Since we just finished a piece related to everyone’s number one fear, I wanted to point you to an excellent resource I found could be helpful to you as you develop your own speaking skills.
I got an email from TJ Walker over at The Speaking Channel with a pointer to his new show, “Bully Pulpits: […]

We’ve talked a bit on this web site about having a balanced life and the role that plays in keeping you creative and in preparing you for challenges and failure.
Reader Karen M. sent me a note pointing to a batch of new supporting scientific evidence in favor of balance. One form of it anyway: taking […]

I like giving presentations. (Go ahead, get it out of your system…done yet? Good.)
The Lessig Style
From time to time I look up and see if anyone is doing anything new. About 9 months ago I looked up and saw several folks talking about the “Lessig Style” of presentation. I watched a couple of sample presentations, […]

I spend a lot of time focused on trying to get people—especially people just starting their careers—to think about their career over long term and to identify ways that they can do something meaningful with their time. It’s fun, but I realize I’m leaving out a small but important part of the workplace: those who […]

My organization, like lots of large companies and government agencies, has a required regimen of courses and training that I am required to complete as the career clock ticks. To say that these are usually unremarkable is being pretty generous, but hey, spring is in the air.
But I got lucky and did an exercise in […]

Ok, so let’s say you are already a team leader, or even a senior level manager in an HPC company or center somewhere. You’re interested in this leadership thing, but you recognize that you’re going to have to do a lot of culture changing to enable leadership to grow at all levels of your organization. […]

The fine folks at InfoWorld have invited me to host a blog on leadership and career development skills for IT. It’s called “Leading from the Trenches”, and you can find it at http://weblog.infoworld.com/leadtrenches/ or from the link in the press section of the sidebar.
From the first post:
Throughout the week I’ll point to articles around the […]

So, how about it: what do you do for a living? What does your organization do? Why should anyone outside your company care?
We are special
I’ve made the argument before—and I genuinely believe—that those of us in science, engineering, and technology are special. We are going to create, invent, discover, and build the things that will […]

There is a lot to cover about private speaking that we haven’t talked about. And we’ll cover those issues as they come up over time. So far I have provided only the broadest outlines to get you thinking in the right direction. In some ways that’s the single most important part of really developing your […]

Seriously? Yes.
While I’m preparing for your difficult or important one-on-one interaction, I sometimes find that the process of preparation and of creating mind maps isn’t enough. Either the stakes (for me or the conversation partner) are so high that I’m not comfortable even having the conversation, or the conflict is likely to be so intense […]