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presentation skills

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How to get what you want from the world – more cat stretches and fewer crunchies

I’ve always believed that communication is the most important life skill – in and out of work. Malcolm Gladwell agrees. In Outliers, he suggests that the way we: “Get what we want from the world” is by “Knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.” Some people get this, others not so much…. Plenty has been written recently about the differences between Sir Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham. It’s generally agreed that one of the key factors in Starmer’s demise and Burnham’s ascendency is communication – Andy’s skill…

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Make ‘em cry, make ‘em laugh and what’s in it for them?- how to engage a 21st century audience’s attention

STORYTELLING I’m slightly obsessive about pillows. And sleep. And because I’ve endured too many poor nights’ sleep away from home, I’ve just bought myself a travel pillow from a company I found online called Snooze.uk. In the package was a printed note from the owner, Yev.  Here’s some of what she wrote about the origin of her small business… “This little pillow means more to me than you might think. A few years ago, my daughter chose to take her pillow with her when we had to leave home in Kherson (Ukraine). Out of everything she could pack, that was…

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In the Olympics, size really does matter. For us, it’s about respecting the audience.

One of the quirkiest stories to come out of the Milan-Cortina winter Olympics was ‘penis-gate’. According to German newspaper BILD, ski jumpers have been injecting themselves with hyaluronic acid before being measured for their suits. Apparently, this can increase the circumference by one or two centimetres. Bigger appendage, bigger suit, more surface area, increased time in the air. Who knew!!! As well as marvelling at the incredible displays of skill and daring and endurance, I was interested in the array of different types of clothing worn by the athletes. Baggy for snowboarders, streamlined for speed skaters, elegant for figure skaters….

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Kiss with confidence – how to engage your audience in the hybrid world

Hands up who remembers the 1983 pop song ‘Kissing with confidence’ and the classic line “Do you have spinach on your teeth?” Actually, scrap that – many of you probably weren’t even born in 1983!!!!!! I was reminded of that song when I returned from a networking event last week, only to discover that I did in fact have a morsel of spinach on my tooth. It had clearly been there through most of the event, during conversations with numerous people. So why had nobody mentioned it? Why did they find this piece of communication so difficult? At the same…

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Did we warm to the Easter bunny this year, and was she qualified to deliver the eggs?

Many of you will, of course, have enjoyed the paper on Universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence as published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences volume 11, number 2!!! I actually have read it (yes, I know I need to get out more), and I was fascinated by the conclusions and their implications for the people I work with. Academics from the universities of Princeton, Northwestern and Lawrence, including the fabulous Amy Cuddy, tell us that people who are perceived as both warm and competent elicit uniformly positive emotions and behaviour from those they communicate with. And, importantly, that…

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Trump vs Aristotle – that would be great television. My money’s on the ancient guy

Has there ever been a global political event which provoked so much scrutiny of the participants’ communication style/tone? The already infamous Zelensky/Trump/Vance ‘conversation’ at the White House has given us endless hours of debate and analysis. I was struck by the lack of restraint, an absence of moderation, a dearth of statesmanlike language. It felt a bit like a teenage tantrum (apologies to teenagers) and it’s not how politicians and leaders have typically behaved, particularly in public. The other notable element for me was the comment ‘it’ll make great television’. A giveaway that everything is about performance rather than substance….

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Just one small thing today for a gold medal tomorrow

I don’t know about you but I was obsessed by the Olympics. I revelled in the technical expertise; I marvelled at the feats of endurance; I was in awe of the dedication, resilience and strength (mental and physical). 32 diverse sports but one thing in common for the ten thousand individuals who took part. It’s often called the ‘aggregation of marginal gains.’ Simply put, it’s attention to detail; identifying the small things we can improve by a tiny degree, to give us an edge over our rivals. In the incredible finish of the men’s 100 metres final, Noah Lyles won…

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Career tips from the London Marathon

Seven hours, 45 minutes, 54 seconds. In that time, you could fly to New York; watch most of the Lord of the Rings trilogy or perform a heart transplant. It’s the time I took to complete the London Marathon on 21 April. Injured, hobbling, and unsure whether the body would hold out for 26.2 miles, it was not what I’d planned. But I made it and I have the same finishers medal as Peres Jepchirchir who ran a record- breaking two hours, 16 minutes, 16 seconds. I clearly got more value from my entry fee! But of course, marathon day…

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What you see might not be what you get. How non-verbal communication can be misleading…..

There’s a moment in the excellent BBC three-part documentary The Space Shuttle that Fell to Earth (episode two, 55 minutes in) when the NASA flight director and his team begin to sense that something has gone catastrophically wrong. Screens in the control room are going blank; sensors are failing; contact with Columbia has been lost. We witness their dawning realisation that the shuttle has most likely broken up on the way to its landing location and that the seven astronauts – their colleagues, have been killed. The footage was live and the events were unfolding in real time. And these…

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Naughty dogs, new tricks, and how marathon training is like public speaking

If you’re reading this with your ‘lockdown puppy’ on your lap, you may be one of thousands of owners whose pooches are proving problematic. Recent research by the Royal Veterinary College reveals that many dogs which were acquired in lockdown now have a range of behavioural issues such as jumping at strangers, tugging on the lead and separation anxiety. Apparently, it’s because they missed out on socialisation and puppy training in their early weeks and months. The pleasing news, according to experts, is that it’s never too late to teach them good habits. So it’s off to puppy finishing school…

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