by Steven Maddocks | 16 December, 2021 | Communication, Pitching, Public Speaking, Storytelling
3 Minutes of Embarrassment There’s a hilarious home video of a Nativity play in an English village church. It usually goes viral at this time of year. A four-year-old girl doesn’t so much sing as bellow her way through ‘The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy’. The girl, now...
by Nicola Hainey | 26 October, 2021 | Communication, Leadership, Team Building
We all know that sinking feeling when we’ve started the day off positively, only to open our diaries and see a flurry of colour blocks demanding every second of our day to be spent in front of our computers on calls. We see this frustration often at MSB during our...
by Nicola Hainey | 30 September, 2021 | Body Language, Communication, Emotional Engagement, Networking Skills, Voice
If I were to ask you, “What part of the body do you use for listening?” most English speakers would emphatically shout ‘EARS’. Of course, that’s what gets drummed into us in our infancy. However, the Chinese symbol for listening embodies a far more complex and...
by Steven Maddocks | 26 May, 2021 | Body Language, Communication, Nerves, Performance, Presentation Skills, Public Speaking
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...
by Steven Maddocks | 6 May, 2021 | Communication, Nerves, Presentation Skills, Public Speaking
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...
