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Just like in sports, being motivated at work is crucial for your performance. This rings especially true when you have a looming deadline, an important presentation to give, or colleagues or customers depending on your performance. To help you stay motivated, no matter what your job throws at you, we decided to compile 22 of the best motivational speeches from business, sports, entertainment, and more. If you want to get fired up for a project, watch these videos. Trust me, I was ready to write a 5,000 word blog post after I saw them. And while the messages vary from speech to speech, they will put you in the optimal frame of mind for tackling and crushing your next big challenge.(Disclaimer: Some speeches -- *cough* Al Pacino *cough* -- may contain NSFW language.)...
It’s no secret that our digital communication tools are overwhelming us. A Deloitte study found that U.S. workers (in aggregate) look at their phones almost 8 billion times a day, and research shows that U.S. productivity has waned since the introduction of the smartphone. But the world of business needs a way to bring people together to share information and explain ideas, and to get them to reach for the same goals. So what’s the happy medium we’re looking for? I’m going to suggest a classic, underappreciated solution: presentations. They often get a bad rap because they’re often badly made. A good one takes many hours to build: It requires research and clarity of thinking, and great care must be given to word choice, image selection, and flow. Yet when we do that important work, presentations can help us do something more effectively than almost any other communication tool at our disposal (which is saying a lot, because there are many). They enable us to make a compelling, persuasive argument — without overwhelming people with disjointed messages or a fire hose of information. When I was on the high school debate team in the 1970s, we studied the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance, and I’ve since used it to create thousands of speeches and inspirational talks. The idea behind it is very simple: If you want a group of people to adopt your point of view, start by describing some difficult or painful issue they’re faced with. ...
For many people, even the thought of public speaking can lead to panic. The crowd. The lights. The dreaded Q&A session. It's a lot to deal with. But allowing these apprehensions to silence our voice can be crippling to our careers. If we want to be seen as smart and articulate professionals, we need to walk the walk and talk the talk. After all, our intelligence is often best conveyed not in what we say but in how we say it, according to a recent study from the University of Chicago. Rather than keeping quiet to avoid saying something foolish, it's important that we're actively identifying ways to overcome self-doubt. To help get you started, check out this infographic from the folks at WriteMyEssays. They've compiled some awesome speaking habits designed to make you sound smarter....
Prezi designs and creates presentation software that is enabling millions of people to be great presenters.Meet the 2015 Prezi Award winners!We’re delighted to announce the very best prezis of 2015. Prepare to be impressed. Prepare to be inspired....
And what's worse than a boring presentation? Five, 10, or even 15 boring presentations. That's the fate clients subject themselves to during the new business process. And while you might think they deserve to be in this situation, it won't help you win the account.
Don't be that agency that drives the client team over the edge with a PowerPoint presentation in 11-point Comic Sans text. Check out this SlideShare for a few tips on how to create presentations that don't suck....
Researchers at Purdue University have some bad news for the 40 million people worldwide who deliver “standard” PowerPoint presentations each and every day.
When PowerPoint is used, the researchers concluded, the audience retains nearly 30 per cent less than if presenters eliminate PowerPoint and simply talk to their audience.
In other words, by simply turning off your projector and using your slides as notes, you can significantly enhance your communication effectiveness.
Have you ever experienced that sinking feeling when a slide pops up on the screen, and it’s just crammed with tiny text? (Or, even worse, when the presenter starts reading it to you, word for word?)
Slides like that are hard to understand and remember. (They're great at boring your audience to death, though.)
It’s pretty common for people to pack slides full of text and content, but most presentation experts recommend avoiding that....
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We all know the basics of good presentation skills: don’t read from a script; don’t overwhelm your audience with verbose slides; and the like. But for a particular kind of high-stakes presentation — one in which you’re trying to get buy-in from key decision-makers — those basics aren’t enough. To persuade the people who have the power to approve your idea or let it die, you need to start with a strong outline. Here are the questions to ask yourself so you can structure a presentation, from the outset, that defuses potential objections upfront and is so compelling a “yes” becomes far more likely....
"I read a thing that actually says that speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear of the average person. I found that amazing. Number two was death. That means to the average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy," jokes Jerry Seinfeld. And it's true. Experts estimate that 75% of the population has some level of anxiety regarding public speaking. Now, I'm willing to bet that this statistic is troubling for those who work in an industry where delivering presentations comes with the territory. Whether you've gotten up in front of a crowd 100 times or are about to encounter your first public speaking opportunity, the entire process can feel pretty overwhelming. To help you command the positive attention you deserve, we've uncovered 10 science-backed tips for nailing your next speaking gig....
Martin Luther King Jr. seems more legend than man.
But if we peer into Dr. King's life, we can see that he was more and less than myth: a person with interior complexity and exterior grace beyond what a textbook can tell you. So let's get to know his intense, hilarious, and prescient sides below.
HE WORKED WITH HIS ANGER MLK was a person, which means he had a range of emotions, just like the rest of us. But, as we've mentioned before, the highest functioning people exercise what psychologists call emotional agility, where you notice an emotion like anger when it arises and then choose a response—rather than suppressing it or getting overwhelmed....
Each year, we see new trends surfacing in the world of presentation design. From passing fads to design standards that will endure beyond 2016, these trends will continue to shape the way presentations are created and delivered before boardrooms, classrooms or even TED audiences across the globe.
While some of them may exist only for the sake of aesthetics, others have actually been adopted to suit the needs and preferences of modern-day consumers. For example, the use of flat design, many experts say, is more than just the latest craze; it responds to the fact that realist elements are very hard to incorporate into responsive systems designed for screens of all sizes.
To keep you up to date with the latest design techniques, we’ve compiled a list of presentation design techniques that will help you create a presentation that looks fresh and contemporary–just like the content you will hopefully deliver to your audiences....
If the thought of speaking in front of a crowd makes you uneasy, you're not alone. According to a study by Chapman University, public speaking is the number one fear in America -- followed closely by heights and then by bugs, snakes, and other animals. (Strangely enough, Americans are more afraid of zombies than we are of clowns or ghosts ... but that's a blog post for another day.)
If you're anxious about public speaking, the worst thing you can do is nothing at all. There are ways to become a better public speaker, but like most rewarding things in life, they don't come easy. Becoming a good public speaker takes hard work and patience.
Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of resources out there to help you conquer your fear -- including the infographic below from the London Speaking Bureau. Check it out to learn what "kissing" has to do with preparing a speech, best practices for delivery, and strategies for making a lasting impact on your audience....
One of the difficulties in understanding how inspirational leaders communicate has been our casual definition of inspiration. Many confuse this word with motivation or operate under the assumption that anyone can "just be inspiring."
Dr. Todd Thrash and Andrew Elliot of Rochester University are two of the leading researchers studying the psychology of inspiration. that there are three distinct stages that an individual will go through in the experience of inspiration: evocation, transcendence, and approach motivation....
...Of course, it’s common practice to circulate decks of slides before meetings, but often they’re too opaque to be understood without guidance from a presenter — or they’re so packed with“teleprompter” text that people have a hard time digesting them. Asking everyone to decode your cryptic bullets or plow through a lot of verbiage before you meet is setting yourself up for disappointment. Nobody has the time, and your ideas could get lost in translation. So give people a document that’s meant to be read, not presented. One they’ll grasp quickly and easily on their own.
You can create a slidedoc by re-chunking your message into key points and illustrating them with pictures or diagrams, along these lines:
Studies show that this combination — concise text paired with visuals — helps people understand and retain concepts more easily. As clinical psychologist and author Haig Kouyoumdjian points out, “Our brain is mainly an image processor (much of our sensory cortex is devoted to vision), not a word processor. In fact, the part of the brain used to process words is quite small in comparison to the part that processes visual images.” So, pare down the wording, but leave enough context to allow your deck to live on its own without your voiceover....
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![7 Speaking Habits That Will Make You Sound Smarter [Infographic] | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/FLtaTU3pwR5YAohI1xqclDl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Interesting and encouraging.