How to Ask Good Questions

When you need help from someone, it can be difficult to swallow a small piece of pride and ask. When you need someone’s approval, it can be frustrating trying to string together the right words in the right order to get the “yes” you want. And when you want someone to do something they probably [...]

Affluent Magazine Publishes Sharí’s Article…

Please visit Affluent Magazine’s Web site and read my article “Communications 101 for Managers”.

Give 'Em What They Want!: Getting Your Audience Interested in Your Presentation

As I’ve discussed in previous posts, it’s important in your presentation to have a balanced mix of what your audience wants to hear and what they need to hear. It is sometimes difficulat for presenters to distinguish the difference between the two – because it’s all interesting to us!

So to help you find the “want to knows” here is a small (and growing) list of ideas. Please keep in mind, the “want to knows” are not necessarily the steps, processes, or action items. Instead, a “want to know” is the picture you paint of how their life will be if they implement your suggestions. You have to make the end-result crystal clear in their minds in order for them to even consider listening to you action plan. Read through the list and see if you have any “want to know” you’d like to add…

Leadership Communications: Avoid Being a Bad Leader

Recently my article “Being a Bad Leader: 5 Ways to Improve Your Leadership Abilities Through Communication” was featured in Training Magazine Online. Click here to read the article!

Getting Presentation Feedback from Your Audiences?… Don’t Trust the Usual Sources (Part Two)

In Part One of this series, I discussed how to gauge if your audience thought you did a good job when you spoke, or if they are simply being polite.

Another source people use to determine if the audience enjoyed the speech or not is evaluation sheets (or as Alan Weiss calls them “smile sheets”).

While I [...]

Getting Presentation Feedback from Your Audiences?… Don’t Trust the Usual Sources (Part One)

Too often presenters are trying to get feedback on their presentations from either unreliable or pointless sources. Here are a few pros and cons to the usual feedback sources.

People talking to you at the end of a presentation. Usually, right after a presentation, you will have a few people come up to you, shake your [...]

Presenting What You Want to Say Vs. What They Want To Hear

In my workshops and seminars, I teach my audience to determine what the audience needs to hear and what the audience wants to hear. More often than not, the two can be as different as night and day. And yet, having a balance of both in your presentation will aid in the success of your [...]

How to Measure the Success of a Speech

In “Reasons Why Audiences Applaud at the End of Your Speech”, I pointed out many reasons why audiences applaud and give standing ovations other than you delivering a fantastic speech. Therefore, it is foolish to use applause as your only measurement for determining the success of a speech. When working with my clients, we begin [...]

Reasons Why Audiences Applaud at the End Of a Speech

Often speakers think that their audiences applaud and give standing ovations because they are a good speaker. Sadly, this is not always (actually, it’s rarely) the case. Here is a list of reasons why your audience might applaud at the end of you speech.

The speech is over… finally
The speech is short
You have a powerful story [...]

Successful Speeches and Speakers

As I work with professional speakers and other business professionals wanting to become successful at giving presentations, the question of what makes a good presenter comes up quite a bit. They want to be good and polished, but not “canned” and fake. Therefore, here are 5 characteristics of a successful presenter:

1) They know their strengths [...]