Presentation Skills

How to Find and Use Stories in your Presentations

On May 19, 2020 / Presentation Skills, Writing Skills / Leave a comment

presentation idea using storytelling

by Jody Bruner

Have you noticed that everyone is telling stories lately? Google “storytelling in business,” and you’ll find marketers telling brand stories, trainers using stories to drive their points home and structure learning events, leaders telling stories to inspire and motivate, and presenters telling stories to bring dry content to life and engage their audiences.

This doesn’t mean you should structure everything as a story. Resist the temptation to tell the story of how you solved your problem. Don’t describe your research and share your discoveries along the way, building to your findings. It seems a bit harsh, but your audience doesn’t care about your story and if you are tempted to withhold the ending to build suspense, resist! Your audience won’t stick around to the end because they only want to know how your conclusions or findings will affect them. Read more →

New Role, New You? 5 Tips to Change Your Image

On February 13, 2020 / Career Coaching, Personal Brand, Presentation Skills / 2 Comments

by Brittany Moor

In a Building Your Own Brand workshop I recently facilitated, a participant told me she wanted to apply for a new role in her organization. She is currently an administrator and now wants to move into project management or marketing. She applied for roles outside her department before and was unsuccessful. She worried that the hiring managers and decision-makers only see her as an administrator, and she asked what she can do to change their perception of her. Read more →

5 Tips to Help You Speak Like a Pro

On October 22, 2019 / Presentation Skills / Leave a comment

by Jody Bruner

If you’re like most people, the thought of giving a presentation is terrifying. All those eyes on you. Here are five tips that will help you get over your reluctance and learn to enjoy public speaking. Read more →

Flipping the Scientific Method

On March 29, 2018 / Email Writing, Presentation Skills, Writing Skills / Leave a comment

by Brittany Moor

I studied science in university, and I had to write a lot. My university experience was filled with lab reports, research papers, formal and informal scientific presentations, proposals, essay questions… the list goes on. To achieve top marks, I was taught that my writing method should mimic the scientific method: present my conclusions and recommendations at the very end of my document. When I started working in the real world, I began to realize this method didn’t work as well as I thought, and I struggled to present myself as a credible professional. Read more →

Should You be Branding Yourself?

On January 17, 2018 / Career Coaching, Presentation Skills, Wavelength Updates / Leave a comment

by Leigh Geraghty

Most of us understand the benefits of branding our business-it helps build recognition, credibility, customer loyalty and a competitive edge. But what about branding yourself? What is personal branding, and why is it an increasingly important area of employee development?

Personal branding is how you define and portray yourself as a person and a business professional. Your brand expresses your interests, talents, personality, and expertise. It portrays the person you are and the person you want others to see. You want to make sure that you are using a custom SEO for your brand to hone in on the target customers that you ideally need for your business, for example, if your brand was of luxury items like furniture, then you would look into seo for luxury brands and how it can help you. Read more →

Listening Skills for Effective Communication

On November 7, 2017 / Career Coaching, Meeting Skills, Presentation Skills / 3 Comments

by Rachel Eidan

We can all be more effective communicators by using our ears more than our mouths. Be honest, how much have you ever learned listening to yourself talk?

We often think that good communicators are good speakers; however, the most powerful communicators have excellent listening skills. Of course, there are some tips of effective communication that extend beyond simply listening, although this element is absolutely crucial. Many people take the skill of listening for granted. You have ears, so you listen all the time, right? But you need to ask yourself how well you listen. Read more →

5 Tips for Giving Bad News Well

On October 4, 2017 / Email Writing, Meeting Skills, Presentation Skills, Writing Skills / Leave a comment

by Leigh Geraghty

Whether you need to refuse a customer’s insurance claim or decline an employee’s request for vacation, delivering bad news is one of our toughest writing challenges. How do you deliver a clear message, without damaging your business relationship?

If you’re faced with delivering a bad news message, an indirect approach can help to ease your reader into the bad news.

Follow these 5 simple steps to write a difficult message using the indirect approach: Read more →

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

On April 3, 2017 / Career Coaching, Presentation Skills / Leave a comment

by Sarah Maloney

Howsitgoin? Wanna grabba cuppa coffee? Have you heard colleagues speak this way? Have you spoken this way? Probably, we all have. Let’s step back for a moment and ask ourselves: what is our first impression of the speaker? Let’s put these casual contractions under a corporate magnifying glass.

As communication skills consultants, we work consistently with our learners to help them improve their professional images through their business communications. Recently, we’ve noticed that many of our learners are sabotaging their professional images when delivering presentations by using “informal contractions”.

We aren’t talking about contractions like “don’t” for do not or “we’ll” for we will. When you use a few of these contractions in your speech or your writing, you sound quite personable. However, some contractions can make you sound sloppy and unprofessional—like these examples:

We need to talk. Love, your webcam

On March 2, 2017 / Meeting Skills, Presentation Skills, Wavelength Updates / Leave a comment

by Amanda Bergen

In this digital age, video is king. It promises a more engaged audience and faster, more effective delivery of your message. But are you and your team making the best use of video capabilities when you turn on your webcams? Surveys and statistics show that most employees are allergic to their webcams, but if they use video conferencing effectively when communicating virtually, they can increase engagement, build trust, and speed up decision making. It’s not enough to know how to turn the webcam on—you also need to develop a new skill set to present yourself, and your ideas, in the best possible way. After all, if it came naturally we would all be vying for the anchor desk on Good Morning America.

How Yoga Can Improve Your Presentation Skills

On February 8, 2017 / Presentation Skills, Wavelength Updates / 7 Comments

By Lesley Nevills

Yoga can help you polish your presentation skills. If you practice yoga, you probably know that the lessons you learn on the mat can enrich your everyday life. They can help you learn and improve other skills, such as giving presentations. Here is some yoga wisdom to help you still your mind and body so you can present with confidence, ease and intention.
Read more →