All Entries Tagged With: "Communication"

My earlier article ‘Avoiding Death by PowerPoint’ was about the art of making interesting presentations. This one is about using easy but powerful tricks that can dramatically improve the quality of your presentations and also bring that extra oomph that is needed for any presentation to stand out. Here are some tricks that I use [...]

I must say that I am equally fed up of the numerous ‘rules for making presentations’ that we stumble across every few days either in a presentation or on the net. When you google ‘rules for making presentations’, you get more than 8 million results! Most of them are standard clichés that irk me no end. So I have created my own set of presentation rules. I follow my rules to the last detail and I have rarely been disappointed. I implore you, urge you and beg you to follow my rules as well.

We all know that when a speaker gives an address on stage, his or her choice of clothing is not whatever that was pulled out instantly from the wardrobe. In today’s business arena, image is everything and what a speaker wears is crucial to that image.

Analysis. The human mind is very simple. It zeros in on the obvious. The guy whose drawer is in a mess is seen as having a disorganized pattern of thinking too. This is as crude as it can get.

Marriage is team-work and this is an acquired trait which has to be learnt and practised with serious intent. Of course, we complement each other but most of us would be equally happy living alone, content in our own selfish balloons.

This style of belittling others is a quaint little habit. You will notice it is a regular habit in some people. Their persona is wrapped around it. It is impossible to make a statement or ask these people anything and it becomes an opening for them to show their wit rather than answer the question in a down-to-earth way or give a plain unadorned answer.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming your employees are good communicators. Just because you trained them on what to say doesn’t mean they know how to say it. There’s a mighty fine line between efficient and rude. Caring is what people want.

There are several reasons why people procrastinate. Oftentimes, it is innate to an individual or it could be lack of self discipline. However, it is important to point out the reason for this unhealthy habit so as to know how to deal with it.

Most employees view training as medicine or worse, as punishment. As an outside trainer, I work with hundreds of groups in a wide variety of industries and most people enter the training room as if they are going to the gas chamber.

Employee Engagement has always been a burning topic amongst HR people. It is generally viewed as managing discretionary effort, that is, when employees have choices, they will act in a way that furthers their organization’s interests. An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work.

As it is, humans are known to be bad listeners. We are so occupied with saying our piece that our ears are perennially switched off. So we have this lovely scenario where everyone is yapping away but there is little or no attempt to ensure that it is all registering at the other end. And this is precisely the point I wish to make.

Experiential learning is a process of transformation when, as a result of experience, one is inspired to apply in life, what emerges as a revelation or self-discovery.

Many a times we have gone through situations in our lives when all seems lost. Shattered, broken and lost, we rise again to pick up the pieces and restart afresh – with someone’s help or a source of strength within.

This phrase works for tragedies and boo boos and bad days. It quells panic. It can create urgency or buy time. It’s effective with strangers and lovers.

I thought I was lucky to get a front row seat at a musical evening in Washington DC where a top Bollywood singer was scheduled to sing — an event that Indians abroad await with excitement. My excitement quickly turned into disappointment as the singer began to belt out in very high decibels, ‘adhunik’ songs [...]

But I’ve noticed that even shiny, sexy, wide-awake people don’t talk that much about sex. The general conversation starts and stops with whether you’re getting it or not. “It’s good.” “We need to make more time for it.” “Haven’t gotten around to it.”

One of the really hard but powerfully effective skills of communications is to speak with good purpose. Speaking with good purpose means conversing with others in a way that is honest, straightforward, and with the aim of building better relationships. Take for example the following phrase: “You’re so sloppy. Your work area is such a [...]

I’m often asked by would-be trainers how they can connect better with their audiences, particularly those who are not too keen on being on the training

Why am I talking about love in the context of business? And no, I don’t mean a passionate office romance. I’m talking about the fact that loving my clients has been a key to success in my business

There are several low/no cost ways to begin speaking.  I would begin speaking free of charge –I did and it was a great way to build my database quickly.  Here are my 4 favorite tips for building your reputation and becoming slightly famous with speaking. Tip #1: Offer a class related to your business at [...]

Standing in front of a room full of people; some doodling, some texting, some on the verge of sleeping, not to mention the wretched few staring at me; but all expecting me to speak was never my idea of fun. I am painfully shy and a compulsive introvert. All through school and architecture college, I [...]

Ali McGraw to Ryan O’Neil in Love Story:  “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
Puhleeze. That famous one-liner set real intimacy and personal responsibility back by bounds. We screw up. We trample over people’s feelings, we let our insecurities get the best of us, we make big fat unfair assumptions based on the past. [...]

A few months ago, a series of questions were posted on Tickled By Life which was given the title ‘The God Interview’. I found both the questions and the various sets of answers very illuminating as well as the comments that were posted on the individual articles. In my case I received a series of [...]

When I do workshops on marketing and mention that speaking is one of the most effective strategies for building a list of contacts who can’t wait to buy from them, most people in the audience look at me with that “no way in hell am I gonna do that” look. What is it about speaking [...]

For several decades, scholars and researchers have been telling us that the structure of languages shapes human thought. Language habits contribute to conflict, misunderstanding and even psychological maladjustment. Alfred Korzybski is one such scholar. He asserted that there is no ‘universal truth’ or ‘universal knowledge’ and believed that the structure and psychology of language made [...]

The nature of my work is such that people often tell me that I am an “inspiring” presence in their lives. However, how does one inspire others? Here are some simple ways you can use to inspire people to be their best: Be a good example: People watch what you do more than they listen [...]

Ask yourself these two questions every day. 1. Do I Ask? 2. Did I Ask? Ask for what? It could be anything, that you may be contemplating/struggling/yearning to find/learn about: Help Answers, Advice, Counselling, Mentoring, Coaching or Teaching Ask How? Ask What? Ask Whom? Life is all about learning, unlearning and relearning. Learning happens through [...]

Be quiet and listen….. This is the simplest and fastest change we can make to become a more skilled listener. In conversations with others, we can directly observe who’s doing most of the talking. If it is someone else then that is a good start. However, if we are talking a majority of the time, [...]

Do you like to live your life your way? Then you must absolutely cultivate the art of not listening. Don’t be fooled by all these lectures on listening that will improve your life by making you more efficient and bringing in more value to your existence. It is absolute baloney. Listening never did any good [...]

I felt it shelter to speak to you. – Emily Dickinson   We gather in a group to be witnessed, to be supported, and to be both equalized and elevated in our struggles, gifts and ambitions. Common ground is very fertile ground – it is, what Emerson calls, “…the common heart of which all sincere [...]

Today when I opened the papers, the first thing that put a smile on my face was a comic strip and a piece of news. I was thoroughly amused. It was also proof that the world was in agreement and in tune with me in many ways. A few days back I was talking of [...]

It started with a man I saw lifting his hand to intimidate a school girl outside the school where I go to drop my girl. This enraged me and I could not resist intervening. But wonder of wonders, before I could get going, my wife who fears for my well being and is afraid that [...]

A staff role in an organization helps in accelerating, helping, or rejuvenating line activities. If a general manager – customer support is in a line role, then the training manager has a staff role. If a marketing manager is in a line role, then the blog coordinator is in a staff role, helping the marketing [...]

“If you reach out to the world with all that you have, like a star, you can never be hidden no matter where you are.” This is a rich country but still we are required to call ourselves a developing nation. Our society has affluent culture and tradition. People are open & broad-minded. They are [...]

Victor and Janet go past each other inside their office. Both of them were previously teammates. Victor just moves past Janet without wishing her.  They again meet at the cafeteria. Again Victor seems preoccupied and does not acknowledge Janet. Janet assumes that Victor is angry with her or trying to avoid her. Janet feels neglected. [...]

My brother Raj had a huge crush on this girl ever since his adolescent years. Now in his late thirties, he still blushes at the mention of her name. Today, she has 2 kids, and is happily married…to someone else. Why? He did not ask her to marry him, he never told her he loved [...]

A working group is a team effort. One wrong paddler can result in losing the race. An efficient cohesive group can take a company to undreamt heights. A discordant note in this orchestra can spoil everything, even ruin. It is surprising how fast a discontented employee can sink a boat. Worse than having an unhappy [...]

A friend said to me: Today I scolded the watchman of my building very badly because he did not switch on the water pump. Later I saw that his eyes were full of tears. I have always tried talking politely with him but he won’t listen. I scolded him and then he switched on the [...]

I love you!¬† These three words mean so much…some of the time.¬† At other times, they can merely be hollow words with nothing evident in sight to back them up. What they often mean is “I love you as long as I get that warm fuzzy feeling inside when I’m around you or when I [...]

The other day my 20 years old son announced that he had given up smoking. He had picked up this ‘cool’ habit in the first year of college and had smoked cigarettes for almost three years now. I had accepted this ‘fad’ as his right to choose his own life style; but the news of [...]

There are many areas to look at in communication: a message is communicated through visual, vocal and verbal means. From that, comes the importance of body language, how we present ourselves, and so on. The visual and vocal elements are indeed very important to effective communication, but we will not touch on that here. Rather, [...]

The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and to be understood.The best way to understand people is to listen to them. Listening is by far the simplest process a human body undergoes. But most of us have yet to learn the art of listening. Good listeners are becoming extinct among [...]