Effective speaking has many enemies. A partial list would include a speaker’s lack of experience, stage fright, lack of training, no clear point, too much information, and finally, no clear flow, or structure. We could go on. But the items… Read More »Public Speaking Training: The Dreaded just-after-lunch Slot on the Program
“What do I do with my hands?” is one of the most frequent questions I get from people striving to improve their public speaking skills. The answer is more complicated than you’d think. First of all, why is it important?… Read More »Effective Presentation Skills: Hang ‘Em in the Bat Cave
Cicero, the great Roman statesman and orator, said that he preferred tongue-tied intelligence to ignorant loquacity. That’s a convenient polarity, and one we’re familiar with. We see the former occasionally when college professors make an appearance on national TV. They… Read More »Effective Presentation Skills: Substance with Style
Um and His Cousin Er I hate speech coaches who don’t let you say “Um!” I listen to a lot of speakers, and a few “Uhms” don’t bother me. They make the speaker seem normal and conversational. On the other… Read More »Speech Training: Speech Disfluencies
Back in the days before Gutenberg, it took months or years for a few dedicated scribes to create a single copy of a single book. A literate medieval person, provided he or she was not interrupted by the Inquistion or… Read More »Effective Speaking: Keeping Attention
Keep your head relatively still most of the time when speaking! A case in point. My daughter took me to see Romeo and Juliet at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park on Father’s Day. Juliet waggled her head to express emotion. We… Read More »Communication Skills: The Head Waggle