Month: May 2016

The Importance of Communication

The primary objective of communicating in the first place is to convey a message, and the big challenge in communication is to do so effectively. This in itself can seem blatantly obvious and over-simplistic, but what happens on many occasions is that, either the desire transmission does not occur, or it does not occur effectively. This gains increasing importance and relevance when, for example, you have to present that project you have been working on for three years and you only have ten minutes to convince the client, investor or sponsor that the idea is not only good but worth considering. Sometimes the opposite occurs. You might have an absolutely extraordinary and novel idea, and you need funds to make

Suddenly going blank – ways to solve it

First of all, it is important to accept the fact that, while undesirable, this is an absolutely normal occurrence that can happen to anyone at all, from beginners to true experts. Given that it is normal, we must consider it from a positive, ‘the glass is always half-full’ standpoint, and never a negative one. It has happened, and that’s it. All we need to do is to move on as if nothing happened. And I am talking from experience. Most times, we will get the chance to come back to that comment we missed and to refer back to the topic, but if not, it happened, and that’s it! You should have no trouble getting back on track using your

Should I use notes?

Like everything in life, nothing is black and white. There are times when bringing notes is absolutely necessary, other times when they are highly recommended and others where they are totally forbidden. In the event there is no, or very little supporting graphic material available for the speech, notes are essential, especially if it is of medium duration or there is extensive data, important messages to transmit, or quotes for which it makes no sense to have to make the effort to remember word for word. Similarly, even if there is plenty of graphic and audio-visual material available, if the event lasts for a long time, notes are then clearly necessary. For cases in which the graphic material on the

Five points to remember before speaking in public

Effective communication is achieved with a good presentation, good moderation or good exposure depending on the type of event in question, and -I always emphasize this especially- regardless of audience and size. There are five essential points that I recommend taking into account before any public performance. The first is the importance of staging versus the content. I regularly observe a tendency, especially in more technical subjects, to focus on the content, when this only represents one fifth of the exercise. Mastering the staging is key, and fundamental to achieving a successful presentation. The second point is something I consider extremely important: body language. We are so transparent that our way of acting says everything about us. The third point