Communication Coach Blog
Learn about Ric Phillips and 3V Communications coaching, including body language. Options for communication coaching/training include interpersonal/professional communication skills, public speaking, presentations, body language, business ESL, etc. We help you communicate clearly and confidently. Please enjoy this short video that highlights key aspects of our communication coaching and training. Thank you!
Women in the Media (The Agenda Clip)
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. What do you think?
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.
Many of my clients are technically brilliant people, who have achieved a high measure of success in their own right. But they have been asked (or told) by upper management or have learned through experience that to be truly successful these days one must attempt to master the soft skills as well as the hard skills. Job security seems to depend on adaptability and duo skill-set performance now.
These days I’m doing a lot of ‘Podium Power’ coaching. Clients range from doctors and lawyers to accountants and managers at various levels in the company. Some are immigrants with the additional challenge of having English as a second language. Some have speech impediments, get bad stage fright, or have Asperger’s syndrome/autism. I strive to teach them the finer points of how to quickly and efficiently improve their 3Vs (verbal, vocal, visual) of public speaking, presentations and PowerPoint, staying within my areas of expertise.
I just wanted to say that I really appreciate and applaud those that are struggling to learn a new way of communication that is out of their comfort zone, or that pushes them past their old, comfortable one. It takes courage, dedication and maybe even a little kick in the butt to take up the task of improving public speaking communication skills, but I believe it is good to challenge oneself and I also believe it will pay off handsomely in today’s business world, as well as with our social communications. Let’s be honest, they need some work these days too, right? Everyone is constantly staring at their smart phones and tablets, rarely looking up as they mumble? But that’s a topic for another day! 
Take care,
Coach Ric
Tweets: http://twitter.com/CommCoach
Effective Communication Skills, Small Talk Ebook
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!
This is a quick plug for a man and a product I believe in.
Sean McPheat is a world-renowned life coach in the U.K. and he has created a place for building confidence and self-esteem. It’s called Confidence World.
This site offers a free 7-part confidence building course, 30 free articles, a free 120-page confidence ebook and also you can listen to 4 free recorded confidence building tele-seminars.
If interested, you can check it out HERE.
That’s it for now, thank you!
Coach Ric
I want to share with you a story from my coaching with a new client.
I asked him to write down 10 reasons why someone would want to be his friend. (This was part of an exercise we were doing on preparing your mindset before going to a party or networking function).
He took 2 minutes to write down 2 things! I think he came up with ‘generous’ and ‘reliable’. I was blown away at how a young 20-something male could not pump his own tires – or at least to come up with a few more.
I noticed his iPhone and asked him why he chose to get an iPhone and not say a Blackberry or Android? He gave me 5 reasons in about 4 seconds as to why he chose the iPhone.
I then pointed out to him that he can come up with positive adjectives to describe why the iPhone is a good choice, but he couldn’t do the same about himself. A moment of silence passed over.
For homework I told him to come up with at least 10, if not 20 reasons why someone would want to be his friend or date him. I told him to be honest and sincere. I asked just for words or phrases.
I eagerly await his homework.
All of us need to take stock and remember why we are good, if not great people. We all have positive characteristics, skills, talents and quirks that others enjoy and find attractive. I encourage all of you reading this post to take the challenge and write down 10 or more reasons why you would make a good friend or partner for someone special, and keep it real.
Medical Daily: Facebook Damages Relationships for People With Low Self-Esteem
Facebook may seem like the perfect virtual world for people with low self-esteem to maximize and improve their social relationships because it reduces the need for uncomfortable face-to-face sharing. Wrong.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo said that sharing is essential for improving friendships, but people with low self-esteem seem to behave “counter-productively” by “bombarding their friends with negative tidbits about their lives and making themselves less likeable,” according to a statement released on Wednesday.
“We had this idea that Facebook could be a really fantastic place for people to strengthen their relationships,” said co-author Amanda Forest in a statement.
Forest and Joanne Wood studied the effects of self-esteem on the kinds of emotions people express, as well as how people with low self esteem perceive Facebook.
Researchers found that people with confidence issues are significantly more likely to think that Facebook provided a safe haven that reduces the risk of awkward social situations and as a place of greater opportunity to make social connections.
(To continue reading please visit original article by clicking link above or http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20120202/9033/facebook-social-network-virtual-self-esteem-judgement-stranger-positive-negative-status-upda.htm )
Canadians also had some main gripes when it came to their post-purchase customer service experience. Those complaints included having to fight too hard to resolve issues, which was a top-three complaint for 51 per cent of respondents. A return policy that was limited to in-store credits — no cash refund — was a top-three complaint for 49 per cent of respondents, while a return policy with hidden limitations was cited by 47 per cent in their top three.
Asked to rank their top three most-important elements of in-store customer service, 54 per cent said clearly priced products, while 48 per cent said having advertised products in stock. Almost half — 48 per cent — said fast service at checkout lines was among their top three.
The results are based on an online survey conducted by Leger Marketing between July 19 and July 24, 2011. A total of 1,025 Canadians answered the survey.
View original CBC Marketplace link here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/01/05/customer-service-pet-peeves-marketplace.html?cmp=rss
Hello fellow professionals out there!
Today’s topic is on effective business networking.
Last week I attended an H.R. (Human Resources)-related networking function here in Toronto, as the guest speaker was the author of a book I had first read a few years ago and I really enjoyed the positive message about living life to the fullest, and having great communication skills (at least that’s what I got out of it). The book is called Tapping the Iceberg by Tim Cork, and I highly recommend it. Anyway, I went to this networking function to see if I could get my book signed (which I did) and maybe meet some HR professionals who might be interested in learning more about how communication coaching could benefit their company executives and managers, or how a group workshop can be both cost-effective and beneficial to their staff training.
I met as many people as I could without rushing conversations, and I asked for introductions to others whom I had not met. I politely interrupted some people (with a smile) to include myself in their conversations, and I spent time with them in deep, meaningful learning exchanges, complete with a swapping of cards.
While I was there I noticed that some people seemed to be a bit shy starting conversations with people they had not met yet (i.e. “strangers”), even though we had name-tags on.
Now I understand that it can be difficult for some people to make small talk with strangers. That is why I have a course on how to overcome that social challenge. However the interesting thing to me is that this particular event was specifically set up to network, and even focused on one industry (HR) – which one might assume would increase the level of comfort in the room even among strangers. Not so I guess. There were still those who were wallflowers and who were just talking to their friends and only engaged with others if approached first.
The lesson I want to share with you is to remember that at networking events you have a choice: be a Guest or be The Host. A guest sits waiting for others to take care of them, and a host pro-actively ensures others are having a good time and meets and greets constantly. The host is remembered and the guest is often not, especially at a large event. You are there for a short time and with a mission – to find and build connections. There is no reason to be shy with starting conversations with a smile and no reason why you don’t have the right to pursue career advancement by networking. Networking at a networking event is like shooting fish in a barrel – as long as you are not shy with the trigger.
Be The Host.
Happy hunting,
Coach Ric
Tweets:
http://twitter.com/CommCoach
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/CommCoach73