Daniel Goleman’s brilliant 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence, gathered and synthesized some research about what it takes for people to get along in the world. The phrase “emotional intelligence” has become part of the lexicon and indeed seems to be enjoying a bit of a renaissance just now, two decades later. Perhaps because we are experiencing […]
I first encountered Alan Alda as the irreverent, anti-war doctor in M*A*S*H* the TV show. It was one of those shows that seemed important at the time because of its anti-war attitude and other acts of rebellion. It gave comfort to those of us for whom the war was a long way off, but the […]
You’ve heard the old saying that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, so you know first impressions are important, and durable. You may have heard that people make up their minds about each other within thirty seconds of meeting, or on some other equally flimsy basis. So you know that […]
Back in the mid- or early nineties, I was videotaped for the first time, doing some media work for my then-employer, Princeton University. Aside from the usual reactions – I didn’t like my hair, my clothes, my physique, or what I did with my hands – I was most astonished by the shrill, pipsqueak voice […]
I often get asked by already-pro speakers, and near-pro speakers, how to take their speaking game higher. They ask me questions like: How do I kick-start my career? What will be that easy path to success? What are the secrets to cracking the nut of getting all the highly-paid speeches you can handle? Ah, if […]
Picture a worker in a cubicle. Gray walls, gray chair, gray computer. Gray hum of background noise all around. When she picks up the phone, the way in which the voice is processed over that instrument cuts out most of the emotion. That’s why telephone calls and webinars are so boring. No emotion. The rest […]
Back in the day when I taught public speaking at Princeton, one of the bits of bad news the students found most unfair was the attractiveness bias. Basically, psychologists have found over and over again that more attractive people have an unfair advantage when it comes to attracting partners, getting hired, getting paid, being perceived […]
This post is second of two on virtual communications. The virtual world offers us two great conveniences; indeed, you can make a reasonable claim that the virtual world depends for its success on these twin pillars: freedom from friction, and freedom from simultaneity. But those freedoms create new problems. How can you solve the problems […]
The virtual world offers us two great conveniences. Indeed, you can make a reasonable claim that the virtual world depends for its success on these twin pillars: freedom from friction, and freedom from simultaneity. What does that mean? Before email, we had to write or type out letters, memos, reports, white papers – the entire […]
I’m developing a series of public speaking principles in the next few blog posts that are a summation of what I’ve learned about this fiendishly difficult art and science over three decades of practice, coaching, learning from others, and research, especially neuroscience. Here are the next seven. 15.A speech is performance art – and science. […]