You attend a TEDx event and easily remember the opening speaker and the concluding speaker.
You listen to a sales pitch and find yourself repeating the product attributes that the sales person discussed first and those that she mentioned last.
In all these cases, you are experiencing the “serial position effect.”
Converting these research findings into a real-world recipe for communication success means that you must:
start strong,
finish strong,
and illustrate in the middle.
It is up to us to seize opportunities to present; to speak up.
Here are five reasons why you should jump at every opportunity to present at work, even if you’d rather not.
Communicating technically dense information to diverse audiences is as difficult as becoming an expert in AVN Cloud architecture, whatever that is.
Fortunately, there is an algorithm for successfully communicating technical information to diverse audiences. Here’s the code:
Articulating a vision = leadership.
Rallying support = leadership.
Steadying morale = leadership.
Acknowledging excellence = leadership.
Building and sustaining a business = it’s all leadership.
And while leaders have a long list of important attributes, one ability is central to all others—communication.
Conference calls are an important part of modern business communication, and they can be a valuable method of group communication if planned and executed carefully. Done poorly, however, they are a communication abyss that drives participants to mute their line, multi-task, and stop paying attention.
Read MorePublic speaking would be easier if the news was always good.
Unfortunately, delivering bad news, facing a hostile crowd, or discussing a contentious policy is an inevitable part of leadership. And in these moments, what you say and how you say it matters even more.
Players dream of playing in this vaunted game, and when they do careers are made or broken by how they perform.
It’s no different in communication.
Read MoreAfter you draft your resume, write your cover letter, and submit your application for your dream job, next comes the interview. It’s in this unique setting of interpersonal communication that you have the best opportunity to differentiate yourself and take the next step in your career development.
Read MoreRecall the times you’ve solved problems, collaborated, exceeded expectations, handled adversity, made mistakes, made amends, set records, delivered on-time, said ‘thank you,’ and led your organizations.
We’ve experienced a lot, but we rarely take time to record the details and build a story library of these experiences.
