Speak First Blog | COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Getting ahead in negotiations: Reading and controlling body language
The most skilled poker players can win even when they’re holding a terrible hand. That’s because they know how to read their opponents’ body language and control their own. They’ll pick up on the ...
Read morePlan, write, review: The 3 steps to improve your business writing
Writing is a central skill for many jobs. Emails to clients, reporting results, sharing progress updates, offering feedback, writing proposals, creating marketing copy and technical instructions are ...
Powering up your body language: 6 ways to project confidence
People often joke about how bad Superman’s disguise is. Surely people would see past Clark Kent’s glasses and recognise he’s the famous superhero? There’s a scene in the 1978 ‘Superman’ movie that ...
Overcoming writer's block: 5 tips for finishing those reports
Whether you’re writing a financial report, an email update to your manager or team, or a blog for your company’s website, it can often feel overwhelming starting a new writing project. Sometimes the ...
Staying in touch: 6 tips for great internal remote communication
It’s been a year since offices closed and entire workforces began working remotely. In that time, we’ve published a number of articles on how to improve your virtual presentations or sales, but it’s ...
It's Good to Talk: 5 Practical Steps to Managing Difficult Conversations
There are many different types of difficult conversation that you can have, and what’s considered difficult will be different for each of us. For managers, it could be having to give negative ...
Managing workplace conflict
Psychologist Bruce Tuckman identified four stages of group development: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.1
How to deliver bad news
In life and in business, at some point you will have to deliver bad news to someone. Perhaps you’re announcing lay-offs, you’ve lost a major client, or the office has to move. Sometimes the news ...
8 steps for effective listening
Humanity has evolved from Neanderthals, who communicated with grunts and points, into having complex systems of language and words that we use to impart information and share ideas with each other. ...