Looking Your Best on Skype, TV, YouTube & FaceTime
A picture says a thousand words. A video quadruples that. Looking your best means taking care with the way you move and gesture, the way your hair is cut and the manner in which you’re dressed. Make-up, too, is important, for both men and women, especially because of the widespread use of high-definition video. As we […]
The Benefits of Executive Communications Coaching
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] As part of your organization’s leadership team, you’re a walking, talking standard bearer of your brand and your reputation. What you communicate can dramatically impact your organization’s reputation. But HOW you communicate is crucial. Ineffectual, weak presentations are one of the quickest ways to damage your brand’s reputation. If your […]
I Muted Donald Trump & Hillary Clinton During the Debate. I Still Knew the Score.
We’ve told people for years that HOW you say something is more important than the exact words you use. Last week, the New York Times watched the first presidential debate with the sound off. The idea was simple: to test the theory that what presidential candidates say during debates is less important than what they look like […]
You’re Ready For Your Video Interview. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Don’t like being interviewed on video? Prefer an in-person meeting? Well, according to Chris Brown, Vice President of Human Resources at West Corporation, you are out of luck. Video interviewing is here to stay. Love it (most Millennials) or loathe it (many of the rest of us) we’ve all got to get better at it. […]
Communication Tactics To Supercharge Your Leadership
Communication is the real work of leadership: articulating a vision. Breathing life into professed values. Challenging the status quo. Engaging people’s heads, hearts and hopes. A lot of that communication is in day-to-day conversation, in meetings, and other routine interactions. But some of it also comes in the form of speeches or presentations. Death-by-PowerPoint is unacceptable. […]
Getting Over Stage Fright With the Help of Your Smartphone
From The New York Times: For some people, public speaking comes naturally. But if you are like me, you may um and ah too much, spurred by the worry that nerves may get the best of you, that you might speak too fast or mess up in some way. So I have been practicing my public […]
A Harvard Psychologist Says People Judge You Based on 2 Criteria When They First Meet You
People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating? Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions. In her new book, “Presence,” Cuddy says that people quickly answer two questions when they first […]
Crisis Communications Lessons From the Campaign Trail
From our colleague, Caitlin Rourk: The 2016 presidential election has been nothing short of a spectacle, turning traditional political conventions (no pun intended) squarely on their head. And just as this election has forced the political establishment to alter its strategies, business organizations must reevaluate how to approach the unpredictable and unforgiving crises they face […]
Turning Crisis Into Victory as a Keynote Speaker
Mark Schaefer writes: In my career as a keynote speaker, I know that something can (and will) go wrong, and I like to think I’m prepared for anything. But after eight years as a keynote speaker, I came up against a crisis that turned into one of my most successful presentations ever. I wanted to […]
Power Posing: Fake It Until You Make It
We ran this piece from the Harvard Business Review a number of years ago. This week, it showed up on our radar screen and given the tremendous response received last time, we thought it worthwhile to run again. Nervous about an upcoming presentation or job interview? Holding one’s body in “high-power” poses for short time […]