The original meaning for ’silly’ was more about enjoyment than looking foolish. You can imagine someone looking at a person having a wonderful time and judging that this person looked foolish or ‘silly’. Silly walks, silly hats, silly answers.
If you are having fun you will look silly to someone. Better to be having fun than [...]

Posted in Presentation skills No Comments »

A 1999 study conducted by Sigal Barsade at the Yale School of Management show that cheerfulness and warmth spread easily among working groups whilst irritability caught on less so. It will not surprise you to know that laughter is very contagious. When we hear laughter we find it difficult not to laugh or smile ourselves. [...]

Posted in Influencing & Negotiating skills, Presentation skills No Comments »

Imagine if you threw rose petals at people. At the end of the day your hands would smell like rose petals. On the other hand, what if you threw elephant poo at everyone you met. The magic of positive reinforcement is not well understood. Put very simply, what you reinforce is what you get more [...]

Posted in Influencing & Negotiating skills, Presentation skills No Comments »

Do you ever find yourself say ‘um’ when speaking to a group. Some people use the filler ‘um’ as if it was a real word. It is just as loud and just as frequent as any other important word. Getting rid of ‘um’ is impossibly difficult as focusing on the ‘um’ will provoke it to [...]

Posted in Presentation skills No Comments »

Some years ago I heard a speaker advise the audience to identify the colour of a person’s eyes when first meeting. Of course, the colour doesn’t matter but if we are focused on someone’s eyes when we first meet, we will be giving them our full attention which will have a very positive impact.
My [...]

Posted in Influencing & Negotiating skills, Presentation skills No Comments »