I so loved the title of Brad Feld’s post, that I just had to copy the title. This is an important one. We live in a world of personal branding, quick online reputation checks and a lot of noise. Authors, Entrepreneurs and job seekers get less and less time to explain themselves. This morning I was … Read more
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” Pablo Picasso I finished a wonderful 3 day seminar this week in Madrid with 30 directors ranging from industries as diverse as agriculture, to mobile handset makers, to pharmaceuticals to drinks. The course began on Tuesday morning at 9am as the participants introduced themselves, their challenges and their … Read more
This post is a follow up to the TED-Education post yesterday: What Aristotle and Joshua Bell teach us about Persuasion. If you haven’t already watched the lesson, you’ll need to as background to the material in this post. You can watch it here on TED Education. What could Joshua Bell do to get his music heard … Read more
I wrote “Give a TED talk” on my bucket list 4 years ago, today I feel happy to see the idea come to fruition. It is not a TED Talk per-se, i.e. it is not up there on a stage, but in my mind almost better – a lesson from my class, and a concept … Read more
What are the 3 words that managers find hardest to say? They are possibly the 3 words that parents find hardest to say to children. They are 3 words that teachers very rarely say to their students. They are not “You’re the Best”. They are not “I love you”. What might they be? The 3 hardest … Read more
You finish your pitch and the customer says: “Your product is too expensive!”. You arrive home, you’re a few minutes late: your partner says “You are always late!”. At a dirty plate left on the table: “you never wash the dishes!” What do you say in this moment? How do you handle objections? It is possible to take … Read more
The Words, the Meaning, the Effect As we communicate, there are 3 separate processes at play: what we say, what we mean when we say it, and what we accomplish by saying it A rhetorician would call these 3 separate processes: 1) locution, 2) illocution, and 3) perlocution. In my courses we use the shorthand “Point X” to … Read more
The big news at YouTube: Whilst Psy’s Gangnam style is rapidly approaching 1 billion views, one of my uploaded videos achieved 50,000 views today. 50,000 video views today Celebrating 50,000 views of my YouTube vid: 1 way, only 1, to achieve Excellence as a Speaker. http://t.co/3h4uH2Qh — Conor Neill (@conorneill) December 5, 2012 The top … Read more
“We have study hall at the beginning of our meetings.” says Jeff Bezos. Staff meetings at Amazon begin with 30 minutes of silent reading. Powerpoint is easy for presenter, hard for audience “The traditional kind of corporate meeting starts with a presentation. Somebody gets up in front of the room and presents with a powerpoint … Read more
How do I become a better listener? Become aware of what level you are listening at. There are 5 levels of listening: not listening hearing the noise, waiting for silence hearing the words, preparing my response hearing the meaning from my point of view hearing the emotion, meaning and point of view of the other … Read more