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As You Cannot See
It's often used as a filler, but it may have some unintended consequences. [ MORE ]
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What may be an acceptable gesture for one audience may not be for another. But how do you know what's acceptable?
At a table in a restaurant, a diner leans forward and speaks to her companion. Within seconds, her companion is also leaning forward, the two of them mirror images.
Engagement leads to communication, as your replies to us demonstrate so very well.
Choosing to hold a teleconference instead of an in-person meeting often depends upon timeliness, convenience, and cost. But there are vital communication elements that must also be considered, especially if the stakes are high.
In the last few years, "PowerPoint" has become almost synonymous with "presentation." But remember, you are the most important visual - not the slides.
To present is to persuade a little - or, sometimes, a lot.
While every presentation requires enough rehearsal to put you at ease with content and delivery, integrating a slide deck may demand just a little more.
It doesn't matter how well you can organize an agenda or use your voice if you are using them to pursue a purpose for which they are just not intended.
A multi-site teleconference can be personally frustrating, even when it's organized well. As a participant, though, your voice is all you need to lessen the frustration for those in on the call.
While teleconferences aren't always the best means of communication, an organization must accommodate their use. The challenge is to make them as productive as possible.
Audience analysis may not be as simple as it once was. Yet, since childhood, most of us have realized its importance.
You can learn a lot by listening. By listening and following these tips to improve your interpersonal communications, your conversations will say the right thing about you.
Can we listen to somebody speak, evaluate evidence, analyze messages, and gauge credibility while composing an action plan, responding to email, or Googling traffic delays?
Keeping a resolution throughout the year is a difficult task, as some of us know all too well. But we at ECG are going to try our best to give you the tools to succeed.
"I believe the shortest distance between two people is a story," says ECG Founder and Chairman Peter Giuliano. "Through stories, I have lived in times before my birth, known people I've never met, and experienced things that have never happened to me."
There's a general perception that email has improved communication for most organizations but in too many cases, it won't be at all effective.
Hundreds of years ago the American version of Thanksgiving began as a celebration in which to express gratitude. And though its traditions have changed during those centuries, at its core the day reminds us of the value of recognizing and being grateful for the good in our lives.
Would you be able to sell a bluff? How about with $8.5 million on the line?
Everyone has a different opinion when it comes to making appropriate eye contact. But what are the real rules and reasons behind the eyes that have it?
Producing an important business, technical or scientific document is usually a collaborative effort that requires team members across functions or departments to review the document as it progresses. But how do you stop the review from becoming a complicated case of too many cooks in the kitchen?
While the number of available communication methods was once quite small, it is now amazingly large and continues to grow in both size and complexity. You can call, meet, write, email, text, Twitter, fax, and post to a social or professional networking group. But when is interacting in-person important?
Spouse of a U.S. Vice President and Senator and later a Senator herself, Muriel Humphrey once told her husband, "Hubert, a speech doesn't have to be eternal to be immortal." She certainly made a good point about speeches and presentations that last too long. But there's also a point to be made about the ending itself. Actually, there are several points.
Count to sixty. That's the most time you have to secure your audience's interest once you begin a presentation. If you don't grab it then, you may not grab it at all.
In a recent presentation, the speaker stood with one leg wound around the other, creating such an imbalance that she swayed back and forth. The audience soon began to wonder when she would topple. A subsequent presenter spoke with his hands shoved deep in his pockets, rhythmically jangling a collection of coins. His audience winced at every clank.
Our core belief is that communication only occurs when ideas are being exchanged, understood, and transformed within particular contexts and purposes.
An introducer is in many ways a pathfinder, one who gauges the distance between speaker and audience and then establishes a path through that distance. That's a big responsibility.
One morning a manager opened his email and read the following in the subject line of an email: "Re: Re: Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Re: Fwd: Re: Employee Communication." Employee communication, indeed.
For listeners, the purpose of a Q & A session is to seek clarity on issues raised during a presentation, issues which to them may be obstacles to accepting your messages. As the speaker, your central objective is to provide that clarity, to remove doubt and uncertainty, to dismantle obstacles so that the audience will indeed accept and act upon your messages. To achieve that goal, it's essential that you control the Q & A.
Planning her presentation to a budget board, a college administrator faced a challenge. Her department was so understaffed that it could not provide essential services to students. She needed funding to hire more people - but then, who at the college didn't? She had great data to support her case - but then, who didn't? As she worked through her messages and evidence, she grappled with how to make her request urgent and memorable to the board.
Steve Jobs delivered one of the best in only three little stories. A rocket scientist received a standing ovation from 10,000 attendees at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion for his. And Dr. Seuss, the man who never spoke to people, delivered one in poetry.
You've given a great presentation - on message, well-supported, delivered with power and grace. Members of your audience seem to be with you, just about convinced that they should follow the course of action you've recommended. All that stands between you and your goal of full acceptance are a few questions. You have entered the Risk Zone.
The truth in the corporate world is that presentations are often evaluations of you and your work. It's therefore not uncommon to feel anxious about speaking in public, whether the speaking consists of a formal presentation or an informal report.
Caroline Kennedy is by no means the first or only speaker to have sunk her message in a sea of "speech fillers." Although linguists do not always agree on the functions fillers and other speech disfluencies serve, audiences are well aware of their negative effects.
From hoax news stories and announcements to spoof discoveries and warnings, April Fool's Day traditions have not only endured in the digital age but now have the potential to go viral.
Although you often hear and read that "No news is good news," we can think of very few occasions when such a phrase actually proves true. Most often, "no news" means that whatever has happened is just not being communicated.
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