Getting ready for Oscar night? I am, and some memorable speeches from the past come to mind. Gwyneth Paltrow’s highly emotional acceptance speech for her work in Shakespeare in Love was remarkable for her ability to verbalize in the midst of such… Read More »Effective Speaking: Oscar Night Speeches
Effective speaking has many enemies. A partial list would include a speaker’s lack of experience, stage fright, lack of training, no clear point, too much information, and finally, no clear flow, or structure. We could go on. But the items… Read More »Public Speaking Training: The Dreaded just-after-lunch Slot on the Program
What makes smart people dumb? Elizabeth Newton, a psychologist, conducted an experiment on the curse of knowledge while working on her doctorate at Stanford in 1990. She gave one set of people, called “tappers,” a list of commonly known songs… Read More »Communication Skills: Why Mr. Smarty Pants Has His Knickers in a Twist
Like that moment in bowling, when your ball leaves two pins standing far apart, there are times when your audience is divided into two camps. One half is knowledgeable about your area of expertise, while the other half is green. … Read More »Public Speaking: Split Shot Audience
During the Clinton/Obama debate from California, Barack Obama seemed to get off to a good start, making his point (“I am the future, she is the past.”) at the end of his opening remarks. As I listened, I was made… Read More »Public Speaking Skills: Hillary vs. Obama