As most of you know, Lance Armstrong is all over the news these days, admitting that he doped during the Tour de France bike races. It is refreshing to hear him admit his guilt, since we are used to him adamantly denying any doping or wrongdoing, and suing those who dare to say otherwise. In an effort to retain a glimmer of positive public relations, he allowed Oprah to interview him, and a lot of us watched that interview on TV last night.
I was contacted by a reporter from Global Toronto News and asked to give some body language analysis (see Body Language workshop) of Lance Armstrong’s confession, so they could add that to a piece they are airing tonight.
‘Tis the season to be invited to Christmas (or “Holiday” or “Festive Season” etc.) parties sponsored by your place of employment. At first it sounds like a great idea: take a day or half-day off work, mingle with friends and co-workers, eat free food and drink free booze. What a great way to get into the spirit of the season and to start saying good-bye to this year and hello to the next one. So what could be wrong with this common company practice?
At first, I personally did not see a problem with in-house celebrations. It seems to build team spirit and gives employees and managers a chance to see each other in a more relaxed atmosphere, even presenting opportunities to get to know each other on a more personal level. And herein lies the problem.
This is really interesting to me. I realize men and women often have a different way of processing information and relaying it. Here is a great anecdote on the subject.
I salute those that are striving to improve their public speaking and presentation skills. It’s not always an easy thing to do, especially if one was born introverted, with a learning challenge of some kind, is not a native speaker of the working language or simply was never used to or trained in how to handle “the spotlight.”
These days advancing your public speaking and presentation skill-set almost isn’t an option. In business a successful person needs great communication skills, now more than ever. In the old days there were those that were comfortable speaking, usually from sales and marketing departments for example, that were asked to do most of the public speaking and meeting running. Technical folks could sit in the back of the room silently, or just keep working away on their computer. Not so these days.
When a clothing retailer that employed a man who posted negative comments about the death of Amanda Todd found out about his online activities, it didn’t hesitate to take action.
The man was fired from his job at a London, Ont., outlet of Mr. Big and Tall, with the company CEO saying the firm was taking the action it felt was appropriate.
There is formal language and then there is informal, casual language.
For the school classrooms you need formal, i.e., ‘academic’ language. For the lunch room and with your friends you need informal/casual language skills.
At work, especially if it involves an office, boardroom and the like, you need formal i.e., ‘business’ language skills. Each job and career comes with a plethora of ISV (Industry-Specific Vocabulary), acronyms and lingo that you must learn to be successful in your career advancement and to obviously understand the fast-paced conversations going on around you.
OTTAWA – Would-be Canadians will be required to submit tangible proof of how well they speak English or French beginning this November.
The new requirements were unveiled last year and will see citizenship applicants given three ways to prove their proficiency.
Applicants will have to submit results of a government-approved third-party language test, show they’ve finished high school or post-secondary education in English or French or prove they’ve received an appropriate level of language education via government-funded training programs.
Learn the techniques and strategies to make you a master communicator! Understand the communication process, and how your brain interprets information so you can connect with people. Build rapport quickly with anyone, anytime, anywhere. Increase your charisma and confidence. Be able to read body language and people’s eyes. Give feedback without accidentally insulting someone! This is the Effective Communication Skills Course!
As most of you know, Lance Armstrong is all over the news these days, admitting that he doped during the Tour de France bike races. It is refreshing to hear him admit his guilt, since we are used to him adamantly denying any doping or wrongdoing, and suing those who dare to say otherwise. In an effort to retain a glimmer of positive public relations, he allowed Oprah to interview him, and a lot of us watched that interview on TV last night.
