When we were talking about writing, we discussed the permanence of the written word and the particular challenges that durability can pose.
If it’s written (and don’t forget to count email as a “written document”) then it can be archived and referred to later. This raises the bar on being correct.
But spoken communication is different
Spoken communication, […]

Since leadership and career management are my thing these days I like to keep up with what the Joneses are saying. I talk to folks, read blogs, check out online magazines, and even read an old-fashioned book every now and then.
There’s a certain type of leadership/career pundit that insists on referring to all this […]

I’ve been toying with the idea for a while of doing something else with the book.
There’s the PDF version, which much to my surprise really doesn’t attract much interest, and then there’s the blog, which basically draws its material from the book (I do change the voice and cut things down quite a bit, so […]

All this adapting may have you running short, or long. Running short is usually not a problem provided you cover all your material: it doesn’t impinge on your audience’s schedule of activities following your talk, and it gives you more time for interactions during and after the talk.
But never…
Never run long, and never start late. […]

I read an article recently arguing that leaders are born, not made. I disagree.

I view leadership as a continuum, probably because of my other view that there is only one trait of a leader: followers.
The consumer
If the only trait of leadership that matters is that other people are motivated by what you say and do […]

If you’re going to be a successful public speaker the first thing you need to accomplish is to have your audience pay attention and remember what you say during your talk, speed, presentation, or seminar. To do this you’re going to have to be quick on your toes, and adapt. Here are a couple of […]

For most of us, learning to communicate effectively with the spoken word is a much longer process than learning to write effectively.
Part of the reason for this is that the most effective communicators learn to adapt to, and finally resonate with, the particular audience they are speaking to at the particular time they are […]

When it comes to careers a lot of us spend way too much time on autopilot, letting someone else decide what promotions we should be interested in and what career paths we should take.
I think some people handle their careers this way because they are pleasers at heart, and when they are asked to take […]

When planning any oral interaction—private or public—you must keep in mind that your goal is to communicate with your audience. We talked about this with writing, and the same thing applies to spoken communications.
Say it clearly the first time
In fact, the focus on audiences’ understanding is even more critical with the spoken word than […]