How Do You As a Speaker Impact an Audience?

How Do You As a Speaker Impact an Audience? How you look includes your clothes, your facial expression, your stance, your body movement, your hands, how you move your eyes. Suppose you are trying to motivate a group, and you tell them something is “a wonderful opportunity,” but you don’t look or sound it.  Vision is […]

English Communication- Get Ready to Start a Conversation

English Communication- Get Ready to Start a Conversation Do you want to be a good conversationalist? Prepare several topics of conversation before you head out for a meeting, reception, social gathering, or meal. Here are some general subjects you can personalize or adapt to your situation: Sports (national, international, local) Weather (the good, the bad, […]

Rapport- How Much to Customize?

Rapport- How Much to Customize? Go to the trouble of learning about the audience.  Make six or seven references geared specifically to your audience.  That makes you, the speaker, something of an insider and lets the audience know you took the trouble of learning about them. Make comments – humorous statements, praise, or just simple […]

English Communication: How To Be a Great Conversationalist

English Communication: How To Be a Great Conversationalist Conversation is the basis of communication. It establishes rapport and connects us to our colleagues, clients, co-workers, friends, family. Confidence in your ability to converse makes you better in your work relationships and personal relationships. Susan RoAne made a survey of what she called, “ConverSensations”, people who […]

Rapport- How to?

Rapport- How to? How to get to that sweet spot of building mutual warmth and walking the same page with your audience? Answer: Put their needs and interests ahead of your own. You don’t ignore your own needs, but put the spotlight on their needs. For example,  if your audience has been listening to hours […]

What Practical Real-Life Difference will Increase in Intelligibility Make?

What Practical Real-Life Difference will Increase in Intelligibility Make? Everybody wants people to grasp what they say, so a high intelligibility score is better than a low score. It is a no-brainer. Speaking accurate English sounds and words makes life much better for the speaker and the listener! Recall the range of scores for our clients before […]

Rapport- Pure and Simple

Rapport- Pure and Simple   What makes you different from a robot?  You can grow rapport with the audience. What is the goal of rapport?  A feeling of mutual warmth and the sense that you’re on the same wavelength and mind frame.

Communication Skills Training : Space Comfort Zone in the U.S.

Communication Skills Training : Space Comfort Zone in the U.S. In all countries, people need a certain amount of space to feel comfortable in different situations. The size of these zones is determined by culture—Japanese  feel comfortable with closer contact than Latinos or North Americans. Here is what communication scientists have identified for the United […]

What do YOU want to accomplish through your speech?

What do YOU want to accomplish through your speech? Get the answer to the question of what you personally want to achieve through your speech makes developing your speech… the words and the nonverbal props and body language… easier. Do you have any of these goals? You want to build your credibility You want the […]

Communication Skills Training: Strategic Sitting

Communication Skills Training : Strategic Sitting Whenever we meet with a group of people, we often have to make a decision about where to sit.  Burton Kaplan offers advice for strategic sitting. He takes the position that where you sit says a lot about who you are and what you want to accomplish. For me, […]