This week in the world’s #1 newsletter on leadership communication: How to Make Your Message Stick Secrets to Turning Tech Topics into Captivating Communications Move Fast and Fix Things How To Craft a Message That Sticks It’s not what you say. It’s what people remember. We have all heard the advice: Make it simple! People remember it when it is simple enough. Sure, that’s the secret to an effective message. But how? Ben Guttmann's excellent book "Simply Put" tells us how to design clear...
8 days ago • 2 min read
This week in the world’s #1 newsletter on leadership communication: How to handle objections from a skeptical audience Say it scared: How to overcome nervousness when speaking Boost your executive presence How to Deal With a Skeptical Audience “That wouldn’t work here!” Who hasn’t heard this sentence? I recently suggested in a presentation that my client encouraged a cross-section of employees to actively talk about their jobs on social media. If done right, such ambassador programs boost...
15 days ago • 3 min read
This week in the world’s #1 newsletter on leadership communication: How to Create Slides that Stick Be So Visible They Can't Ignore You Playing The Status Game The Secret to Slides that Stick I am guilty. Of slide thinking. That is the idea that a 20 minute presentation equals 20 slides, and that preparation consists of tweaking an old deck. This approach not only produced boring, pedestrian presentations. It also prevented me from connecting with the audience. Why? Because whenever you look...
22 days ago • 3 min read
This week in the world’s #1 newsletter on leadership communication: Best Books and Podcasts of 2024 How to Win Your Audience’s Trust Best Books and Podcasts of 2024 Wow, the last six months flew by. We launched the Speak Like a CEO Academy, I went to India for the first time and … got married! I also listened to (and recorded) hundreds of podcasts and read around 50 books, so I thought I share the best of what I discovered so far in 2024. My Top 7 Books Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg...
29 days ago • 6 min read
This week in the world’s #1 newsletter on leadership communication: How to Become a Superconnector Communication Secrets for Unleashing Innovation Radical Candor Meets Radical Respect How to Connect with the Audience What’s the secret to talks and presentations that work? The presenter has mastered the art of audience connection. Great speakers and presenters aim for connection, not perfection. That allows them to get their message across and move others to their desired outcome. I know from...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
This week: How to control the conversation / How to communicate when your career changes / The 8th Habit How to Use Framing to Get What You Want In every conversation, you want to hold the frame. Frames are concepts that shape how we see the world. Italian food. First class. Cat videos. A word or phrase activates a certain frame in your mind. It is similar to priming. Priming preconditions the mind for a particular theme or idea, while framing shapes how information is perceived. Priming...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
This week: 7 Ways to Use Priming to Reach Your Goals / Today: Free Speak Like a Leader Webinar / Simple is a Superpower / Flip the Script 7 Ways to Use Priming to Reach Your Goals I went to see a musical last week. It was advertised as an upbeat affair. Yet the first scene was rather sad. The director wanted to prepare the audience for some serious topics. This is called priming. You can observe the same in Hollywood movies when the first scene of a biopic shows the hero dying. The audience...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
This week: The 7 Deadly Sins of Presenting / How to Keep Your Team Engaged (When Everything Changes) / What Made You Look? The 7 Deadly Sins of Presenting The stakes are high when you present. A poor presentation can mean that you don’t get that investment or green light for your project. It can even reduce your status and influence as a leader. The good news is that everyone can be a great presenter. It doesn’t matter what your style is, whether you are a natural, introvert or extrovert, or...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
This week: 10 Unforgettable ENDINGS for Your Next Speech / How to Communicate When the Stakes Are Sky-High / How to Tell The Impossible Story 10 Unforgettable ENDINGS for Your Next Speech We all know the importance of a strong opening to capture our audience's attention. But have you given equal thought to how you conclude your speech or presentations? Keep in mind both the primacy and the recency effect: The primacy effect refers to the tendency to better remember items that are presented...
2 months ago • 3 min read