The Power of Symbol and Gesture
The art exhibition, “Read My Pins: The Madeline Albright Collection” is completing it’s two year tour this spring. The collection features more than 200 of the brooches former Secretary of State Albright wore as symbols of her diplomatic messages. She wrote, “I found...
Three Ways to Inspire and Persuade
I was meeting with a new client last week to get an idea of what she was hoping to achieve from our work together. She said quite simply, “I want to be more inspiring and I have to be more persuasive. The first part is for me and the second part is for my job.” ...
Lights,Camera…Oops
Today is the day! You've planned, practiced and prepared for this conference presentation. You are ready, even excited, to speak. You arrived at your venue thirty minutes early, checked the room, technical equipment and the podium. You have your notes and water...
Got a Presentation Coming Up? Try This Fun Party Game!
By Barbara Roche Whenever I finish teaching my MBA communications course, I immediately try to capture all my thoughts on how to improve it for the next round. Because I teach at Wharton, I am always blessed with students who provide feedback on what they found...
The Hunger Games and Ralph Waldo Emerson
My youngest daughter and I are in a mother-daughter book club. We read and discuss children’s and young adult literature (while the moms share the unfolding emotional, physical and intellectual growth of our daughters). This month’s book is the first in the dystopian...
Don’t Sit on Your Assets
There is a new home going up right outside my window. All day long I hear the clamor of construction – pneumatic hammers, back-up beeps and rock blasting equipment. Some days I’m happy to start the dishwasher just to balance out the cacophony of noises. The other...
The PowerPoint Doctor Will See You Now
Dear Doc: I’ve gotten feedback that my slides are too dense and complicated – especially the text slides, but I really need all the information so I can get my point across to my client who is paying big bucks for my advice. There just doesn’t seem to be a way to...
How to Avoid Mental and Emotional Potholes
I was meeting with a client the other day to discuss his upcoming presentation. He explained how critical this presentation was to his career advancement. Then he stood up and delivered the first draft from start to finish. I noticed that his presentation style...
Susan G. Komen Under Fire: Ambassador Nancy Brinker Speaks
I wanted to hear what Nancy Brinker had to say. The founder of an organization that has been passionately, seminally and inspirationally at the forefront of breast cancer awareness, screening, research and pink ribbons deserves our time during this heated and...
Is Everything a Game?
I just received yet another invitation to play a game on Facebook. I know whip-smart people with graduate degrees who buy virtual tractors for their Farmville pasture. And my neighbor, who by day is the head of a successful company, is hooked on Angry Birds. ...
You are Yoda
“Presentations are Boring, PEOPLE are Interesting”, says Nancy Duarte in her book, RESONATE: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences. Her book is a playful, smart and thoughtful guide for reframing your next presentation. My favorite part of her book, which...
Your Word Choices Reveal Your Personality
Imagine spending hours preparing and refining a presentation so that your word choices connect with your audience and keep them focused on your key message. Now picture yourself delivering a clean and insightful presentation, only to find out that your words didn’t...
Be Nervous and Make Confidence the Enemy
This week, I am sharing two short articles that upend some fundamental assumptions about what drives excellent performance. 1. Be Nervous: This TED blog relates how speaker nerves fuel better, more passionate and more creative presentations....
The Four Critical Elements of Good Posture
Are you familiar with the Red Car Syndrome? You buy a red car and then everywhere you look you see red cars? That’s what happened to me since I wrote last month’s post about Dana Carney’s research on how our physical stance determines the degree of confidence we...
Can You Save This Country, Mitt?
Ann Romney tells the story about helping her reluctant husband decide to enter the presidential election, saying, “Mitt, can you save this country?” To which, he apparently could only reply, “Yes”. And so on primary day in New Hampshire, we wait for the polls to...
Time to Smell the Roses
I tripped on one of those Most Awesome Business Books of 2011 lists that materialize in the month of December right along with inflatable Santas and those hideous LED lights. One of the entries on the list caught my eye. It’s called Consider: Harnessing the Power of...