all have that power cradled in the palm of our hands. But just because we can all make videos, that doesn’t […]
Are you ready to jump back into work after the Christmas break (I say ‘break’… when December 25th falls on a Wednesday it’s more of a disruption than a break)? Most of us will have muttered a quiet mantra as the new year got underway about improving at least one aspect of our personal lives. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]