Looking back over the past few years, I likely attended over a thousand meetings in the organisations I belonged to and worked for. Some of these meetings were dull and unproductive, and most were simply average. However, I also attended and organised meetings that were engaging, impactful and received very good feedback. Let’s look at … Read more
Over the past few years, I became increasingly annoyed over the use of acronyms in my organisation. I am far from the only person out there which hates acronyms, and Elon Musk’s 2010 email regarding acronyms in SpaceX resonates very strongly with me. “Excessive use of made-up acronyms is a significant impediment to communication and … Read more
I met Diana in Autumn 2018 when she organised the winter 2018 Moscow Toastmasters conference. She later moved to London and served as conference director for the Toastmasters District 91 spring conference. There, she spearheaded the transition from a world-class in person event to a world-class online event. Last year she launched Skillsme Academy and I recently … Read more
When reflecting on the leadership roles I held in the past few years. I discovered that nearly everything I did as a leader could be split between short-range and long-range tasks or items. Neither was exclusive with the other, and both were necessary elements of my role as a leader. Nevertheless, juggling between both sets … Read more
It feels strange to realise that it will soon be one year since we moved online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our post-pandemic world will be far more attuned to the idea of working remotely and attending remote meetings with team members, friends and colleagues from all over the world. Meanwhile, new services make it … Read more
One year ago, I would have never imagined that nearly all of my speaking would move online to the virtual world. Yet, the pandemic changed the world beyond recognition and forced organisations worldwide to move their activities online or face extinction. By leading the transition from physical to online meetings in my own organisation. I … Read more
This Monday I delivered a technical speech to secure help to implement a data project for the organisation I lead. Technically, the speech was good, my objective was clear and so was the central idea at its core. However, a couple of things didn’t go as planned and I ended up learning valuable lessons from … Read more
The way a speaker is introduced can help establish the speaker’s credibility and get the audience engaged even before the speaker begins his or her speech. However, introducing a speaker with aplomb is another speaking skill in itself and one that a lot of people get wrong. Let’s learn how you too can introduce a … Read more
Over the past few months, I’ve increasingly started using Zoom for conference calls and online meetings in my senior leadership role for Toastmasters International. Yesterday, I facilitated an online meeting followed by a series of virtual workshops. Online meetings are a powerful tool to add to your leadership and communication arsenal. Here are some of … Read more
As I sat listening to some speeches recently, I realised that most speakers fail to impact an impact when they speak. Their speeches might be fairly interesting and their central idea may even be unusual enough to garner interest. However, the impact on the audience, either entertainment, persuasion of information ends-up being quite limited. So, limited that … Read more