Lisa’s heart is racing. Her breathing is rapid and shallow. Her armpits are sweating, her hands are clammy, and her neck and face are red. Her legs are jittery, her mouth is dry and her teeth are clenched. Her brain is alternately racing, then going blank. She has...
Feeling Nervous? – Good!
Public speaking gets a bad rap. One well-known poll places glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, at the top – making it a more terrifying prospect than spiders, enclosed spaces and even dying. (As Jerry Seinfeld wryly observed, at a funeral, most people would...
How We Found MSB Executive’s Storytelling Techniques in A Surprising Place
When it comes to speaking with impact, we at MSB Executive are passionate believers in the usefulness of storytelling techniques. Whether you are launching a new product, pitching for investment, or developing your personal or corporate brand, you will increase your...
Zoomed Out? Some Top Tips To Survive The Zoom Era
Among all the terms future dictionaries will inherit from COVID-19, ‘Zoom fatigue’ is certain to feature. (It applies to all video conferencing software, but ‘Microsoft Teams fatigue’ doesn’t have the same ring.) Citigroup employees are clearly fatigued: on 23 March,...
How do we Develop Emotional Intelligence?
We’ve recently been coaching a group of Directors from one of the 'Big 4’ accountancy/consultancy firms to help them with this very thing. Emotional Intelligence (or EI/EQ as it’s often referred to) is an essential component for successful leadership. What do you...
Top Tips For Setting Up A Webinar
Yesterday (3rd February 2021) I ran a webinar for CFA UK, and there were a couple of questions about how I managed my set up. In particular people wanted to know about how I kept eye contact with the camera while using notes. Here is a photo of my set up: You will...
Why Not Set a Communication Resolution This Year?
Feeling disheartened already setting new year’s resolutions? We understand. 2020 was an unbelievably challenging year. There is still so much uncertainty around what options will be available to us in 2021 which can make setting resolutions tricky. We can’t...
5 Ways The Pandemic Has Changed How We Communicate
The impact of Covid 19 transformed the world as we knew it last year. We have been reflecting on what this has meant for the way we communicate as humans. It feels that we have adapted from age-old, ingrained, means of communication to entirely different norms in a...
3 Basic Principles for Designing Great Powerpoints
Particularly in the corporate world, Powerpoint slides crammed with tiny writing, diagrams and complexity are entirely the norm. Many people complain about Powerpoint overload but still we are presented with huge decks of barely legible slides. Following on from our...
How Video Affected Prime Minister’s Questions
History was made at Prime Minister's Question Time yesterday when Boris Johnson took part by video link. We were interested in how this would affect the dynamic of the exchanges, particularly with the leader of the opposition Keir Starmer. We noticed an interesting...
The Most Frequently Asked Question About Online Meetings Is….
It’s fascinating to observe how the questions we get asked at workshops are evolving as a result of this transformative year. Having recently completed a series of presenting with impact and client skills workshops at a leading investment research firm, there was one...
Is There Anything More Infuriating Than Not Being Heard?
Some communications lessons from the first US Presidential Debate We are always keen observers of communications in politics and US politics in particular. Although the first US Presidential debate seems a long time ago given events since then, we wanted to capture...