Saturday, January 29, 2011

Hearing Loss and Your Employees

"Isolated", "frustrated", and "worried" were three words used recently by a group of corporate employees to describe their feelings about their hearing loss. Hearing loss affects 10% of the population, including 33% of those age 65. Now a worrisome 20% of late teens report some of the signs of hearing loss, for the first time in history. Yet few corporations offer training in techniques to cope with hearing loss.

Employees report that they may hesitate to speak during department meetings, because they are not certain of what has already been said or, sometimes, even the topic under discussion. When a group has a meeting in a noisy room, such as a restaurant, that makes the communication worse.

"What Did You Say? Strategies for Helping a Person with a Hearing Loss", is an e-book for helping supervisors, colleagues, friends and spouses learn better ways to communicate with people with hearing loss. It provides information on simple techniques that can
be easily implemented.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Better Business Communication Day - Celebrate with Us!

Do you ever get stage fright or worry about your pronunciation in American English? Better Business Communication Day is celebrated this year on January 24, 2011. You are invited to get some f*ree gifts!

Visit Business Speech Improvement on Monday, January 24, 2011 and get a e-book on Diction Makes a Difference - no cost on this one day! Filled with practical tips and exercises, it allows readers to learn more about Business Speech Improvement's user-friendly approach. This offer is available for this one day only.

Those who register will also receive a special report on "Scared Stiff: Ten Strategies for Coping with Stage Fright". This report is available right now, so register today! Aren't you ready to feel better about public speaking?

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive coaching and helpful e-books on accent modification, diction, presentation skills, executive communication skills, and much more! Visit us and get these special offers!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Stage fright: Tips for Coping while Giving Presentations

More than 40% of Americans say their worst fear is having to do public speaking; it is the number one fear among adults according to one survey.

Here are two tips on coping with this fear. First, realize that you know (or should know) more about your subject than your listeners do. You are the expert. Second,
take some quiet deep breaths before you talk to relax yourself. You cannot be both relaxed and scared simultaneously. (Naturally, don't take deep breaths into a microphone or a telephone.)

Public Speaking:You Can Do It! (http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler3/scripts/category.pl?EBooks) is an e-book with more tips on coping with stage fright, writing and delivering presentations. Diction Makes a Difference and Learn to Pronounce American English More Clearly are other e-books on related topics.

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive, targeted coaching and concise e-books on verbal communication skills. Great speech makes business sense!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

The King's Speech

The King's Speech is an amazing movie about a man who becomes king after his brother abdicates the throne. The new king, George the Sixth, happens to be a stutterer. He receives "speech therapy" from a self-taught speech coach. Despite that lack of formal training, the movie very effectively shows the courage of the King whenever he had to speak, as well as the bond of trust that grows between a speech pathologist and client.
Today's well-trained speech/language pathologists use different techniques and equipment than did the speech coach in the movie. However, whether a speech/language pathologist works in educational or medical settings, private practice or the corporate world, the bond of trust remains the same. As a speech/language pathologist, it is a privilege to help clients learn to communicate more effectively.

Business Speech Improvement (www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com) provides intensive, targeted speech training and speech therapy to clients in business and industry.
Training is provided in-person and via e-books. Check our website for our Open Enrollment classes, individual coaching, and e-books on many topics!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Improving Diction: Getting Your Message Across - the First Time

There are many causes for poor diction, such as speaking too fast, lack of self-confidence in certain situations, weakness or in-coordination of your mouth's muscles, to a hearing loss.
(If you don't hear clearly, you may not know you are not saying certain sounds.)

One tip you can try to improve your diction is to actually listen to yourself speak.
Record your speech when reading aloud, when talking to a friend, or even when describing your surroundings to yourself. Are there certain sounds you are not saying clearly? Do you speak too fast? Ask your friends or colleagues for advice about when you speak less clearly. If your diction has worsened significantly recently, check with your physician; it may be a sign of a neurological problem. For other speech impairments, you may want to have a speech evaluation from a speech pathologist.

General exercises to improve diction can be found in the e-book "Diction Makes A Difference". Intensive reading practice combined with audio files can be found in
"Learn to pronounce American English more clearly." Both can be gotten from http://businessspeechimprovement.com/enabler3/scripts/category.pl?EBooks.

Business Speech Improvement provides training in verbal communication skills.
Coaching and e-books from a corporate speech pathologist are available on many topics, including diction, accent modification, public speaking, executive communication, profession-specific communication and more!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

What will you be doing a year from today?

A friend reported that she feels she has wasted this past year. When I asked what she would like to be doing a year from today, she didn't know. As a sage put it, if you don't know where you're going, how will you get there?

Write down your goals of what you want to happen by a year from today. Think about goals relating to your health, your family or social life, your work, your involvement in the community, financial goals, leisure goals or whatever is most important. Make the goals specific, realistic and time-bound. Then figure out a tiny step you can take towards each of them this week. For example, in the financial goals, maybe you want to compare car insurance rates to see if you can save money, or brown-bag your lunch three times this week. For the health goal, maybe you could drink an extra glass of water or eat an extra serving of steamed vegetables each day. Then take a few minutes each day and imagine yourself in a year, having met your goals! Think of the self-confidence this would give you. This goal exercise is a great exercise for work or personal use.

Business Speech Improvement (www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com) provides intensive training in executive communication skills, accent modification, presentation skills and much more. Services are provided through in-person coaching and through e-books, available 24/7. Great speech makes business sense!