Entries by Amanda Jackson

FAQs for Conferences on Video

May 22, 2020 in , /by

In the past few weeks I've been running a series of webinars for different organizations on how to look and sound great, feel confident and get results on video conferences, webinars and other virtual events. Each time, participants freely wrote in questions in the chat box — sometimes they were thought-provoking for me, and sometimes […]

5 Tips for a Successful Video Conference

March 19, 2020 in , /by

In the wake of the coronavirus and sudden need for teams to work remotely, the occasional disembodied conference call isn't going to cut it. For team cohesion, moral, clarity of communication and more, people are being forced out of their comfort zones and learning to use video conferencing for regular communication. Unfortunately, lack of strategy […]

Messaging Pitfalls to Avoid: Lessons From the Dropouts

March 6, 2020 in , /by

Einstein purportedly said, “The only rational way to educate is to be an example — a warning example, if not the other kind.”   Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, and as of this afternoon, three more candidates dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination: Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and Tom Steyer, and they all […]

Three Crucial Leadership Communication Lessons from Debate #10

February 27, 2020 in , /by

  Ten rounds of debate into the Democratic primary and my overall reaction to last night’s debate was: disappointment.  Nobody truly stood out, and the overall environment was chaotic and unpleasant to listen to and watch.   But most mind-bogglingly (yes, that’s a word), nobody used ANY tweetable-and-repeatable refrains, despite the fact that yesterday morning […]

Verbal-Vocal-Visual Alignment and the Bloomberg Effect

February 21, 2020 in , /by

Democratic Debate -Round 9 All politics aside (as with all of my posts), we have to thank former NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg for bringing an as-yet-unseen level of energy to the Democratic debates, and providing some of the clearest illustrations of the power of the Three Vs: Verbal, Vocal and Visual alignment – and their […]

The Persuasive Power Tool of Debate Eight

February 10, 2020 in /by

Whereas President Trump’s state of the union address relied on hyperbole and superlatives as I described here, Friday’s Democratic primary debate round eight demonstrated the impact of the use – or absence – of REFRAINS in the art of persuasion and influence. Let’s look at a few examples of both. Joe Biden Biden was the […]

(Still) Frustrated that People Mispronounce Your Name?

January 14, 2020 in , /by

Ironically, of all the topics I teach in the world of leadership communication and influence, the single most common thing people STILL want to talk to me about when we meet is how to say their names so others will understand it and be able to pronounce it correctly. It was an example I used […]