John Wooden, legendary US basketball coach taught in chunks, using what he called the ‘whole-part method’. He would teach his players an entire move and then he would chunk the entire move into individual parts.
I read about this particular Wooden technique in the book, The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle. (a good book I’d recommend).Continue reading
. . . it’s what you attract by the person you become”. This quotation from business philosopher Jim Rohn has been resonating lately with my sales presentation and speech communication clients.
For me the quote, after months of intermittent reflection on it, has become more meaningful.Continue reading
“He must practice an economy of movement, with no extraneous effort – the carriage of his body straight and lofty; his pacing measured and kept within bounds; lunging only to the point, and rarely; without effeminacy in turning his head . . .’Continue reading
You can tell a lot about the confidence of people through how they seat themselves at a boardroom table – for example, at the start of a meeting. Less confident people will ‘allow’ the environment to orient them. More confident people will orient the environment to themselves.Continue reading
I was recently re-reading an Economist article entitled Standing Tall – Why good posture helps you. In the article the research of Li Huang and Adam Galinsky was discussed. Now you’ve heard that good posture can help you, but what struck me, is that it can also make you braver.Continue reading
If you’re a manager, consider having a ‘Listening station’ near your desk as your designated place to listen to your direct reports and other people who want to talk with you.
Let me explain. When people come up to your desk to talk with you for ‘just a minute’ it can be tempting to continue to work on the matter in front of you while you partially listen to the person (please see last week’s post, ‘Continuous partial attention versus DBAE’).Continue reading
In 1998 Linda Stone, former Vice President of Microsoft, coined the term continuous partial attention. Stone is quoted in David Rock’s book, Your Brain at Work*, as saying that, “To pay continuous partial attention is to keep a top-level item in focus, and constantly scan the periphery in case something more important emerges”.
I acknowledge that in some situations it is important to have CPA (continuous partial attention). However, CPA can have damaging consequences.Continue reading
To make a strong physical connection when you’re speaking to a group of people, cycle through the following technique: ‘Pause, lock & speak’. Here’s an explanation of the technique. 1. Pause: This means that when speaking, always inject pauses or pause gaps between your thought groups (English speakers talk in thought groups). Continue reading
When you begin to speak, at a stand-up sales presentation for a large audience, ‘plant’ your feet while you deliver your opening words. After standing in that spot for a time, for your body movement for the rest of your spoken message delivery, think: ‘Move, Stop, Talk’.Continue reading