Good at what you do, but struggling with your communication skills? Igotchu! 😎
Someone said it before you...
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Always consider if someone before you has said it better! Communicator of the Week Award goes to my friend, Alex Ktorides for the moving eulogy he gave on the sad passing of his father. Eulogies are tough to get right. Should you go through the whole life of the departed one or just give snippets? Should you be funny or sombre or a mixture of both? Do you let your emotions show or button them up to get through it? And what theme can you use to tie it all together? Alex’s answer to the ‘what theme?’ question was to use a quote from the 1950s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451 by the American writer, Ray Bradbury. It's a beautiful quote that, I think, sums up the essence of life and death. “'Everyone must leave something behind when he dies', my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built, or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way, so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so as long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.” It's a quote that fit perfectly with the stories he and others shared about his late father, George, who lived a full life and definitely left his mark on the world. Sometimes, it is difficult to find the right words to communicate the thought you want to share. Sure, you can agonise to work it out in your own words; you can use ChatGPT or Gemini and hope it doesn’t feed you some vanilla-sounding tripe. But one of the most effective options is to simply borrow the words of someone, who said it better than you could ever say it yourself. Quotes, sayings, and proverbs are wonderful ways to capture and communicate ideas to audiences. They are like mini-stories that engage. They encapsulate a wisdom or an insight that resonates with your audience, who will still give you the credit for the idea and sentiment that the quote conveys. My advice to all my comms clients is to build your Quote Library. Create a simple file or database, and whenever you come across a great quote or saying that you might like to use at some point in the future, just drop it into the database. Your audience will see you as erudite and well-read. You will know that you just did the work. Kolarele |
Build your Communication SuperSkills
Good at what you do, but struggling with your communication skills? Igotchu! 😎
Speaking publicly is hard enough without also having to deal with interruptions from your audience. Communicator of the Week Award goes to Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo, who retained their composure and delivering their lines in the face of what must have seemed to them like the heckle of all heckles. We’ve all learnt a thing or two about Tourette’s Syndrome this past week. Best explanation was given to me by my own ever-wise sister-in-law who explained it as a condition that makes you...
People won’t listen to you talk the talk if they haven’t seen you walk the walk. Communicator of the Week Award goes to golf star, Anthony Kim, who this week won his first tournament after coming back from a 12 year absence during which he battled drug and alcohol addiction. We often hear cliche messages from celebrities and sports stars. ‘Believe in your self’ ‘Keep grinding’ ‘Never underestimate your opponent’ Lovely words that get easily forgotten because they are often not backed up by...
Racism generally is not a good look. But it is a sad indictment of society today that it is only when that racism is indefensibly ugly and outrageous that it will not actually be defended. MisCommunicator of the Week Award goes to the Truth Social account of Donald Trump for the post depicting the Obamas as apes. You know things are bad when even Donald Trump deletes and disavows one of his own posts. And as much as there is so much that can and has been said about the despicable post, there...