If you are a stand-up comic or a natural story teller, you may well decide to use humour as a way of making your presentations or public speaking opportunities memorable. For the rest of us, it is a high risk strategy.
There are three main reasons why attempts at humour in presentations and speeches can fall [...]

In public speaking you only get one chance to make a first impression. In a presentation you may have no more than 10, and at the most 30 seconds to make an impression on your audience. The opening to a presentation is in many ways the most critical part and it always pays to plan [...]

Speaking up to anyone in authority can be difficult and high risk. If you get it wrong, it could be career limiting. But it may be the only way to remove feelings of frustration and dis-empowerment at work and can be a powerful way to increase your resilience.
One of the conversations that most people avoid is asking [...]

The old saying that ‘practice makes perfect’ is inaccurate. The only way to do things better is to obtain feedback. This holds true whether you’re trying to play better golf or improve your performance at work. Using feedback effectively is a key element in building up resilience.
Everyone needs both positive and negative feedback. Unfortunately, our [...]

When you get into a negative state, like the way you feel after a bad sales call, or a disagreement with someone you love, you feel depressed, miserable and without energy. When you know how to put yourself into a positive state you can bounce back with energy and resilience.
1. Make a physical change
If you [...]

When the going gets tough and you have lost your bounce, it is easy to think only of what is difficult and what is going wrong. Resilient people have learned to focus on positive thoughts to build up their self esteem and energy. It doesn’t mean being unrealistic or denying reality. It just means you cope better.
Here [...]

Toxic people are those whose attitudes and behaviour poison the environment. They blame, complain and criticise, put people down, and infect everyone with their pessimism, negativity and bad humour. Some moan about anyone they see as more successful than they are; some are angry; others are bullies who dominate and humiliate anyone they see as [...]

Positive thinking is an assumption or mental attitude that expects successful outcomes and good results. It puts you in a better position to tackle whatever is coming at you. Negative thinking is also an assumption but it is debilitating and depressing.  It drains your energy and that of everyone around you. You can choose whether [...]

Another year! How are you going to find the energy to get through another one?
Resilience is the ability to keep going even when you have change and challenge in your life and you’re finding it tough. Resilience is about behaviour, not character or personality. That means you can learn to do it. An important thing [...]

They sent me on the training course
They didn’t make it clear
They haven’t come back to me
They didn’t do it right the first time
They never answer the phone
I have heard all of these statements this week. It’s been quite a week! They seem to be everywhere, messing up our lives as usual. They have a lot [...]