Intention

In some important ways, all communication is the same.  We are always speaking in order to fulfill a need. The need might be small and transactional: “Please pass the salt.” It might be life-changing: “Will you marry me?” And of course, most of what we say in our lives falls somewhere in the middle of …

We are creatures of habit. For the most part, this is a good thing. Habit lets us avoid having to make a million tiny decisions every day, like the route you drive to work or in what sequence you wash your hair, face, and body in the shower. But some of our habits don’t serve …

There is a common misperception about public speaking. People think that if they feel comfortable, they’re good speakers. In fact, I’ve had people tell me, “That’s great that you coach people to be better speakers, but I always feel comfortable in front of an audience!” What I want to ask them is: “Okay, and how …

My daughter Nora recently shared a situation she experienced with a committee she serves on at her university. The leadership of this committee needed to make a decision that would substantially affect the whole organization, and a heated debate ensued. As she described it, there were two sides to the issue, and each side was …

A lot of conventional wisdom about public speaking advises the speaker to “know their audience.” That’s fine advice as far as it goes, but in practice, it’s hard to implement. Audiences are big, varied, and want different things. How can one speaker know them all? Instead of trying to know your audience, I suggest the …

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 …

100% of my clients come to me in order to become better talkers. The particular focus varies–keynote speech, clearer presentations, better storytelling—but what they all have in common is that they want to change something about the way they talk. The longer I do this work, the more I think that there needs to be …

The way we speak is at the heart of our identity. Our words and delivery style are unique to us, and at the same time they (literally) tell others who we are, where we come from, and what’s important to us.  When you think about it that way, it’s no wonder that most of us …

I am a huge fan of Priya Parker and her book, “The Art of Gathering.” If the word “gathering” makes you think of something lofty and unusual, and maybe not applicable to you, I urge you to reconsider! Parker is using the word in its most expansive sense, both as a noun and as a …