Ignite your power to communicate.
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Our bodies and voices are the vectors for our thoughts and messages. When we talk to other people in person, we use our bodies to do it. And generally, we know exactly what to do without really thinking about it—we angle ourselves toward someone we’re interested in talking to, we make eye contact, we modulate …
Typically, I don’t like my clients to present while standing behind a podium. It constricts their ability to connect with the audience, it literally places furniture in front of the speaker, and it limits their movement, making them stiff. However. I had occasion recently to watch a video one client sent me of a presentation …
Typically, our coaching philosophy is what I would call inside-out. Start with the “why” of the communication, and that will influence the “how.” But sometimes outside-in works better. By standing up straighter, you can feel more confident. By making eye contact, you can generate connection. By slowing down, you can gain more control over your …
I saw a tweet recently in which the poster expressed concern that many of her students prefer communicating via text to speaking face to face. Many of the responses to her tweet said, in essence, “I am more comfortable texting, so that’s how I do it.” We all have preferences about all kinds of things. …
Um. Uh. Ah. These are the classic filler words that pepper almost everyone’s speech from time to time. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I’m not that bothered by filler words. Research has shown that most people use them at least occasionally, and that people listening aren’t put off …
A great speaker acts like they deserve to be there.* In some ways, this encapsulates everything we need to know about the nebulous terms “executive presence,” “confidence,” and “charisma.” When you know you’re going to say something worth hearing, a point of view worth sharing, that knowledge affects everything about how you show up. A …
There’s an unspoken secret that many coaches and teachers have. If your job is to help other people perfect a skill–to coach them–you sometimes secretly wish no one else had ever coached your client before they came to you. (That’s a broad statement: maybe it’s more accurate to say that you wish all their previous …
Our coaching approach boils down to these three steps: intention, alignment, and practice. The answer to almost any question you ask me or another Ignite coach about communicating is going to fall into one of these three buckets. Intention. Alignment. Practice. This week’s blog posts are a review of these fundamental building blocks. Today, the …
When we’re talking casually, many of us have run-on sentences that follow our stream of consciousness, it’s s conversational habit, there’s nothing wrong with doing that, but if you’re speaking to a group of people and it’s not a conversation, you might think about figuring out where you want to stop and which points you …
Friend and reader Catherine responded to last week’s post: What Kind of Listening Do We Owe Each Other? She said, “Now I’m waiting for the next email on how to be a better listener.” I hope this is that email! I want to start by defining “better listener.” That word “better” seems like it’s clear, …
