Want to improve communication skills for yourself or your team?
Read our Blogs and download our Infographics for helpful tips, techniques, and advice you can put to use today.
One way to make your presentations clearer and easier to listen to is to avoid burying the lead. “Burying the lead” (sometimes spelled “lede”) is a journalism expression that refers to the failure to mention the most important part of a story first, in effect burying it in the details. This principle applies to presentations...
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A myth we thought was long debunked came back around a few weeks ago. In talking about how to do demonstration presentations, an experienced presenter (not a Turpin trainer) said that real eye contact isn’t necessary, “Just look at the back wall, and people will think you’re looking at them,” she said. Even if that...
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The Foundation for What Comes Next Every presentation needs to take place within a solid frame. When you begin to speak, listeners need to know what you’ll be talking about, what you want to achieve, and why it’s important to them. Doing so will give them confidence in you as a presenter because you’ve assured...
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If you’re a leader or an aspiring leader, emotional intelligence (EQ) is essential for your success. It helps you build relationships and communicate more effectively with the people you work with. In many ways, your reputation as a leader is built and maintained through meetings. Meetings may be, after all, the only time some people...
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A crucial but often neglected part of successful business communication is making it easy for your audience to understand what you are communicating. The use of jargon or acronyms with no explanation is a frequent error that really works against the idea of making it easy. Too often, we assume people will understand us because...
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If you’re in L&D, a leader, or a subject matter expert (SME), you probably have some responsibility for the onboarding process, and you understand why successful onboarding is so critical to business success and the company’s bottom line. Even before the great job shift (the result of The Great Resignation), onboarding was a hot topic....
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Comedian Karen Morgan nailed it with this joke about icebreakers. What she says about an introvert’s reaction to icebreakers (and no doubt most extrovert’s as well) is true. My goal with this article is to focus on the dangers of icebreakers in a business meeting, what people actually need to hear from facilitators as meetings...
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We recently had a multi-phase engagement with a client during which we got to know their culture quite well. As is sometimes the case, the bit of wisdom our learners needed to hear most came from one of their own. “If there isn’t an agenda, it’s not a meeting; it’s a conversation.” I wholeheartedly agree....
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When people participate in Turpin workshops, individual members and teams enjoy a host of secondary benefits beyond greater comfort with their own communication skills. Managers and leaders are often pleasantly surprised by how team meetings become more efficient, leadership skills start to emerge, relationships blossom, and so on. We often hear that teams “Turpinize” their...
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The consulting, medical, and financial services this client sells are not easy for decision-makers, coming from both healthcare and administration points of view, to grasp. The physicians-turned-salespeople needed to make their messages concise, persuasive, and easy to understand for people outside their area of expertise. In this series of Case Studies, we demonstrate how select...
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