Chris Labash's Communication Habits Blog

Guest Post - Dan Li

2012-02-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

Dan is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about meetings.

Meeting isan important part of people’s lives. We take all kinds of meetings every day,and it seems endless. As an international student in CMU, I’ve taken meetingswith American, Chinese, Indian,Japanese, Europeans and so on. People from different countries behave reallydifferent, and I have to say meeting a reflectionof culture.

As aChinese, I was used to keep quite in a meeting. I’d like to listen to otherpeople’s opinions and think carefully about their words. It seems like meetingis a place for me to learn. The firsttime I took a meeting with American guys is in C-squad. They really liketalking. In other words, they keep talking, which seems never stop. We quicklyfind a big problem about out meeting. It seems like an outsider of the meetingand I never got a chance to express my idea. Thus they encourage me to talk and participate in them. I tried veryhard to be more active in meetings since It makes meeting more efficient and Ibelieve this is the first step for me to accept their culture.

I also gotshock the first time I took a meeting with Indian guys. That’s a meeting wearranged to talk about out finance homework. We set the meeting time to be 10am at Heinz. I arrived very early since it’s polite to be early for the first meeting in my country. However, mypartner didn’t show up until 10:30. It’s unbelievable in my culture, but now Iaccept it since it’s their culture. Even though Indian guys may not be on time,but they are very serious and active in meetings. They would express theiropinions very clearly and keep exchanging ideas with you until they get asatisfactory result. I think that’s what I need to learn.

I’ve alsotaken meetings with Japanese. Their meeting culture is much similar with mine.They also polite and quite in meetings and listen to other people’s opinioncarefully. There is one thing that impresses me a lot. Most of them are precisian.They would make a detailed schedule of each meeting and keep taking notes ofother people’s opinion.

Above are whatI’ve experienced in different meetings. They are totally different, but I thinkgood meetings have some common features, such as good schedule, thoroughexchange of views, and a clear purpose, which is the most important thing.

Guest Post - Vidhi Shah

2012-02-12T00:03:00.000-08:00

Vidhi is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about communication.

Oncea blind man was sitting in a corner of a busy New York street and was beggingfor money. There was an empty cup in front of her and “I’m Blind – Please help”was written on it. Every minute atleast 30-35 people looked at the cup, readthe line and passed by without giving a single penny. A sane man was observingthis situation for an hour.Then he went near the cup, changed the tag on thecup and put the cup on its previous position. Suddenly, within a few hourspeople started feeling the cup with money and the cup was overflowing. Theblind man asked the stranger what is written on the paper on cup and thestranger said “Today is beautiful. You can see it, but I can not!”

Mymother told me this story when I was 13. The story was touching, but in true senseit demonstrated the power of effective communication and persuasion. The changeof words persuaded the people to donate the money. However it is not this easyto persuade people today. One of the major factors to aid persuasion is OralCommunication. The victory speech in 2008 by President Obama comes to my mindwhen I think of persuasive speeches. I was in India but after listening to hiswords, I was convinced that he would get the United States out of recession.This is the power of oral communication. Being precise, logical and articulatecan do wonders while communicating, especially at work place.

According to the study by AlbertMehrabian¹, there are 3 main elements of face-to-face communication.Only 7% of the communication happens by words while 38% by tone of the wordsand 55% by body language. The figures consolidate my stand on the importance oforal communications. When you have such a small proportion of communicationthrough words, the challenge of conveying your thoughts effectively becomeseven more daunting. The trick is that ‘it is more about what the audience wantsto hear than about what you want to tell them’.

Today’s world requires that we be evenmore effective while communicating. Each of us would have suffered at leastonce due to ineffective communication. So how do we excel in an activity thatis so important to be successful in life? The key is in making the firstimpression. We need to put ourselves in the listener’s shoes and treating eachperson individually. There is no blanket approach to communication. Howeveronce a good first impression is made, most of the words spoken would go intothe 7% category stated earlier.

To conclude, effective oralcommunication can vary from being the most appropriate way to convince and persuadepeople to being the most difficult way to do the same.

Guest Post - Steven Suchora

2012-02-11T23:56:00.000-08:00

Steven is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about meetings.

Why Do We Still HaveMeetings?

“I love going to meetings! Don’t you?”

Wow, that’s not something you hear often, is it? We spend, on average, 5.7 years of our lifeattending meetings. Many of thosemeetings are unnecessary, so it’s no surprise that many of us would rather nothave our workday disrupted by having a meeting.

Why, then, do we have still meetings? With the advent of modern communicationtechnology, such as two way video conferencing, meeting in one designatedphysical location seems unnecessary. There are three key advantages to having a face-to-face meeting.

First, a meeting allows all members to quickly share new information. Every time we get together as a group isanother opportunity to add to and change the collective sum of groupknowledge. Gathering in the samephysical space to share our insight and perspective with others at a personallevel can trigger the dynamic generation of new ideas.

Second, a meeting helps to define the team. Each person at the meeting is taking precioustime to be there and therefore has a vested interest in making sure that themeeting is a worthy use of time. Thus,each person feels a sense of being part of a team via this shared commitment tothe meeting.

Third, a meeting can help elicit greater commitment fromparticipants to fulfill goals and accomplish tasks. If someone announces to everyone at themeeting that he or she will commit to a specific task or goal, that individualis more likely to fulfill his or her obligations. This is due to an internally felt sense ofpsychological commitment to our peers.

Thus, even though we may not like to attend meetings, anin-person meeting can help accomplish goals and move your organization forwardin ways that digital communication tools could not.

Sources:

Labash,Chris. "Better Meetings." Heinz College, CMU, Pittsburgh, PA. 6 Feb. 2012. Lecture.

TheScotsman. "Meetings Waste 5.7 Yearsof Your Life." Scotsman.com.EasyBib: Free Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago Citation Styles, 21 Aug.2008. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.<http://www.scotsman.com/news/meetings_waste_5_7_years_of_your_life_1_1087079>.

Guest Post - Sowmya Saragadam

2012-02-11T23:50:00.000-08:00

Sowmya is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about meetings.

Someone said “Many heads are better than one!”. When people meet and come up with solutionsto a problem on hand, you see the wide variety of directions the discussion goesinto. This in turn helps people to come out with better solutions as well. Itdoesn’t mean that one should have meetings for every trivial issue that couldotherwise be solved through less time-taking means, say through a phone call oran email.

Now if we have to start talking about meetings,the first and foremost thing I would like to tell is “never be late to ameeting”. One should realize that goinglate to a meeting is as bad as going late to an examination. Rather worse! Inan examination, it’s just you who is responsible for your own self,whereas if you go late to a meeting you might waste someone else’s time inupdating you about what has happened so far. Punctuality reflects yoursincerity and commitment towards your job.

Make sure everyone introduces himself or herself,especially if they are all meeting for the first time. It is always nicer havingsome optimistic and energetic people in a meeting who can help brighten thespirits of others while contributing to the discussion, instead of havingsomeone who would create an unpleasant atmosphere. It is ideal to have lessthan ten members in a meeting in order to make sure time is spent effectivelycommunicating with each other about the topic at hand than in managing themselves.Before one comes to a meeting, he/she should have an idea about what themeeting is about. That shall give a heads up to the person to get well versed withthe related issues before hand in order to be able to contribute better. Thatwould also make the person feel more involved and responsible for the meeting.

The meeting place should be easily accessible to everyone.I would say one should carry some cash, for parking, if one is going to ameeting in a new area. The best time for a meeting would differ depending onwho all are involved in the meeting. Say, if you were an employee of a 9am-5pmfirm, you would not be very enthusiastic about attending a meeting at 4:30pm! Also,towards the end of the week, say a Friday evening would be a time to hit a barand not go to a serious meeting.

The agenda for the meeting should highlight criticalissues as well as the critical success factors. Keep the issue in front of youand ask yourself, or others, “why” five times, and that would help you understandthe critical issues easily. Don’t scare away people with a 10 page agenda,instead try to keep it small, say limit it to a page. If youhave too many issues to be discussed, you can sort the issues into differentbuckets and have more than one meeting, in order to solve them. It would alsobe helpful and more organized if you can be precise; i.e. decide on what isgoing to be discussed by whom and in how much time. You should always make surethat there are conversations and suggestions flowing in the meeting room andnot arguments and demands. You should come out of the meeting room with anagreement in hand. If not an agreement, at least have all the opinions of themembers jotted down, in order to come up with a solution considering all thepositives and negatives of the feedbacks. Also, before wrapping up a meeting,you should make it clear to everyone about what has been concluded on, as wellas decide on a timing and a place for the next meeting, if necessary.

Guest Post - Mayank Mantani

2012-02-11T23:44:00.000-08:00

Mayank is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about job interviews.

Getting a job is no longer an “apply-appear-approved” deal.In the era of globalization, exposure, cutting edge competition and focusedspecialization; it has become the need of the hour to align an individual withthe organization, as well as the job title, the job description, and itsrespective entailments.

We have known our parents and their parents, and them theirs,to work decades in a specific job as a duty and nothing more. Passion has beenlacking in the majority of people we know of the bygone generations, and jobsatisfaction has been somewhat of a whimsical paradox. What changed? Here, onecan point out that the change has been an oxymoron, a bad good if you must. Ittook the world time aplenty to figure out what lacked. Passion is the answer toit, the answer to happiness in that 9 to 5, the satisfaction of contributingsomething to the world and not just scrounging food for the family. To quoteAnnie Gottlier- “It’s so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to.”

This is the reason why we must choose something that welove, and not what we think the world will love about us. Mind you, no work isany less respectable, only when it comes to loving what you do, can you achievea true corporate nirvana.

Finding what you want to do in life is not just a singlebrainstorm process with your parents or the school counselor; it’s having atalk with yourself. What ticks you, what excites you and what you see yourselfdoing, and doing happily at that, ten years down the line.

Chances are, what you want to do will be a lot differentthan what you will attain if you lack that razor sharp focus. To this, oneneeds to follow a certain protocol. From the basic steps to knowing the fieldyou will choose, to shortlisting the loosely based fields in the same genre foryou to experiment; it is a huge intellectual and challenging experience. Onceyou’ve got that covered, one must brainstorm with veterans of the same field toget insight that no search engine, no book, no colleague can give. This insightcomes from experience. To bend your head down in humility, and learn the artfrom the masters will give you a much-required jumpstart in the industry.

Simultaneously with this, networking is extremely important.The idea is to let you out there. Seek challenges; be always up for tasks thatwill let you go that extra mile. After all, finding a job is not just gettinghome a paycheck, it is writing your identity in a life manual called resume.What best than pick something that’s a heart’s desire backed by sheer greyintellect.

Lately, social networking has provided a boost to theprofessionals by connecting them at a single click. Websites such as Linkedinconnect professionals from over the world in their desired respectiveindustries. Increasingly it has become a platform to find jobs, recruitprofessionals and connect companies engaging in sought after business deals.

For every working professional once in their life comes apoint, where they come across a job which requires the perfect use of theirskill set and provides opportunities to feed their hunger to grow.

To focus on ‘that’ ideal company, it’s pertinent tostrengthen your foothold in the networking industry. This can be done throughvarious mediums such as career fairs, online opportunities, recruitingagencies, industry specific seminars etc.

Web is proving to be quite an effective medium where fastgrowing companies are adept at updating their needs and requirements to theworld of applicants. Continuous networking with the company personnel will putyou in the front row of the candidacy.

The quest for the ideal job will only be converted toreality when one does not indiscriminately hand out resumes; rather a needspecific applying behavior is adopted. Applying wherever one can lay hands onwill only dilute your vision from what should be your focus. Know the job; knowthe company, the product, the industry, and the working environment. Once itfits the bill, make sure you know the company profile in and out, like you areon the payroll already. Hard core knowledge about the company profile is thefirst step to landing that perfect job.

If there is one advice to be given to find a perfect job,frankly there will be none. Although a continuous pursuit with enthusiasm tolearn and the ability to connect will surely put you on the right path till youcan find that job that we call a dream come true. Finally, one must neverforget the ethics of a job. In the end, a job is not a mere stepping-stone tosuccess for you. Always be up to contributing to the organization you work for,and never shy away from additional responsibility.

Guest Post - Tsung Cheng Lee

2012-02-11T23:38:00.000-08:00

Tsung Cheng is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about meetings.

What is a successful Meeting? In my point of view, a successfulMeeting is to use the shortestpossible time to achieve thegoal of the meeting, and all participants reach their expectation and satisfaction. In other words,we will have to build consensus quickly and effectively while we onlyhave limited resources and time, and solve the problems we faced together. This conceptis very straight forward, but how to implement it is a big issue. I think I canapply what I’ve learned in the public speaking course on how to organize asuccessful meeting. They have different tunes rendered with equal skill. Here are my thoughts:

First of all,whenever we want to take an action, the first thing we need to consider is to alwaysask ourselves, “What is our purpose?” Different purposes could lead todifferent solutions and results. Making the right goal is more important thanworking very hard but is in a wrong direction. That is also why people think “dothe right thing” is more important than “do the thing right”. For example, isthe purpose of a meeting is just to let everyone knows each other, and then weshould put too much detail about the business in the content. Another exampleis that, if we want to discuss about the marketing strategy for the nextseason, then we should not prepare too much irrelevant material such astechnology in the meeting. In other words, state out purpose can let us knowwhat the right thing to do is. It is commonly seen that people work so hard forthe meeting but they forget the main purpose. In this case, their efforts arein vain. Thus, a clearly stated purpose can make the participantsgo on the right direction. Also, if we want to make some future plans in themeeting, a clear goal will help a lot!

Second, if we want to have a lecture or presentation, theother important thing is that “we have to know our audience”. Same concept inthe meeting, we will have to know the participants well, especially for the person whoheld the meeting. Knowing people will can not only lead an effective meeting,but also create a harmonious atmosphere in the meeting. For instance, say we wantto present our new product in a meeting, who is in the meeting will affect howwe want to present it. Presenting to the president or to the new employee makesa lot of differences. We also have to consider the participants’ background. Ifthe participants in the meeting are all engineer, then I can express my wordmore technically. On the other hand, if I am facing the sales department, evenif the purpose is the same, I may use different terms to describe the things Iwant to emphasize. Therefore, it is always better to do some research on your participantsin your meeting, and then you will know the right thing to say.

Lastbut not least, I also recalled what professor said in class, what is the key ininterview? He said it is relax! I totally agree with him because relax is notonly a mental condition, but it also means you are ready. We have to beprepared on every important occasion including meeting. If we want to have aneffective meeting, then every participant should know what material he/she isgoing to be prepared and what homework he/she should be done before meeting. Onceeveryone is ready, then everything in the meeting can be done in an efficientway and no additional time will be wasted. Also, if participants are relaxed,then the atmosphere will no longer be tense. This is the reason way I think “relaxingtheory” can also be applied in meetings.

There are still many key issues are important to a meeting, such as timecontrol, good interaction and feedback…etc. But I think if we can follow thethree fundamental rules I’ve talked above, then everything else is just detail.We could definitely enjoy our great meeting :)

Guest Post - Mannar Karyampudi

2012-02-11T23:33:00.000-08:00

Mannar is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about communication.

Magic of Persuasion

Steve Jobsstewards the Apple story successfully despite the product’s seemingly obviousflaws or missing functionality. Most of Apple’s products have been stunningsuccesses not just because they were good products, but they were backed bypowerful persuasive techniques.

According to Aristotle, the three core elements that one should to possess inorder to be persuasive

1 Ethos

2 Logos

Pathos

Ethos isabout empathy & emotional appeals; Logos is about credibility and trustwhile Pathos is about logical appeals. Ethos happens to be most intriguing of allpersuasive techniques, and also my favorite amongst the others. Elements ofpersuasion in emotional zone go beyond any logical or rational explanation.Once you convince someone by tapping their emotional region of the brain, ithas the potential to override rationality and logic.

Do any ofthese things resonate with Steve Jobs?

Steve Jobs had earned the credibility in technology industry but logic was not alwayson his side. Is it possible to justify selling a product that costs in twice orthrice as much when compared to the competition, when in reality Apple Productswere only marginally better? This I think is where the power of emotionalpersuasion comes into play. Steve Jobs, more often than not, was at his best withhis emotional appeals.

Below inan excerpt of Steve Job’s speech in one of his keynotes

“You always had to be a littledifferent to buy an Apple computer.”

“I think you had to think differently when you bought a Mac. It was atotally different computer and used a totally different part of your brain”

“I think the people who buy them do think differently; they are thecreative spirits in the world. They are the people who are not just outto get a job done, they are out to change the world and they are out to changethe world using whatever great tools they can get.”

“Because a lot of times peoplethink they’re crazy; but in that craziness we see genius and those are thepeople we’re making tools for”

Does Emotional persuasion reallywork?

Everythingthat was said about Apple users being creative etc. should not go down wellwith a rational mind. All that Steve Jobs says is easily disputable /dismissible, and yet he succeeds in selling the story. To start with, SteveJobs was very sure of himself and was not afraid tobe rude. This might seem counter intuitive, but this quality in some sense isemotionally very persuasive, persuasive because of passion with which he holdson to his beliefs. People who brought Apple products really believed in what isbeing said about them.

Ourdecisions and choices that we make are driven more by emotional power thanrationality. And it is not surprising that even research on decision makingestablishes that, decisions usually are rationalized after they were made,whereas the actual process of decision making itself relies heavily onemotions. Steve Jobs was very successful at persuading/convincing users to buytry its products, because the idea of using its products were emotionallyrewarding.

Why emotional persuasion isimportant?

AArron Walterin his book ‘Designing for Emotion’ points out 2 important side benefits if onesuccessfully taps the left side of the brain.

1) People will forgive shortcomings,follow your lead, and sing your praises if you reward them with positiveemotion.

2) Great content delivered in anemotionally engaging manner is like kryptonite for user apathy.

Emotionalpersuasion is a very important technique to sustaining loyalty; however this isnot supplementary to Pathos and Logos, but more of a complimentary one. Havingsaid that Emotional persuasion can always be a double edged sword, as much aspeople respond positively to emotional persuasion, they also tend to reactstrongly in a negative way if not done right. Hence care should be taken whiletrying to wield this technique.

Guest Post - Neharika Kadali

2012-02-11T23:22:00.000-08:00

Neha is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about job interviews.

Withhundred and one ways to land a job interview, it is quite exhausting to choosethe perfect path to search for a job. The compelling question that haunted meday in and day out in my initial stages while I was applying for an internshipwas which course of line should I be taking. I had expertise in programming,should I be a Programmer? The courses I would be taking are more management inclined,should I be looking into relevant jobs? The most important thing that I loveabout life is the story behind every face I come across, should I beincorporating the same motto in my job search and look for jobs that require myinterpersonal skills? I realized I was doing it all wrong. Rather than thinkingin every way all at once. I should break it down into piece by piece andanalyze. The questions I should be asking myself are, what is the best for me?How useful I could be for the company?

Thequestions came easily to me but finding solutions for them took some effort. Tobe critical on oneself would be the hardest part, as one has to narrow down his/herchoices. I am everything that happened to me in the course of time. Like yourbehavior depends on the way you were brought up and circumstances you havefaced. My professionalism depends on the skills you have acquired, the lessons youlearnt the hard way in a professional atmosphere, the projects you have doneand the passion you developed towards the kind of work you did. Once I havetaken this approach, it was easy for me to pin down the industry I wanted towork in; the kind of job I wanted to do.

Once thelife’s hardest question is answered; I thought it was going to be easy fromhere. Keeping the industry in mind, I made a list of jobs I was interested inand where my acquired skills would be useful. I developed my resume around thekind of work I have done, my experience, class projects and my extracurricularactivities. I started applying to the jobs and simultaneously started workingon my interview.

The firstthing I did when preparing for my job interview is to know as many things as Icould about the company. The culture of the firm, how the company has evolved,what kind of markets it is in, what’s the motto of the company etc. I made sureI was up-to-date with the current ventures of the company. I practicedintroduction in front of the mirror. I incorporated everything the employershould know about me in 5 logical and concise lines. When I was doing theresearch, I was bombarded with lots of questions. I noted all of them and screenedthe ones, which would be useful for me to understand the company better. Givena chance, I could ask these questions to the interviewer during the interview processto keep the interviewer engaged. The interview should be an exchange of ideas,a pleasant interesting conversation that leaves the interviewer disappointedwhen it is finally coming to an end.

From mypersonal experience, I strongly believe feedback is as important as theinterview process. It helps you in not repeating a mistake. Sending theinterviewer a ‘thank you’ note is the best way to get it. It also gives youanother chance to woo the interviewer. If there is a particular question heasked in the interview which you weren’t satisfied with the answer, writing himabout it might give you a shot at the job. It also conveys you are genuinelyinterested in the job.

On theday of the interview, rather than hurrying with so many things in head, youhave to relax. It is going to be a good conversation; you will learn a lot ofthings from the interview. The best that could happen is you will get the job;the worst would be you have gained enough experience to try the next best one.

Guest Post - Huayi Zhu

2012-02-11T23:09:00.000-08:00

Huayi is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. This post is about job interviews.

To get an ideal job is a big project. It takes a lot ofeffort and can be very frustrating.

The first issue is when should you start. If you ask thisquestion to anyone who has experience in job hunting, most likely, you will getthe answer: as early as possible.

This is because the thing that matters most for you to get ajob is your background. Since academic background is kind of unchangable foreach person, you should probably focus on your professional background.

There are a lot of ways to make you more professional. Thefirst choice should be finding internship positions in related fields. Forexample, one who wants to go to Google is encouraged to take some internship inthose technical companies that provide web based services. If you don’t havesuch a good opportunity to work in the industry, or you just simply have a veryheavy workload, another wonderful choice is to take courses with large relatedprojects. Finally, all these precious experiences can be wrapped into yourresume.

After you build a solid background in your field, it is thetime to send out your resumes. There are various ways to get your resume reachrecuiters’ hands. The first one comes to your mind must be through companies’online application systems. This method works but since these companies’recuiters receive hundreds of resumes every day, it will be very hard to makeyour resume stand out. A better way to deliver your resume is through yourschool’s career service. Like CMU’s TartanTRAK, almost all the universitiesprovide job application systems for their students. The best way to getrecuiters’ attention is through reference. If you know someone in the company,and s/he is willing to refer you and hands your resume directly to therecuiter, you will probably receive an interview invitation. The referer can beyour professor, your friend, your alumni or just someone you meet in anetworking meeting. This brings building and expanding a professional networkto a very important position. Again, you should try to build such a network asearly as possible.

Now fortunately, you get an interviewinvitation, you know what you should do: prepare for it. First, you shouldfigure out which kind of questions you will be asked. Expect for some basicquestions like “tell me something about yourself” or “go through your resumefor me”, interview questions can bequite dependent on the certain company and the certain position you apply. Thebest way to get less confused is search “historical data” on the web. For instance,you can find thousands of former interview questions for the software engineerposition in Google. Then you task is simply answer these questions and practiceyour answer.

Guest Post - Bo Wang

2012-02-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

Bo is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about meetings.

In the realbusiness world, meeting, as a way that provides face-to-face communication anddirect interaction, also poses the question of how to conduct a meeting bothefficiently and productively. As the host of a meeting, knowing how to drivethe session into this direction requires one to have a thorough understandingof what makes the participants feel good and worthwhile after spending theirvaluable time sitting with you.

I would use‘3A’ to represent the three factors that may set a line between a good meetingand a bad one. Namely, they are anticipation, attention and atmosphere. Notethat the definition of ‘good’ focuses on the context of the objectives proposedat the beginning of this article. That is, efficiency and productivity.Certainly there are many other criteria to gauge the successfulness of ameeting, but those two are of the most importance and usually determines howpeople feel about a meeting.

Firstly, anticipation means that the host shouldmake it clear what are the expected results of the meeting. And it should bestated at the beginning so that everyone has a clear clue about why they arethere and what they could contribute to the meeting. It would be a lot easierfor the host to keep the meeting on the right track if everyone knows wherethis conversation should go. If you don’t have a clue about what is theanticipation of a meeting? Be prepared to consume several hours there, I wouldcharge my smart phone 100% in advance.

Secondly, howto get a hold of everyone’s attentionis the vital skill for a communicator. In order to achieve this, the host can simplyremind everyone by articulating “Can I have your attention please?” or raisingthe voice when there is a tendency that someone is going to fall asleep. Or, ina smarter way, experienced host might cope with this situation by, for example,keeping the opinions concise, being humorous during a certain point, or kindlyasking for feedback so that everyone is thinking and all the minds are on thesame page.

Thirdly, theoverall control of the whole atmosphereexamines the host’s ability to communicate in a broader sense. Don’t be nervousas the host, since others in the room are counting on you and observing you sothey can decide how they should behave in the session. Setting the tone bystarting with some small talks, making others resonate with you by talkingabout Super bowl, or a newly released movie, etc. A relaxing and properlyloosed atmosphere generally correlated with the previously two factors: peoplecould think more carefully about the topic of the meeting and draw moreattention when they feel comfortable.

To be a goodhost in a meeting, it is not just about your understanding of the material, butalso relates to easygoing personality, strong logic ability, acute timesensitivity, and how sexy you are. Oh, just kidding about the last one, but whoknows? If you are not just take it literally.

By the way,I always love the sexier one.

Guest Post - Lauren Selleck

2012-02-11T22:34:00.000-08:00

Lauren is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about communication.

Technologyis becoming a more dominant means of communication and non-verbal communicationcan offer so many insights. How much impact does oral communication still havetoday? When difficult conversations can be avoided and addressed through email,persuading people can be done through a power-point presentation, and break-upscan happen via text message; oral communication is becoming even more rare.Although oral communication has become down played within today’s society, itis still the most important way to make sure your ideas and thoughts are beingreceived in the correct and most successful manner.

Thereare multiple factors that go into how oral communication is presented andreceived such as the relationship between two people or the ages of the parties.In a study done on married couples, more balanced couples resulted from communicationcontaining positive re-enforcement or just plain information[1]. Conversations can beinterpreted in many ways by many different kinds of people, but what makes themeffective? How do we get our ideas and points across? First let us defineverbal communication as the exchanging of opinions or information via speech[2]. While communicationitself also takes into account writing or symbolic ways of exchanging opinionsor information, I will focus mostly on how to achieve efficient speech.

With allthe different verbal messages we are being sent it is difficult to sift throughthem and get the true meaning behind the verbal communication. Having difficultconversations are uncomfortable and can make the person receiving theinformation on the defensive end. Persuasive conversations can try and open aperson up to a new way of thinking. Any type of oral communication can bereceived and delivered effectively if both parties are open to the emotions andreasons behind the information or opinion[3]. The emotional drivebehind communication opens the door to letting people step into your shoes. Byputting yourself in the other person’s position emotionally, you are able tounderstand clearly what they are saying and why they are saying it3. Conversations become more positive and canenhance relationships just by creating a more transparent flow of informationthrough emotional responsiveness.

Thequestion is how do we pull these emotions out of each other to become moreeffective communicators. Common tools used are mirroring, Socrates questioningand being an effective listener. Mirroring is when you repeat the informationor certain non-verbal cues you have just heard/seen as a way to make the otherparty feel comfortable thus helping them open up and make his/her emotions clearer.On the same note, Socrates questioning asks opened ended questions instead ofyes/no questions, which help lead to more information or feelings on the topic.While these tools will help the party open up emotionally, you must also bewilling to listen for the emotion in the response and respond effectively.

Whethergiving a speech to a group of people, talking about yourself at a jobinterview, or having a conversation with your parents, keep an open mind andget a feel of the emotions behind the words. When you listen to the words, pickup on the emotions, and respond accordingly, you too can have effectivereal-world oral communication.

[1] Rausch, H., Barry, W., Hertel, R., & Swain, M. Communication,conflict and marriages. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1974.

[2] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/communication

[3] Robinson, L., Segal, J., & Segal, R. (2011, July).Effective Communication. RetrievedJanuary 23, 2012, from Help Guide: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/eq4_emotion_communicates.htm

Guest Post - Zhi Li

2012-02-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

Zhi is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about job interviews.

Many people are trying toget a full-time position or internship from a company in the U.S while they arestill at school and are about to graduate. And the first step and one of themost critical parts would be getting the job interview which is the only chancethat let your employer know more about you and decide to whether or not to hireyou. In the following of this passage I’d like to talk about how to getinterviews from the company you want.

First of all, you shouldthink of a list of companies that you wish to work for. This is importantbecause I always consider one should try his best to find a job that match thecombination of personal interests and skills. Otherwise he will find the job boring,which is not good for personal growth and career path.

After you have your ownlist, you can begin browse their websites for more information and availablepositions that offered. Then, just pick some positions that you are interestedand match your academic and professional skills and also make a list, separatethem into different group according to their main functions, like “SoftwareDeveloper”, “Technology Analyst” and so on. According to different groups youshould prepare different resume.

Preparation of Resume isthe core part of this passage. A brilliant resume would definitely help you getinterviews from companies that you want to work for. It is the only way throughwhich the recruiting team to know about you before giving you the interview.Thus it would be very important to have an attractive resume.

A good resume focus moreon the content itself other than the format. A beautifully formatted resumewith boring or not match contents definitely would not let you to gain aninterview. A good resume is generated through multiple modified and updated.

Actually, I think theprocess of writing resume is a good opportunity for ones to reflect onthemselves. They have to figure out what they did and accomplished which makingthemselves match the positions they are applying for. So, trust me, just spendmore time on writing the resume.

Another significant thingis your submitted resume should show that you are the right person who ismatching the posted position. Do not only put everything you do previously onthe resume to show you are experienced. What the employee looking for iswhether you are Mr. Right for the position.

There are lots of factorsin whether one can get interview from a company. But better preparation alwaysmakes you exposed to more opportunity.

Guest Post - Mengze Li

2012-02-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

Mengze is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about communication.

My understandingabout secret of communication - Persuasion

I have a habit of reviewing all the notes taken during theclass and then go through all of them again during the weekend. This alwayshelps to let me reconsider our interactions with the professor and myinvolvement in it. Thus I can make amendments accordingly.

In the first lecture, the professor opened the course by“being late” on purpose which brought in the discussion about first impression.Then the usual introduction section once again exposed different inappropriatebehaviors of everyone who presented on the stage in front of 20 people, more orless.

I couldn’t help thinking about my first public presentationin front of hundreds of campers in Li Yang Crazy English Summer Camp as aTeaching Assistant back in main land China. I thought I could easily nail asimple class self-introduction. But I was terribly wrong.

1) I kept my hands on the table while I was talkingand lean towards the audience.

2) I spoke lengthy, complicated sentences withoutpauses or stress.

3) I ended with a “That’s it” which did leave a positiveimpression to the listeners.

After the explanation of professor and seeing the videomyself, the question “How to be a communicator” pondered in my brain and Iimmediately got some answer from Lecture 2. Among all the great words“confidence, connect, relax, knowledge, enthusiasm, direct, persuasiveness,patience, respect, passionate, simplicity, prepared and polite”, I willdefinitely go with persuasiveness. Because in my perspective, all other factorscontribute to the fact of persuasion and the final result of all goodcommunication lead to one result – people understand and agree with what youare saying.

Then how can one be persuasive in general? Through Internetresearch, among all the articles I read, I found one extremely intriguing andsomehow naughty that I want to share with you (http://www.rinkworks.com/persuasive/).

“To be persuasive, you must make use of a number of differenttactics. The more you can utilize in conjunction with each other, the more persuasiveyour argument will be.” The author said.

The techniques are consisted of verbal techniques andphysical techniques. Some of them are obviously messing around and I laughedout loud when I read the examples, but all of them have an element of truth worthconsidering. In the video shown at the very first in Lecture 3 on Monday, wecan also see some examples of the following strategies.

Verbal Technique:

· Stubbornness: never concede that your opponentmight ever possibly be right and repeat what

you say all the time.

Strategic Compromise: Never compromise your mainpoint. Introduce points that you don’t care, compromise on them later and trickyour opponent into conceding.

· Big Words: Use big words several times over tomake other people look stupid and taking

longer means more convincing.

· Forgetfulness: In the middle of the argument,forget what you are talking about which show your

component that he is soutterly wrong.

· Interruption: Talk and interrupt your component relentlessly,especially when your opponent is

also trying to talk.

· Lies: If facts don’t prove your point, makesomething up.

· Rhymes: make up a nonsensical rhyming word to gowith your response.

· Taunting: intimidate your component intosubmission

· Random Comments: last ditch effort used inan emergency by saying something irrelevant

“Clearly”: suggesting that a particular thoughtis obvious to you and come across as a daunting force of intelligence difficultto reckon with.

· Subliminal Messages: whispering under your breathquietly enough so that your opponent does not consciously hear.

· The Last Word: have the last word and yourside will be the most likely to be remembered.

· Name Calling: By encouraging youropponents to doubt their competence, you can undermine a contrary argument fromthe inside.

· Yelling: The louder you yell the more respectyou incur and be real loud when yelling.

· Swearing: Swearing is a sign of greatarticulation, vocabulary, and bravado.

Physical Techniques

· Flailing Arms: express surprise and reinforceyour arguments. It's very hard to disagree with someone who waves his arms inconfidence

· Being Tall: Physical stature is an importantintimidation tool.

· Biting: Absolutely last ditch effort and if youhave to bite, go for an important artery or organ.

I believe that you must be laughing too when you scanthrough all the tactics.

There are 6 key factors of persuasion mentioned in theLecture 3: liking, reciprocity, social proof, consistency, authority andscarcity. There is a long way to go before you can master even a few of them.

As to more practical side if you are about to present, frommy perspective, one should prepare and get to know your stuff well so that youare confident and relax enough to even talk with others about the topic or product.Then keep practice whenever you have chance: in front of the mirror, in frontall your classmates, colleagues and in the conference etc. Communication is anart which needs a gift as well as continuous practice.

Guest Post - Xiao Fu

2012-02-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

Xiao is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about communication.

The Cultural Difference of Oral Communication between America and China

As a Chinese living in America, it is common for me to find that sometimes even though you can express yourself in English accurately, many misunderstandings still happen. The reason is that, for people who have different cultures, the same word or the same expression may have a totally different meaning. That’s why an American professor in Carnegie Mellon University may find that nobody laughs when he said a joke.

Language is part of the culture, and culture plays an important role. Some sociologists believe that language is the cornerstone of culture - no language, no culture; from another aspect, the language reflects the culture. It can be said that language reflects the characteristics of a nation because it not only contains the nation's historical and cultural background but also expresses the nation's view on life and the way of thinking. Language and culture influence each other. Since we might meet different people of different cultures in our future life and work, it’s better to have some understanding of other cultures.

Listed below are some cultural differences of oral communication between Americans and Chinese:

Hello and Goodbye.

“Have you eaten yet?” is a common way to say hello to your friends when it’s around the dinner time for Chinese. While in America, people may think this is way to invite them to have a dinner together. During other time, Chinese might say hello saying “where are you going?” even to some people they are not so familiar with. Of course, in America, “It’s none of your business”. Let’s talk about saying goodbye. Chinese might say to their friends “Stay here!” and wave their hand to say goodbye at the same time. Most Americans will get confused about this. Should you stay or leave, Americans have no answer.

Appellation.

In America, people will call the name of their family members and the professors they are familiar with. While in China, all those will be considered as serious offenses. In China, people will call a person using his surname plus the position the person served to show the respect. American never does this. There is another interesting phenomenon. English doesn’t have an appellation for the strangers while Chinese has. We call a stranger “comrade”…

Congratulations and praise

This difference is well known all around the world. Americans generally accepted the praise and congratulations, while the Chinese people are generally express that they do not deserve it. The praise objects also reflect the cultural difference. American will praise others’ husband or wife while Chinese praise others’ children. Praising a wife in China sometimes may be considered as an indecent behavior.

Above show the most common difference between the oral communications of these two countries. It’s very difficult to list all of them because one can never illustrate a language in one blog rather than two. I think knowing the difference and possible situation that might causes misunderstandings is really important for those who want to make friends or have business with Chinese. And study the oral communication of a foreign country also gives us a chance to better understand of a different culture. You never know that, maybe sometimes in the future, what you have learned might give you a huge help. And oral communication skills with people from foreign countries are always skills you should acquire.

Guest Post - Soundarya Chandar

2012-02-11T21:59:00.000-08:00

Soundarya is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about job interviews.

“My heart is in the work” is a famous quote by AndrewCarnegie. This quote is meaningful in so many ways when one is looking for ajob. We want to be able to find a job where we can apply our skills whole-heartedlyto accomplish the task at hand. Several research studies have been conductedthat prove that one’s productivity is directly proportional to the satisfactionhe/she finds at work. How does one go about finding the perfect job? How do yougo about securing the job you want?

Find your passion

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. Ifyou haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle” is a famous quote by thelegendary visionary of this century, Steve Jobs. His passion was to change theworld by creating products that can be used by everyone and needless to say, hewas very successful in achieving his mission. The first key step in getting ajob you want is to understand where your passions lie. One way to do this is todo a self retrospection to understand what you really care about, what youenjoy doing the most in your free time, what kind of industry news you read,who are the people you find interesting on twitter, what kind of pages youfollow Facebook, etc. There are also official aptitude tests to identify yourinterests, which may then help you find your true passion.

Find the company andmake the right connections

Once the passion has been identified, one can start to thinkabout what kind of companies will help them achieve their career goals. Forexample, if your passion lies in the social media space, you can start to lookat social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn for jobopportunities. Your search however, should not be limited to big companies only.Subscribing to the job boards of various job search websites might also help inidentifying smaller companies that are doing interesting work in your area ofinterest. Once you have identified the company, one must to do some fieldworkand research about the company to understand the kind of work they do, open opportunities,company culture, etc. This will help one understand if they can truly connectwith the company and if it is the kind of place they can see themselves in. Thenext step would be to identify connections within one’s social networks. Anothergreat way of learning more about the company is to network with individualsfrom the industry of interest to identify opportunities and connect with themto have them recommend you into the company. Networking goes a long way inhelping one find the right kind of job.

Prepare your resumeand cover letter

Resume is your first chance to create an impression withrecruiters. A resume should be representative of your experience, skills, andachievements. A good resume is easy to read and clearly states the relevant skillsnecessary for the job.

It is important to spend a lot of time making a resume andhaving it reviewed by several people. Similarly, a cover letter can help oneexpress their interest in the company and describe how best they fit thedesired profile. With a resume and cover letter in hand, one must confidentlyapproach the interview.

The Interview

There are a few basic questions that one must be prepared toanswer. Are you a good fit for our company? What are your strengths andweaknesses? What value can you bring into the organization in terms oftechnical and managerial skills? What makes you different from otherapplicants? What are your salary expectations?

In addition to the above questions, one must be prepared tosolve problems, think logically, and provide insightful solutions to challengingproblems posed during the interviews.

Final Thoughts

Getting a good job can be a tough task. There will beseveral obstacles in the way, but one must remember to reflect back on everyinterview experience to improve on any possible mistakes one might havecommitted. A good attitude, a strong skill set, and a great sense of confidencewill help one achieve his/her career goals and land his/her dream job.

Guest Post - Alex Lola

2012-02-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

Alex is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about meetings.

Businesscommunication has its own peculiarities due to a largeextent the objectives of the communication partners. Each ofthem has its own problems, they expect a certainresult of communication, think about what methods areoptimal for achieving the desired result.

1) Planning of meeting.

Planning is reallyuseful to do. It helps you to be readyto contingencies which means the probability of meeting success is much higher.

Before the meeting youshould know answers on following questions:

What is your goal for this meeting?

How this meeting is important for you?

What question are you going to ask? Whatanswers do you expect to get?

How you can influence your interlocutor?

What will be your behavior depending onthe tone of conversation?

Also, to be successfulyou need to know your interlocutor. So, before meeting it’s better to knowanswers on following questions:

- What do you have common?

- What his opinion about you and aboutyour organization?

- What his goals for this meeting?

- What question can he ask?

2) Conversation

2.1. Introduction

There are differentways how to begin conversation. What to use? It depends on the content ofmeeting and your personal character. The soft way is when you start with someemotional words or joke. Especially if your interlocutor is a woman you can tryto put some complimentary words in your introduction. Another way is when youformulate all reasons and goals in the beginning and then general questions aresmoothly changed to more specific. But Iprefer the strict way – when there is no real introduction, and the reasons andgoals of meeting are said before anything else, general questions are quicklychanged to more specific. This way is the best for boss – staff meeting, and itis not recommended for meeting with partners.

You should keepfollowing recommendations:-

Don’t use complicated word structuresand be precise

Respect your interlocutor

Justify all your judgments

Clarify that you follow interlocutor’swords correctly

2.2 Informationexchange

This stage is simplyconsist of 2 components – providing interlocutor by information and listeningyour interlocutor. I think the second is even more important since if you’rewell prepared for this meeting it will not be hard for you to provideinformation, but you must be a well-listener.

Being a well-listenermeans to have ability to be concentrated only on discussion topic, to avoid anyside thought. Also it is very important to see reactions of interlocutor andinterpret it correctly.

2.3. End of theconversation.

On this stage you needto think whether you achieved the goal of meeting or not. You should try tomotivate your interlocutor for executing of planned actions. Also you shouldsummarize all key points of conversation and to say them to interlocutor, sothat both of you could understand that there was no misunderstanding during theconversation. The last point is that it’s always better to end conversationwith positive tone, even if the main part of conversation was negative.

I always try to followthis strategy. It helped me with a lot of meetings on my work. It helps me withmy school meetings now. It will help me in the future, I know.

Guest Post: Jian Xiong Yeo

2011-12-29T15:53:00.000-08:00

Jian Xiong is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about virtual communication.

As technology becomes more prevalent in our everyday lives, it is inevitable we rely more on it as a medium of communication. Smart phones, computers, and social media web applications are all part of a burgeoning world of information technology that is just waiting to flood us with a torrent of information and content. With new means of communications, there arise certain issues that we should be aware of to ensure effective communication in the virtual realm. Not only do we become more connected with one another, it is a lot easier to communicate with each other as well. I personally feel that this is a good thing as it promotes better communication for society as a whole.

With the advent of computers, virtual communication has never been easier and cooler. We had telephones in the past, and science fiction films depicted video phone calls. Now, this technology is right in your very hands. If you have an in-built camera on your computer or laptop, you can make such video calls to anyone over the internet. Video call services such as Skype and Google Voice now make it especially convenient for one to video-call their loved ones. Other telephony services such as Jajah are taking advantage of the vast network that is the internet and the fact that the internet is an extremely low cost commodity to disrupt the telecommunications industry. One can now make international phone calls at a very low cost with Jajah and this greatly benefits everyone especially in a world where many people constantly leave their homes and travel for work.

In addition, hardware such as smart phones allows for communication in your pocket. 3G services are now a part of many people’s smart phone plans and this allows for communication right at one’s fingertips. In the past, email was sent via computers, but now smart phones allow us to do this right in our palms. Some people are now so attached to their smart phones that they simply cannot live without them. Heavy Blackberry users who are seemingly attached to their Blackberries affectionately call them “Crackberries” due to their addictive nature. Even traditional mobile phone services such as SMS are now giving way to instant messaging on the smart phone. It just goes to show differently communication has changed as we move from one new technology to another. We transition to a traditional analog form of communication to a sleeker, more powerful form of virtual communication.

On top of the hardware discussed above, web applications such as the various social networks and blogs have also changed how we communicate and express ourselves in the virtual world to a captive audience. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter provide us with the platform to voice our opinion to the world. The internet knows no boundaries and whatever we say on these networks is broadcast to everyone with an internet connection and an internet browser. In this day and age, freedom of speech is now digital and online. This new development in virtual communication is a great way to convey ideas and encourage creative discussion online, just like how online forums were conducive to such discussions in the past.

All in all, virtual communication is something of a new development over the past decade. It is something that still requires more thought and development in terms of policy. We managed to enable effective communication in the past century and now with the new digital medium, we are bound to experience teething problems in handling virtual communication. What is ethical in this boundless virtual world is still a tricky situation. Privacy issues constantly arise in the virtual world and we have to ensure that they are fixed. But it is hard to deny that virtual communication is here to stay and we should continue to make it a great experience beneficial to mankind.

References:
Marshall, Matt. “Jajah promises simple Internet phone, but has hitches” SiliconBeat . Ed. Matt Marshall, 2006. The Mercury News. 4 Oct. 2011
Thompson, Nicholas. “Sir, to Whom May I Direct Your Free Call?” The New York Times. 2003. The New York Times. 4 Oct. 2011.
McIntyre, Sinead. “Blackberry addiction ‘similar to drugs’” Mail Online. 2006. Mail Online. 4 Oct. 2011.
Keen, Andrew. “Social media’s success formula” The Telegraph. 2009. The Telegraph. 4 Oct. 2011.

Guest Post: Hanae Timoulali

2011-12-29T15:51:00.000-08:00

Hanae is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about virtual communication.

Context and Virtual Teams

Communication is a central aspect of our daily lives both on the personal and professional level. In fact, we all live to communicate by interacting with each other on a continuous basis and exchanging pieces of information. Today thanks to new technologies and innovations, communication became delocalized. We can now communicate with people in other cities, countries and continents instantaneously. Tools like email clients, instant messaging application and internet telephony clients have revolutionized the way we study, work and live. Organizations, in particular, have been transformed from being centralized to decentralized. Before the proliferation of communication technologies, companies were designed to have nine to five job positions and a workforce located in one central location. Nowadays, the emergence of new communication patterns allowed organizations to be dispersed in different location with flexible working hours and a diversified workforce. The work paradigm became more oriented towards group projects with people situated in different places. The ability to understand and use virtual communication became very crucial and has a great impact on the productivity of the employees.

As a result of this, a new type of teams emerged: virtual teams. They are a great way to enable teamwork while having people in different physical locations. Today, companies are able to cut travel and relocations costs by using virtual communication technologies. Teams use emails, teleconferences, virtual meetings and IP telephony to conduct their meetings. However, the success and effectiveness of virtual teams both depend on the nature of the work to be done, the people and the management style of the team.

Not all projects and assignments are suitable for virtual communication. Sequential or integrated tasks can be challenging due to their heavy reliance on real time exchange of tangible goods, for instance. In the case of manufacturing projects, people will often feel the need to gather around particular objects and products and analyze their tangible properties: shape, dimensions, weight… Thus, organizations have to evaluate the projects and decide whether or not they are suited to be run by virtual teams.

People have different performance levels when it comes to teamwork. Not everyone performs well in virtual team environments. Such types of teams require a lot of self motivation and ability to work independently. Because of the delocalization aspect, virtual team members need to be able to work effectively with little to no external control. In addition to this, people need to be able to present their outcomes clearly through the virtual communication channels. This is where communication skills come into play: everyone on the team should be able to communicate his/her ideas clearly and concisely especially when using channels restricting non-verbal cues such as phone calls and instant messaging.

The management style of the virtual teams is also very critical. Virtual teams, if not managed properly tend to lose focus or build up misunderstandings. Clear and simple communication rules could help alleviate these problems: little to no interruption during interactions and also complete focus on the meeting by minimizing the amount of distractions such as doing other tasks during the meeting. Clear rules and protocols need to be put in place to manage virtual teams. Also, building trust between team members is very critical. Because they are in different location and relying on virtual channels, team members might be skeptical to trusting others they might not have met physically. Thus, virtual teams should be prompted to use ice breakers and socializing techniques designed to be used in virtual communication such as sharing pictures, briefings, general socializing questions unrelated to the work being done… Putting more effort to building a healthy team and team dynamic will eventually payoff in terms of productivity.

Virtual teams are only one aspect of virtual communication. However, they are becoming more and more prevalent in many areas of our lives, which might prompt us to question whether relying on virtual communication is negatively affecting our communication styles and habits. We are continuously replacing physical and face to face communications with virtual ones out of practicality while hiding behind our modern busy lifestyles. Virtual communication has indeed revolutionized our lives, yet it has impeded its human side. As a social species, we should step back and decide on the extent to which we want our lives altered by virtual communication and the areas that we think should be kept intact from it.

Guest Post: Yiwen Sun

2011-12-29T15:49:00.000-08:00

Yiwen is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about virtual communication.

Involve the virtual communication in customer relationship management

Do you enjoy shopping online without wandering around, checking packages feeling like you are always cared and then review for your own shopping experience on the website? It is really interesting to read others stories and share your own feelings with others. The comments on the website really matters our choice of purchase, because we are supposed to make smarter choice after preparation. To a certain extent, the influence of “people seem to like me” is really greater than the so called expertise. The social network seems to help the virtual conversation between customers. It is also a way for company to provide customer with better products and services. The company can view the feedback from their customer and give promotion and the conversation between customers will positively help others to better understand their products. The previous customer relationship management is changing to social customer relationship management based on the birth of a new technology “social network”.

Social customer relationship management (SCRM) is an addition to customer relationship management (CRM). The CRM is constructed on the technology of WEB 1.0, which only deal with the problem of read. It is a one-side communication – the company will post their information on the website and customer can read the information. The feature of this kind of technology is “present”. The SCRM is constructed on the technology of WEB 2.0, which resolve the problem of read and write. It is a two-way communication which really conducts a conversation. The customer makes use of the social network to engage in a virtual dialogue. The customer can interact with the company.

The development of virtual communication also changes the role of customer. In the past, the customers are regards as individuals or passive group. However, they serve as a partner in operation and even competitor currently. They comments on website of company, develop a virtual communication with other customer or the customer service. This significantly affect others decision. Under such background, the traditional way of purchase experience and operation approach revolute a lot (the previous way of exchange transit to the way of transaction). Now we are in the stage of interaction. People interact with each other and produce profit.

In my home country, I would like to view the comment and ranking of restaurant before I have dinner with others. The website of “www.dazhongdianping.com” also provides me with enough information. Some information is put into categories regarding different styles of cooking. I can make a good choice and know more about the specialty in the restaurant and enjoy a better experience. But sometimes I find difficulties in finding the question I really want. The information put onto the internet seems to lack integration. Maybe the next step for virtual communication is to not only conduct such kind of conversation to help customer better understanding the product and company better operate the customer management, but also try to integrate the information to make them more reasonable and effective.

Guest Post: Si Tri Pham

2011-12-29T15:47:00.000-08:00

Si is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about real-world presentations.

All of us have to give a presentation at some point in our life and career, be it for a company meeting, a group project, or simply to convince other people about something. Presentations can take many forms, thus many times we don’t formally realize we are doing it. Nonetheless, there are certain key elements that make the success of any presentations. Knowing and mastering those elements would serve you very well in the long run in your life and career.

A successful and effective presentation relies on good content, design, and delivery. Content is what your message is; design is the form in which you present your message; and delivery is how you address it.

A good presentation should have a solid structure that can be easily identified by the audience. You, the presenter, must know the structure in and out to be able to fluidly convey it. If you can’t pinpoint the organization of your presentation, neither can the listeners. Know what you are talking about, and know it well. Doing so clearly states that you have the knowledge and authority to be talking. The opposite holds true as well because if you can’t prove you are knowledgeable of the topic, it really hurts your credibility. Therefore, doing your research and creating a strong structure is crucial to any presentations you might give in the future.

While a good content shows that you are passionate about the topic, a good design communicates that you care and understand your audience. It means you have put time and effort into creating something worth your audience’s time and, sometimes, money. When you show you respect your audience, you are effectively steering their perception about you in the good direction. 99% of the presentations are bad: they are full of text, with no images, no visual aids, etc. Don’t fall in those 99%, even a few hours of designing your presentation can make a significant difference.

Last, but certainly not least, is how you deliver your well-structured content and awesome design. After all, your “listeners” are there to listen to what you have to say. Therefore, how you say it makes the success or failure of your presentation. Pay extra attention on who you deliver to and why are you doing it. It never works completely the very first time, so rehearse, edit, and rehearse more. Getting feedback can be constructive as well. The more you rehearse, the more naturally you will present it.

Follow those simple rules and you will find yourself among the 1% good presentations nowadays.

Guest Post: Miguel Ortega Hesles

2011-12-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Miguel is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about real-world presentations.

Despite the fact that the word presentation could be somewhat scary and closely related to stage fright; presentations are in fact common and not worth damaging your psyche.

Think about it: Life is a real-world presentation. Every day we as human beings (or social animals) are required to communicate, to somehow express our ideas. This idea might feel a bit contradictory because for many (including myself) the word “presentation” comes with the preconception of being in front of a group of people, regurgitating a set of words or ideas predefined in a piece of paper left somewhere.

However, presentations are (according to the etymology) the act of bringing into the presence of (see references). What this means is that every conversation or communication you have are potential presentations. For example, imagine I want to recommend you a restaurant. I could invite you to a room, hook up a laptop to a projector, and show a slideshow full of facts, opinions and images; or, I could just bump into you in the street and recommend you with the same facts and opinions. I could also extend this presentation to a number of people in each of the settings with similar results.

Following the above premise, we should be used to presentations and in fact they should come as easy as speaking (well maybe not that much, but at least easier than they do). Presentations are just like chats: the speaker presents the material and normally answers questions either in real-time or at the end of the presentation. Therefore, we should make presentations just as we do casual conversations.

The first aspect of an efficient real-world presentation is to be prepared, know the subject and the audience. How could I talk about the next IPhone without knowing it? Or how different would the presentation be if I was giving it to CS students rather than third age people? Also, I consider confidence an essential part of the preparation. If you are presenting it is likely that you are one of the people with the most knowledge on the subject (if not the one with the most); others are there to hear you and your point of view on the subject whether it is similar to theirs or not, so be prepared and confident on what you say, I mean you did your research and you aren’t just babbling about something random but something you should feel confident that you know the subject, be passionate.

I believe that visual aid is another aspect of an efficient presentation. We are visual, we like to see things and we tend to understand them better when we see them. It is said than a picture is worth more than a thousand words so use them, but don’t abuse. How many times have you seen presentations that use visual aids like PowerPoint and are just an endless set of slides with text, text, and more text? If that is the case you would probably be better writing a book than giving a presentation. Use slides but use them wisely, a few bullet points with short phrases or key ideas from which you will build more complex ideas, examples or concepts; and, if suitable, sneak a picture that can be related to the concepts. Don’t make images too big; remember they are just aid, not your whole presentation.

References: Online Etymology Dictionary

Guest Post: Miao Liu

2011-12-29T15:41:00.000-08:00

Miao is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about real-world presentations.

In my opinion, real-world presentations are those presentations given outside the classroom. For examples, president Obama's national speech, Steve Jobs‚Äô s presentation on new product release, Jay Leno's television show, etc. In our daily life, we deliver presentations at work, usually for team/boss or clients; we are also exposed to all kinds of presentations such as sales reps' persuasive pitch.

Human are social species, we need communication. Presentation is a effective way to exchange information, deliver ideas, inform public and inspire/motivate people.

I had an internship with OCLC before, and I was asked to give a presentation on my project before I left. This was a real-world presentation. I presented in front of our department director, managers and whole sales and marketing team. My project was developing a central billing database for sales reps. Other than how I designed and implemented the database, I also gave instruments on how to use the database to perform data analysis and pull reports. After the presentation, the primary users of the database had a good knowledge of handling the new tool for their business.

How to achieve a good presentation? The most important element is knowing your audience. If you know well what your audience want, it is possible to give an effective and meaningful presentation. Second, the purpose of presentation must be clear. If your audience don't take an action after listening to you, your presentation fails. Third, you need to well-prepared and structure your presentation creatively. Lead people into your presentation by allowing interaction and participation. In a word, making the presentation useful for others is the ultimate goal.

Guest Post: Jose Leon Liu

2011-12-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

Jose is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

Another meeting? Really?
Jason Fried and David Hansson, founders of 37Signals, created the web application framework Ruby on Rails, which literally changed the web. The two young entrepreneurs shared many tips on how to be productive in the work environment in their book Reworki. “There's nothing more toxic to productivity than a meeting” and “Every minute you avoid spending in a meeting is a minute you can get real work done instead” are some of the thoughts that they have for meetings. Meetings can easily become a waste of time by going off focus. Not to mention meetings convened without a focus, or at least an important one for all attendees. Not only do meetings consume time, but also “break your work day into smaller pieces that disrupt your natural workflow” as stated in Rework. Without proper follow up, meetings can be merely a conversation without any future action or follow up. Interestingly, some of the best tips on how to have productive meetings take place before and after the meeting.

First of all, have a clear agenda of the meeting. Agendas help the members of the meeting to be informed and prepared for the topics that will be discussed. The agenda should contain a list of topics that will be discussed. For each topic, a maximum amount of time should be set. Also, each topic should have a moderator in charge of managing the conversation or presenting some sort of information. The moderator has to carefully avoid the conversation going off topic. Even if new issues emerge, they should be briefly discussed or postponed. Invite as few people as possible. Someone not involved in the topics to be discussed will not only lose his time, but also make everyone else lose their time by asking irrelevant questions or talking nonsense. All members of the meeting should receive the agenda in advance.

The meeting should not end without a plan of action or a matrix of responsibilities. If no one takes action of what was discussed in a meeting, then all the members just lost their time chatting. It is always good to have a memorandum of the meeting. Unresolved topics that still need another meeting should be scheduled before the meeting is over.

A good example of efficient meeting management is Scrum, a project management framework. Scrum holds daily scrum meetingsii. The meetings are so brief (usually less than 5 minutes and, by rule, no more than 15 minutes) that everyone should be standing. In the scrum meeting, each member mentions his latest achievements, his work plan for the day and finally any problems that prevent him from reaching his goal.

Meetings can really be unproductive and before convening one, think twice about wasting the valuable time of the attendees. Distributing an agenda will help ensure all attendees come prepared for the meeting. Following the agenda will aid in keeping the focus of the current topic, thus maximizing the productivity of all attendees. At the meetings end, the moderator should summarize the plan of action and all attendees should receive a memorandum.

References: Fried, J and Hansson, D. Rework. 2010., Mountain Goat Software. The Daily Scrum Meeting.

Guest Post: Kyle Johnson

2011-12-29T15:15:00.000-08:00

Kyle is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

The other day I was standing at the bus stop and reading a Harvard Business Review article called “How to Run a Meeting” by Antony Jay. I was struggling with how to write a blog post for an upcoming assignment I have for a Professional Speaking class I am taking in graduate school. My hope was that the article could give me some direction towards what to discuss in my post and or perhaps stir up some forgotten horror story I could tell about a meeting from my past, but the article wasn’t helping. I just could not come up with a decent topic.

Meanwhile, a frazzled looking man who looked to be in his late 30’s to early 40’s jogged up and asked “Will the next bus take me to Green Tree?” I said that I wasn’t quite sure about that geography of Pittsburgh and that all I knew was that the 61B goes North on Braddock to West on Forbes. I promptly looked down at my article and began to read, feeling the pressure of my upcoming assignment on top of all the other class assignments I also had due.

He then said, “Oh good. That will take me close enough to walk.” I didn’t respond. I was trying to show that I was busy and didn’t have time to help a stranger find his way home.

He then asked, “What are you reading?” I waited a second to reply, really trying to hint to him that I was not interested in him or any of his questions. Then I said, “It’s an article about how to run a meeting. I am reading it for a class I have on professional speaking at CMU.”

He then went on to describe in quite a lengthy fashion about how his nephew studied material sciences and structural engineering at CMU and some other links he had to the school that I didn’t care about. As soon as he finished those stories, he went into how he had also gone to graduate school. He studied Marriage and Family Therapy at a PhD program in California. I began to worry that he might collapse from talking too much in between breaths.

At this point I was getting frustrated. I was trying to show him in every way that I could (Aside from being overtly rude and just telling him to not talk to me) that I was not interested in his stories. I was busy. I was stressed about how much work I had to do. And I was frustrated at the constant pull of distractions that seemed to be attacking me from every angle.

At this point I was getting frustrated. I was trying to show him in every way that I could (Aside from being overtly rude and just telling him to not talk to me) that I was not interested in his stories. I was busy. I was stressed about how much work I had to do. And I was frustrated at the constant pull of distractions that seemed to be attacking me from every angle.

We talked about how I took a few psychology classes on families in my undergraduate studies, and about all the interesting people he has met through his counseling work. We talked about how one of the tips that has most stuck with me from all of those classes was a technique that encourages quality communication when family members are working through a really contentious issue. The idea came from a book called “Fighting for your Marriage” by Scott Stanley, Susan Blumberg and Howard Markman.

The technique basically comes down to two key actions. The first is that when a couple talks about an issue that often leads to arguments, the speaker should hold some sort of item that signifies he/she is on the “Pedestal”. It can be a rock, a spoon, whatever. The point is that when the speaker has that item, he/she is the only one allowed to talk. Before the other spouse wants to take that item and say some of their own thoughts, they must repeat in their own words what the previous speaker said. The strength of this technique is that it forces the listener to actually comprehend what the speaker is saying. It also validates the listener because they now know that they are being understood and given a voice in the matter.

We talked about this technique’s worth in all sorts of settings in which contentious discussions occur. So often in business meetings, the speaker is not being heard because the other members of the committee are too busy trying to formulate their own come-backs and counter arguments. People are speaking but true communication is not happening. The meeting gets too focused on whose side is going to win, not on trying to understand why the other group thinks the way that they do.

That was about all we had time for because my new friend (Dan) was getting off the bus in Squirrel Hill. We ended our conversation with a handshake and a “It was good meeting you this morning.” Suddenly remembering all the work I hadn’t been doing, I gave a little gasp and reached for my back pack.

Then I suddenly caught myself, laughed and sat back in my chair. I did not need to finish the article to try and find blog post inspiration. I already knew what I wanted to say.

Guest Post: Le Guan

2011-12-29T15:10:00.000-08:00

Le is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

Before I talk about how to run an effective meeting, it is better to start with discussing what the purpose of a meeting is. I think the main purpose of a meeting, especially in business, is to take actions. It is not to share experience with each other or to feel warm, although these might be important. As a result, the standard of a successful meeting is mainly about what objective you set and how you stick to it.

Before starting a meeting, you should be very clear of what goal to achieve in this meeting. Is it to make a decision, to find possible solutions or to make plans? Anything you talk in a meeting should focus on the objective so that the meeting can process efficiently and everyone in the meeting will have their own accomplishment.

Then the issue comes to the details about how to do actually in a meeting. As a leader or an organizer, you have to use time wisely. So start a meeting on time even if someone has not arrived because he or she will feel shame to do it again. Also, it is always a good idea to set agenda so that you can easily figure out what and when to do next. Rather than free talking, sticking to schedule will save you a lot of time, especially in a large meeting.

In addition, meeting is not a presentation or a dictatorial speaking. What is important is that everyone in the meeting can involve and participate in the topic. As a leader, your job is not to dominate the conversation, but to make sure every participant can get into the discussion and to come up with ideas in a creative way, which beyond individual thought before attending the meeting.

There are also some trivial details that are easy to neglect in the meeting. For example, you need to be well prepared for both the content talking in the meeting and the environment where the meeting is held. A well decorated room will make participants feel comfortable so that they might contribute more in discussion. After the meeting is over, take some time to debrief, and determine what went well and what could have been done better. Evaluate the meeting's effectiveness based on how well you met the objective. This will help you continue to improve your process of running effective meetings.

References: Running Effective Meetings

Guest Post: Chengyao Gu

2011-12-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

Chengyao is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about getting the job you want.

Lucky or Smart?

How to get the job you want? In most cases, we obtain the job opportunities as we expect and get fully ready; in other situations, however, jobs just come to us ‘by accident’. Today, I’d like to share some stories of my friend and myself, focusing on how to seize the job opportunity by consistent efforts or by coincidence, or maybe both.

One of my buddies Jason, a 22-year-old fresh undergrad, told me recently that he hopped from a local vehicle outlet to an international automobile corporation. Acquainted with Jason and his sales talent, I was not stunned by the promotion itself. Actually, what interested me most, was how he met with his new boss! He was playing online racing game at some weekend, and he hopped the job! That’s it? Yes, that’s all. Because the one who was playing on the other side of the online game with Jason was that ‘boss’. While chatting causally after the game, the boss found Jason knew a lot about the automobile market, including the models, trend, customer segmentation. And most importantly, boss found Jason a good person to work with. He liked Jason! So he offered the position of assistant sales manager.

The magical story provides several insights:
- Your specialties as well as extensive knowledge are the key to getting offers;
- In some unofficial context, there also exist job openings. Go and grab it;
- When someone likes you, especially when ‘someone’ refers to your boss-to-be, there is a good chance he will be your boss in the end.

You may say ‘oh, it’s quite lucky of your buddy Jason. Little chance of us to run into our boss of same hobby.’ That’s true. Actually, the common case is that we have already had a clear vision of what company to go or what position to hold. And what we need to do is just get prepared, prepared and prepared! Make ourselves a perfect fit to the certain position of the certain company. This reminds me of my interview experience with BI team in eBay. To be frank, I’ve got three chances of interview before finally getting into BI team. After each of the first two unsuccessful interview, I reflected on my performance while collecting the feedback from my interviewers. Then I upgraded my technical and soft skills, especially those needed for BI position. After almost one year, I felt ready. And by writing emails to those interviewers and managed to get another chance of interview. This time, I made it!

Thus, in either story I mentioned above, if you are the person the companies want and if you let them know that you are the right one, then the jobs are not that far from you.

Guest Post: Jawad Diab Damir

2011-12-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

Jawad is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

One of the issues that greatly disturb the student, especially in the graduation year, is securing a job. A recent research in Britain has revealed that three out of four students worry they will be out of work when they graduate. In this blog post, getting the job you want, we present a reasonable approach for getting the job that the student is looking for.

The first step in the proposed approach is to specify a job preference. In this step, the student should determine which kind of job he or she is looking for. To know more about the market needs, the student can consult the career services at his school or the people who work in the same industry. Moreover, the student should consider the other criteria that limit his or her options. Criteria might include the business type, the company location, size, and reputation, as well as any other criteria that the student feel is important to his or her decision. Each student is expected to assign different weights to the criteria.

Once the preference is determined and the other criteria are specified, the student should prepare a list of all companies that have an available position that satisfies his or her preferences. The list might be prepared from different sources; such as the university career services website, public job websites, newspapers, business social networks, companies‚Äô information sessions, as well as any other sources that the student might use to find jobs. The list should include information about the company name, location and contact info, the position title, and the required skills for this position. After preparing the first draft of the list, the student can search more sources to expand the list, or to filter the list.

At this time, the student should have prepared the resume. The resume is a document used by employers to explore the job seeker‚Äôs abilities, skills, education, experience, and any other information that might be helpful for the recruiter to make the employment decision. The resume should be typed in a way that is clear and easy to read. For students with 2 or less years of professional experience, a one page resume is preferred. Despite that there is no specific format for resumes, a common sense for formatting resumes exist. For example, the first section in the resume is usually the objective section; which explains why the student is applying for the job. Furthermore, the education section usually comes before the work experience section, and the items in both sections are ordered chronologically. There are many websites that provide detailed information about the resume format, style, and guidelines.

Then the student should send the resume to the companies on the list. The student might send a customized resume for each company or a general resume for all companies. If the student is found eligible for the position, he or she should expect a call or email from the company to schedule an interview. Simple questions about the job preference and future plans may be asked during this call. During the interview, the student is encouraged to have a copy of the resume. The rational for this recommendation is that many of the questions asked in the interview are derived from the resume; and so, the student can expect the next question before he or she is asked about it. If called for a second interview, the student should use the questions raised in the first interview as a roadmap to prepare for the second interview.

Finally, the student should keep in touch with the employer; even that he or she didn't get the job.

Guest Post: Daniel Decapria

2011-12-29T14:55:00.000-08:00

Daniel is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

“So tell me a little bit about yourself”….the introductory, catch-all question by anyone going through a first interview. We’ve all sat at that conference table well dressed in a suit, freshly printed resume on the table, unsure of the conversation ahead. Your mind is racing – will my years of education be challenged through tests and problems? Or, will they be interested in my experience? Regardless, my future lays in the outcome of “tell me a little about yourself?” and subsequent problems. So how do I prove that I deserve this job? It’s ok. Remember, you’re prepared for this.

First, keep it clear. Be concise, be thorough, and be strategic when you answer each and every question. Don’t ramble, and stick to things that you know well because you’ll probably begin to say detrimental things. If you need, take a moment after the question to collect your thoughts then proceed. When you respond, word your answer from beginning to end of thought. Provide complete ideas or solutions to a problem.

Next, show off a bit. Don’t be modest with your education or experience background. Trust that you’ve got the skills and background needed to get the job down. Show it off by providing visuals, physical examples. If asked, provide a mathematical proof, I don’t know, of Cauchy’s Mean Value Theorem on a white board - that’ll do. Provide a visual and you are less likely to be forgotten.

Finally, be interesting and interested. The former means – don’t provide answers you think they want to hear. Give honest thoughts or solutions. Reference your experience, provide examples, and name-drop if you have to. The more you can provide identifiers to your background, the more likely the interviewer(s) will trust your skills and in you. The latter, be interested in the interviewer(s). If you’re able to turn the interview into a conversation, you’ve advanced your chances of landing that job. Positively reinforce your personal branding and be confident to ask questions about your interviewer’s background with the company and see if you have any common ground professionally.

To conclude, reinforce that you’re the right fit for the position – it’s your job to get the job. Wrap up the conversation well; obtain contact information and thank them for their time, but don’t think your work is over when you leave the room. Perform a self post-mortem of your experience to learn from in the future. Then you can send a follow-up response to not only express your thanks but as an opportunity to revisit the conversation and confirm your passion and enthusiasm for the position. “Tell me a little about yourself” is now a great segue into “so, when can you start.”

Guest Post: Xuling Chen

2011-12-29T14:53:00.000-08:00

Xuling is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about real-world oral communication.

Avoid Awkwardness in Conversations
What contributes to a comfortable conversation? I think no awkwardness is an important aspect. Here I will share with you some of my thoughts on how to avoid awkwardness in conversations. Let's start with a little story.

In the first date with Susan, John saw a boy wearing a T-shirt marked with Manchester United. As a fan of Man Utd, John started to talk about how he loved Man Utd. However, Susan knew nothing about soccer and she didn't want to listen to John's long speech about soccer. So she said, "Hmm, I am sorry but I am not interested in soccer. Could we change to another topic?" Then John, who was in high spirits, suddenly had no words. There came the awkward silence.

How the embarrassing situation came up? It is because John chose a less common topic and Susan interrupted his talking abruptly without thinking about John's feelings. For John, he should more carefully choose a topic to make sure both can enjoy the conversation. And for Susan, what should she do when others already talk about a topic she doesn't like? Pretended to be interested and kept listening? That is a viable way but if John found out that she pretended to do so, John might not be happy because he would feel like being cheated. A better way is to think up a topic that they both have some words to say about and then switch to that topic smoothly. For example, Susan could say, "So do you want to watch the games in England? Do you have any travel plans?" Then the topic would switch to travel. Or she could also say, "My brother loves soccer as well. And he also loves music. Do you love music too? What else do you like?" Then the topic might switch to hobbies. Thus Susan doesn't need to pretend to be interested in soccer and there is no embarrassing interruption in the conversation either.

Therefore, to avoid the awkwardness in conversation, the first thing you need do is to choose a common topic. And if you are already talking an embarrassing topic, such as a topic you have little knowledge about or you have no interest in, don't interrupt others' talking abruptly. Instead, you should think up a more common topic and change to that topic gently and cleverly. When changing the topic, don't show weariness in your voice or face or other body language.

There are many other important points on having good conversations, such as putting yourself in others' places, keeping eye contact, listening carefully when others are talking, etc. All these points including avoiding awkwardness come down to "Think for others". Thinking for others is always a good way to have nice conversations since communication involves not only yourself. So in a word, think for others to avoid awkwardness in conversations.

Guest Post: Brittany Binford

2011-12-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

Brittany is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about real-world oral communication.

Stellar oral communication skills are extremely important today, as indicated in the extensive number of job postings on the web entailing “excellent oral and written communication skills” as a primary requirement for most positions. There are a number of resources available that pinpoint the various means to the most effective oral communication. At the core of each of these different resources is the mutual understanding that the main goal of oral communication is to get the message across to others clearly. Whether one is applying for a job in IT consulting or in architecture design, effective oral communication is key in not only maintaining internal relations, but most important, client relations.

In order to disseminate information effectively, whether during an interview or a presentation to clients, the communications process must be executed with little external barriers/noise. The communications process follows as such: the source encodes the message in a way that will is understandable to the source; the message travels through a channel, or means of delivering the message such as conferences, phone calls, etc.; the message is decoded in a way that is understandable to the receiver; and finally feedback is delivered back to the source (see Figure 1.)

Through the involvement of encoding, decoding and pushing through external barriers, portions of a message may be lost in oral communication if the message is not initially produced as clearly and concisely as possible. The best measure of how effectively the message travelled is feedback. Essentially, the source should anticipate a certain magnitude of feedback if his message was delivered appropriately. Feedback returning opposite of the source’s anticipation is more than likely a result of the message travelling through heavy barriers.

Traversing difficulty in conversations is a direct effect of messages travelling through external communication barriers. These barriers can include, but are not limited to: physical distractions, information overload, distorted preconceptions and cultural differences. While physical distractions can come in the form of uninviting body language and literal background noise, information overload is apparent in delivering too much too soon. Distorted preconceptions are often present in the form of defensiveness, power struggle and value judgment; while cultural differences play a major role in communication barriers in the obvious form of language barriers, in addition to role expectations, and culturally linked mannerisms. No matter the form, it is critical that both the source and receiver quickly identify and remove these barriers in order to focus on the message at hand.

Again, removing communication barriers, and initially producing the message in the clearest form possible are key in effective oral communication. Today’s job market not only calls for effective communicators, but also effective listeners. Therefore, it is not only the source’s responsibility to produce the clearest message initially in order to be an effective oral communicator, but also the receiver’s responsibility to critically listen in receiving oral communication. Both of which must be barrier free in order to maintain an efficient communications process.

(Figure 1)

References: The Communication Process, Barriers to Effective Communication at Work

Guest Post: Anirudh Bhargava

2011-08-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

Anirudh is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about real-world presentations and entertaining your audience.

John, an undergrad student in computer science school decided to prepare a 50-slide presentation, fill it up with as much content as he could to impress his audience, and show how much research he had done. On the day of presentation he slogged through his presentation, could not complete the presentation in the given time, and worst of all, a few people left the room in middle of presentation. What went wrong?

The most important thing people forget now and then is that the presentation is mainly about the people who came to listen to the presentation and not about the presenter. That’s right: Know your Audience! If you think about it, the audience just looks for benefits from the presentation. So, it is better to focus the presentation around the people by talking about features that make them feel like this is time worth spending. As stated by Chris Labash, renowned professor at Carnegie Mellon University, remember three simple P’s to build a striking presentation -

Prepare for your presentation well. To begin with, know your objective of the presentation. If possible, define why, who, how, when and where. This will help you define your point of view, and then you may complete your research on the topic. Make sure you document the final point of your research, the benefits from the study, and the other supporting facts or experience.

Produce – Start building your presentation. If you are using PowerPoint, make sure you use as few meaningful slides as possible. Think of it this way: you are delivering the idea to the people in 30 seconds per slide. However, this time could vary depending on your content. To make your presentation more interesting, you can add some supporting facts you gathered while preparing or any personal experience. Finally, conclude the presentation with action for your audience. This will help the audience to understand motive of your presentation.

Present with energy and enthusiasm. Show your passion towards the subject and let the audience feel the importance of it. There are several styles of presenting information – Educate, Entertain, or Explain. Depending on the type of your audience, you want to pick appropriate style. You may use handouts, whiteboard, or any audio or video aids to help you present your work. Your focus must be to engage the people, and so you must have proper eye contact with your audience. Avoid common errors such as reading the presentation or looking anywhere else but the audience. Finally, relax, smile and have fun!

Now, you are all set for an excellent presentation. Good Luck!

Guest Post: Rosstin Murphy

2011-08-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

Rosstin is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about his personal experience with real-world presentation.

KICK-STARTING YOUR FIRST TEFL CLASSROOM

Serving in the Peace Corps means that you're thrust into a new environment where you have to learn a completely new skill set to survive. When I joined up, I became an English teacher at the Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Teaching TEFL in a foreign country had many hurdles: huge class sizes, wide gaps between student skill levels, and student shyness all made it difficult to grab students' attention and get them speaking English. My students were used to a teaching style that emphasized teacher presentation: they expected to be entertained and educated by silently observing me.

I knew that trying to engage 100 students at once, one at a time, was suicide. I also knew that I didn't want to spend 2 years on stage with everyone staring at me with their huge, innocent, owl-eyes. My first hurdle was to establish new classroom norms that encouraged students to become the main speakers.

After being eaten alive the first semester, I turned to the advice of a more experienced TEFL teacher, my friend Patrick Sansbury. He told me that the way to handle a classroom was through activities: "Model activities yourself, and then hand the mantle back to the students. Rather than presenting a lesson, present an activity to the students and engage them in that activity. Then have the students present the activity back to each other. As long as you, the teacher, are talking, you're losing."

I started the new semester with a redesigned curriculum. I opened the new class by walking in and shouting "I am BEAUTIFUL!" I got the whole class to say it with me. Then I addressed them to fill in the blank of this simple sentence with a positive adjective: "I am (adj) ." Each student's job was to stand up and shout their statement as loud as they could. As each student stood to shout their slogan, I looked them in the eyes and smiled. This simple activity was quick and set a great tone for our first class: positive, self-affirming, interactive.

My next task was to establish the TEFL classroom as an interactive forum rather than a presentation. For our first group activity, I pulled out a fistful of photocopied hundred-dollar bills. Adopting a debonair demeanor, I fanned myself and asked my students, "Why should I give you this money?" I was immediately met with a torrent of replies. After modeling the activity, I handed out a stack of bills to each group. It was a simple game: whoever had the money in hand by the end of the activity was the de facto winner. If you ever wanted to see a hundred students cajoling, begging, and lying to each other in a foreign language, that was the day. This type of competitive activity got students talking to each other and kept them talking: whoever lacked the money would continue trying to get it. By designing discussion activities with conflicting objectives, I was able to raise the interest level and pull myself out of the picture. Then, as the teacher, I was free to spend quality time engaging the individual groups in conversation.

Obviously, there were many future hurdles in that semester and the semesters to come. But with this strong, interactive start, I won the class over and created the good environment for a TEFL class. Each first class is the beginning of a long relationship, and first impressions count big.

Guest Post: Kelvin U. Mbatu

2011-08-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

Kelvin is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about virtual communication.

Virtual communication technology refers to any means of interacting with others in virtual reality or cyberspace brought about by computer-mediated communication (CMC).

In our society today, technology has globalized the communication process by making interacting with others more accessible; we can now communicate with a friend or co-worker in another country or continent cheaply and instantaneously, too. We can earn a college degree or take continuous learning classes over the internet with the click of a few buttons. The proliferation of information and communication tools, like e-mail, instant messaging and Internet telephony has revolutionized the way we work and live.

Virtual communication has brought about a myriad of new opportunities and challenges. There has been an increase in communication flow and knowledge sharing, businesses have evolved new strategies for communication and marketing, huge savings have been made on travel cost and time, etc. However, one problem that virtual communication is faced with is how to incorporate nonverbal communication?

Nonverbal communication, such as facial expressions and hand gestures, plays an important role in effective communication and relationship building. In face-to-face communication, we generally tend to search for signals when verbal messages are unclear or ambiguous. This important element of validating understanding is taken away in most virtual communication. Virtual communications tools such instant messengers have attempted to solve this problem by incorporating smiley faces (such as the :) smiley face) and some other new "texting language" as some individuals call it; however, it does lack the emotion of a face to face interaction with someone.

Today, virtual communication skills are being taught in several organizations as virtual communications tools - e-mail, social networks, and instant messengers – are increasing in capacity and global acceptance.

References:
Effective Virtual Communication, eHow.com
Virtual Communications

Guest Post: Brenda Lee Johnston

2011-08-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

Brenda is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students. Here she blogs about real-world presentations.

Please prepare a presentation on…

You’ve been invited to present…

Speak in front of others.

These words strike fear in the hearts of millions of people around the world. And yet preparing and delivering a presentation is something most people do at least once in their lifetime. More often it’s done several times throughout a lifetime and yet many quiver each time at the idea of standing in front of a room (hopefully) full of people.

Countless books have been written on the subject. Consultants get paid lots of money to help clients practice and prepare. Therapies have been designed to cure people of their fear of public speaking (for example: www.social-anxiety.com). Countless “tips” have been provided across generations from “picture your audience in their underwear” to “look over their heads at the back wall.” Truthfully, though, the best way to help a person deliver his/her presentation is practice. Practice by yourself, in front of your mirror. Practice in front of friends and family. Record yourself and study the recording. These are really, in my own humble opinion, the best ways to prepare and give an excellent presentation.

Yes, there are people who believe they do better “ winging it.” I personally have experience in improvisational acting, and thought I did better “making it up on the spot”. But truthfully, I always forgot something I wanted to say when I did this. The Boy Scouts have it right—Be Prepared.

Whether you decide you want to have notes with you or not, write down what you’re going to say. Don’t write it verbatim; rather, outline your plans for your speech. I believe the statistic is that writing something once is equivalent to seeing it 10 times. Writing creates stickiness. The better something sticks, the better your presentation will be because it’s “in you.”

So the next time you have to present to a group of people, give yourself plenty of time. Write what you want to say. Practice what you’re going to say. Revise it. Practice it again. Repeat as necessary. Oh! And my own personal tip: think through your presentation two times before you fall asleep the night before. I’ve always had better performances (theatre and dance) and presentations when I did this. Then the morning of the big show, just visualize how it’s going to go, take a few relaxing breaths and voila, you’ll be great! And you won't spend a dime, unless you decide to buy a video camera.

Guest Post: Eshwar Narayan

2011-08-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

Eshwar is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

Interviewing is one of the most difficult things everyone faces in their life. Interviews are not given daily and hence most of the people face difficulties in preparing for an interview. If you give interviews daily, you will master the skill of giving a very good interview. But interviews happen only intermittently. Once you are settled into a job, you hardly will think of any interviews.

What I’m going to do now is put summarize the things essential for preparing for an interview.

What is an interview? The answer is simple. It is the inner view of you. What are you from inside? For any person to know you, it takes days, weeks and months. But you need to accomplish this in a span of 1-2 hours in an interview.

Remember the basic concept – What’s in it for the interviewer to interview you spending his precious time? Try to know:
What they are looking for in you? Every employer needs a candidate to be active, energetic, have good communication skills, and fit into the organization culture. Try to gather their requirements and try to achieve them and in turn you will achieve your goals.

Why are you here?
There are some basic things that you already have and hence they have called you for an interview. The most basic is that you are good at something that the company works on (like technical skills). It is taken for granted that you know it well. The next core skills they look at are leadership skills and how good are you at networking. As you go to the upper layers of the core values – they look at whether your goals match with the organization’s goals, and how good are your communication skills.

What can you do for us?
How much value can you add to the organization? A person who is hiring you wants to utilize you to increase the revenue of the company or decrease the cost of production or wants to increase the productivity of the company. Try to prove that you can achieve and you will surely impress the interviewer.

What kind of person are you?
Any organization wants to hire people whose goals and ambitions match with the organization goals. This is an obvious fact. It’s a win-win situation for both the organization and the employee. So you need to see if you fit into their organization goals and culture.

What makes you different?
There are thousands of people applying for the same job. If you want to get recognized among the crowd, you need to have some bullet points to showcase yourself that keep you apart from the herd. Try to think differently and give a broader picture about your experiences.

Can we afford you?
Be prepared to give a range of salary you are expecting. You can just tell them that, according to the current market for a person with so many years of experience on this particular domain the market salary range in between X and Y. So you would like to be placed in that range.

Prepare yourself for an interview –

Do a research about the company – Find out the facts like who founded the company, what business line are they working on, what are their stock prices, etc. Find out about the culture of the company. Prepare answers that are in sync with the culture of the company. Never try to give practice interviews at any company. Always give 110% at any interview.
Resume – The most important part of the interview process. This is like the trailer of a movie. You have very limited time and space to tell about yourself to the company. So keep it small and crisp but use lot of keywords that have a powerful effect on anyone in no time. Always carry multiple copies of your resume along with you to an interview.
Interview – Always keep in mind that you will perform better when you start thinking of an interview as a conversation with any other person. This will reduce your stress levels and you will be yourself. Since it is a conversation, there should be questions from each side. So don’t think that you need to wait for the end to ask your questions. You can ask questions about the company in between. By doing so you show your interest towards the company.
Before the Day of Interview – Always relax, rehearse and get a good night’s sleep the day before interview.
Be Early to the Interviews – Always try to be early to the interviews. 15 minutes early is best way. If you are too early, try to spend some time at the nearby coffee shop and then head to the company.
Politeness Rule – always be polite to all the people you meet in the company floor. Your interview is not over until you step out of the office premises.
Introduction – Go for a firm handshake with good eye contact. This is a first impression you are making. Get dressed well in formals and have positive body language. Introduce yourself and tell about your hobbies and your passion toward one thing you like.
Stories – Always try to build a story of what you are telling to the interviewer. This will keep the interviewer interested in you. Get the interviewer engaged in the conversation.
Wrap-up – Wait for the interviewer to end the session and then get up and say goodbye. Don’t be the first one to end any interview.
Post interview email – Always send an email; this is one more opportunity to express yourself in a proper way. You can give better answers to some of the questions that you were not able to excel at in the interview and send a thank you note. A paper letter will have more weight than an email.

Guest Post: Junyong Suh

2011-08-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

Junyong is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College. Here he writes about communicating on the job.

I cannot imagine even a single day without communication in my life. No matter what you do, you have to communicate with others, especially if you’re in your work place. Almost everyone agrees that communication plays a huge part in work but most of them also agree that they’ve seen someone just talk but never communicate. What is their problem? Why don’t they listen to others and repeat their opinions? But the thing is, you could be such person to them and the most important thing is we can’t avoid them in our work places. We still need to talk and to work with these types of people.

When I think of difficult conversations, I recall my terrible experience in my previous work place that I had such person as my boss. He was the classic example of a difficult person who doesn’t listen but talks in a way he likes—and I was the only one working on his team. I was having a hard time and I realized that I was not the only one who thought he was difficult. I found other colleagues even from other departments knew him as a difficult person and even a janitor told me about him. So to speak, he was notorious.

During the year-and-half I worked with him, I summarized what my boss said right after any meeting or talking and sent it to him to confirm. If I didn’t, he would say something else later and blame me. I had to keep those reports simple and direct, not to make my boss complain about wasting his time reading them. I also had to include every point that might be misunderstood. Although he complained most of the time that I didn’t get it at once, I could get what he wanted at the end. Based on the reports, I got through the time until he moved to another department.

After that time, I had two bosses and they both pointed out that my reports were very good for preventing miscommunication. I feel good that I acquired a good skill but at the same time I feel some irony that I learned how to communicate with my bosses from the notorious difficult person. I paid a year-and-half of harsh time to get this communication skill.

Guest Post: Anup Shete

2011-08-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

Anup is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students. Here he blogs about virtual communication.

Virtual communication is the process of meeting in virtual reality. There are basically two types of virtual communication processes. One is synchronous communication which includes video conferencing, phone and chat. In this type, all parties involved interact and respond immediately (or at the same time). The other type of virtual communication is asynchronous communication. This includes email, forums, blogs, etc. Here the response can be delayed (or is not expected at all). Virtual communication is catching up very fast in today’s hectic world as people find less time to travel and prefer meeting or staying in touch online and getting things done faster. However, virtual communication does come with its set of pros and cons. We’ll concentrate on active communication viz. synchronous communication in the professional scenario.

One of the best things about synchronous communication is that it saves you the time of having to physically travel to the location to meet the person. You can interact with multiple people through video conferencing and phone while cutting down on traveling time and cost. Multi-country meetings are possible without even leaving the office. I have personally had most of my client meetings as teleconference or video-conference calls. This gives you the ability to interact with the client immediately every time you have a query or need to discuss something in general. For personal interactions, applications like Skype make it easy for one to see one's family and talk to them at the same time.

Although virtual communication has its benefits, there are some downsides to communicating without being physically present. The most important one is that there is no face-to-face interaction, which can be daunting for some people. We miss out on subtle non-verbal cues like facial expressions, body language, etc., when we meet in the virtual space. As part of a study done for the Cornell Daily Sun, Christine Duffy of the Maritz travel company and Mary Beth McEuen from the Maritz institute found that virtual communication is less effective than face to face meeting (http://cornellsun.co/node/44228). The study mentions facial expressions and body language as critical factors in the process of communication which are missing in virtual interactions.

I remember an instance from one of our client meetings. It was a teleconference call between two teams, one in India and the other in the United States. Since everyone was connecting virtually, they preferred joining in from their homes. Most of the people involved in the conference thought they could multi-task and manage something else while on the call. In the end, it was complete chaos. People were trying to interact with each other while the other person was doing something else. Although a virtual meeting was the best option in this case, the idea of the meeting became casual once everyone realized it was not face to face.

On a more personal note, I agree with the study mentioned above that face-to-face meetings are more personal as well as effective. Meeting someone in person automatically straightens you up and makes you pay attention. However, there are some instances when it is not possible to be present physically, and that’s when virtual meetings come in handy. Especially with globalization, the need to interact with people from all over the world has increased, and it is definitely cheaper and more convenient to interact virtually despite its drawbacks.

Guest Post: Syenny (Wen-Hsien) Lee

2011-08-05T05:01:00.000-07:00

Syenny is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here she blogs about getting the job you want.

Have you found the company you want to work for? Congratulations if you have! If not, don’t be dismayed. Here are a few steps to find the kinds of companies you’d want to work for.

Step 1: Know who you are. Ask yourself these questions, “What are the things that I am passionate about?” “Do I like to work in an A/C office with a computer or do I like to be outdoors and meeting different people?” “Are there ways to turn those into business opportunities?” If you are not sure about what your passion is, start eliminating some jobs or industries by asking, “What are the things that I definitely won’t enjoy doing?” Make a list and see if there are any correlations to it.

Step 2: Make a list of companies. Once you have an idea of which industries you are interested in, you can research for the most well-known companies/organizations in those industries. Research thoroughly on the companies: Fact, culture, story. The goal is to find the best fit. According to the article “What Kind of Company Do You Want to Work For?” by Joyce Gioia, Herman Group, here is a list of questions to ask yourself to find out the makeup and styles of a specific company you want to work for:

Do you want to work for a market leader or a start-up?
Do you want to work for a company with solid name recognition?
Do you want to work in a large organization or a small one?
Do you want to know where the company has been, and where it is headed?
Is the quality of a company’s goods and services a deciding factor?

Step 3: Find job openings through different media, channels and connections.
Here are some tools I use to obtain job opening information:

Social media: LinkedIn. Join an alumni group of your school and you will receive job posting emails regularly.
Personal relationships: Go to networking events; network through colleagues who know someone else who can connect you to a potential employer; talk to alumni who are working in your targeted industry; engage with guest speakers whom you identify with and are in your dream field.
School resources: Career service provides counseling and email job openings updates very often; pay attention to those emails and follow with ones that interest you. Don’t delete the emails, keep an archive. You may find it useful one day.
Conferences/Exhibitions: Attend big conferences in the industry you are interested in. Besides taking the lessons provided at the conference, also attend social events such as business luncheons and dinner events. You will meet people with similar backgrounds who are already in the industry. This is a chance to build a professional network. I have been to the American Association of Museums Annual Conference (AAM) and met so many museum professionals and exchanged thoughts and experiences with them. They are great resources for future references.

Step 4: A few reminders on interviewing

Be early. I always arrive 30 minutes to 10 minutes early. Once I interviewed an applicant who was late, which immediately left me with a bad impression.
Bring work samples and projects (or anything that can demonstrate your skills tangibly) to show and tell (especially if your job is related to marketing).
Ask questions. I always ask questions, to gain information I don’t know and to show the interviewer that I am serious about this job.
Smile, be confident. Have a positive attitude. People like to be with happy people.

Be honest to your heart. Be prepared, and relax!

Guest Post: Madhusudan Srinivasa Raghavan

2011-08-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

Madhusudan is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about the power of virtual communication.

It was summer 2010 when our management team at my previous organization was conducting a post mortem on an executive review meeting that ended with the client walking out of the room. The meeting feedback portal had a lot of suggestions for improvement and a plethora of things to address. However, one item that stood out as an important area of concern was the fact that our presentation was poorly structured as it never conveyed what it had for the customer. It was a moment of reckoning for us as we realized the power of virtual communication.

More often than not, most presenters fail to impress the audience primarily because of the fact that the audience never understands what is in it for them until the end of the presentation. While it is important that the presenter conveys his point of view, it is also vital that the presentation must be oriented towards the audience and must have some take-away for the listeners.

A sound structure is pretty important as the flow of the speaker would keep the audience engaged through the course of the presentation. The presentation must have an interesting introduction, good details backed with facts and a powerful conclusion. The attention span of the listeners does not remain constant throughout the lecture and hence adding stories will always help the cause as it is bound to capture the audience’s imagination.

The logistics available must be fully utilized based on need. While details are an integral part of the presentation, it is a given that the presenter is at the focal point and not the slide deck. Hence, having content that are visual and creative will help the audience relate to things better than when conveyed through slides that are too verbose or complicated. Also, too much focus on the slide deck would mean that the presenter loses out on eye contact with the audience during the process of reading through the slides. The presentation must focus on conveying the message and slide decks would just aid the speaker in the process, while the limelight is on the presenter.

It is inevitable that there will be logistical glitches that might disrupt the flow of the presentation. The wit and the presence of mind of the presenter must come into play to engage the audience with humor. The presenters could avoid such logistical interruptions by reaching the venue ahead of time and conducting a dry run with the equipment that would be used for the final presentation. This implicitly means that the presenter needs be there ahead of time to the presentation. Reaching the venue late would not only mean gaining a bad first impression, but also would create a sense of panic which might upset the morale of the presenter.

Last but not the least, any form of communication in an organizational context must result in action. Most presentations fail miserably as the audience go out of the room with the “SO-WHAT” question. As a presenter, it is very important that enough time is spent on preparation to address the need of the presentation. The success of any presentation can be attributed to the fact that audience had a clear message in it, in terms of what was the situation or detail and what is the take away and, most importantly, what would be the next steps. This, according to me, would be the most challenging part to the presenter as he/she needs to keep in mind that the presentation leads to action.

Guest Post: Hemant Mohan

2011-08-04T04:56:00.000-07:00

Hemant is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

The job market is like a box full of chocolates. Jobs are available in all sorts of flavors and sizes. The trick is to pick the one job that best suits your palate. Finding the right company that fits your bill requires introspection. Know what it is you want to do. Recognizing your talents and skills is important, so that you can understand the way you can make a career out of them. Once you clear this stage, you start researching companies that do business, which require a workforce with your skills and talents. More often than not, your skills and talents are the areas of work that would interest you the most.

To find the kinds of companies you’d want to work for, it is important that you connect with present and ex-employees of such prospective companies. They are the best resources to give you an idea of the working environment of a company. Understand if the company’s culture fits your own personality. Ask such questions as, do I enjoy dressing up in formal business attire everyday or am I comfortable in going to work in casuals? Do I like to be bossed around or am I more of an independent worker? What are the employee benefits? What is the company’s vision and mission statement? It is very important that you fit with the prospective company’s culture else down the line you might be reading this article again!

Making the right connections with present or ex-employees within a company of your choice might land you a job interview through employee referrals. Posting your resume on the career services websites or on the prospective company’s website is also recommended. Make sure that your resume clearly draws a connection between your previous work experience or education and the job requirement that you want to interview for. The more focused you are in your job search, the more likely you are to find a job that matches your career and life goals.

Guest Post: Jayesh Nachnani

2011-08-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

Jayesh is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon University. In this post, he writes about getting the job you want.

There are two fundamental questions one needs to ask oneself before looking for a job. These are:

What kind of role is he/she looking for? and

Which companies best suit his/her requirements?

Finding companies and roles first requires that we find out more about ourselves. Knowing what we are looking for is often not a straight forward question and requires some amount of soul searching on our part. For example, working for a small start-up in California is very different from working for a huge bank in New York. People also prefer different types of roles and companies at different times in their career. Once we have analyzed our preferences (along with our strengths and weaknesses) it is time to look for companies and roles that match these.

An excellent way to research what qualifications and responsibilities each role requires is to go through the Occupational Outlook handbook (http://bls.gov/oco/).The handbook contains up to date and comprehensive information regarding the nature of work, job outlook, projections and earnings of various roles in diverse industries. Matching these with our own preferences is a good way to shortlist the roles.

Researching the kinds of companies we want to work for is extremely important. This can be done in various ways. Websites like vault.com and glassdoor.com provide valuable information. Other ways to find about companies is through alumni or personal networks. Information sessions by companies and networking events can be great ways to find out more about our dream companies. Once a few potential companies are identified, going through the company websites provides valuable insight into the inner workings of the organizations.

One of the most important things to do in order to get a job interview is to be proactive. We should always have a few copies of our current resume and business cards handy. The function of the resume is to get us the job interview. The resume should always be up to date. It should highlight our strengths, past work experience and achievements that ‘fit’ with the job we are looking for. In this day and age of social and professional networks, having an updated and presentable public profile is also extremely important. Employers tend to look up people on social and professional networks.

One of the best ways to get an interview is to get referred. Often, we don’t realize that we could get ourselves referred through various people. Attending conferences and networking events and handing out our business cards and resume are also brute force ways of getting the job interviews. For those of us in college, career services are one of the most important ways to land interviews. If the above stated methods cannot be used for certain companies, posting our resume in response to requirements listed on company websites can be a useful way to get a few calls.

Guest Post: Akshat Sinha

2011-08-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

Akshat is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

Executives of company A, along with supervisors from the development and testing teams from both companies met at company B’s premises to discuss about a product they had been developing together. A room with twelve people chaired by Mr. Doe from company B ‘kicked-off’ with the top item on the agenda - status updates from each team. At that time, there were two unoccupied seats in the room, but the time was five minutes past ten already. A’s developing supervisor started with his updates and touched bases with the members of the other team. At twenty minutes into the meeting , a serious discussion about a critical procedure with potential legal implications was on the third PowerPoint slide and the door opened. The two people missing from the meeting, entered the room with an apology.

After the meeting was over, there was some confusion around the critical procedure that was being discussed at twenty minutes past when the meeting had begun. Participants who were in doubt over the relevance of the procedure did not question-and-clarify in the room for having been thought of as the dumb fellows. They pretended to understand everything. Eventually, there was another meeting held for the same topic two days later. What I described above was an experience that I had a few years ago. Was the first meeting successful? Were the chances for the second one to be successful, grim?

Meeting – the dictionary definition is “an assembly or conference of persons for a specific purpose.” We are a social species. Even with the rise in technology and the presence of voice and video gadgets everywhere, traditional style face-to-face meetings are still the choice of people where ever possible. Why? Because a person’s truth value, confidence and self-presentation give the on-looker an impression with which the meeting is likely to be driven and result in an outcome. Being a ‘servant’ [HBS April, 1977] of a meeting is what determines the success of that multi-person rendezvous. By success, I simply mean – there is no meeting after the meeting to discuss the same subject again, neither officially nor a small talk between the participants. The whole point of the meeting is to get everybody in the room to present their ideas, thoughts, expertise, experience, criticisms, observations, etc., and get them reviewed by others.

I have a strong belief that one must do everything in his/her power before, during and after the meeting to ensure the meeting’s success. Each individual in the room is present to learn something and share his knowledge with others, in effect modifying the cognizance in the room, so that a collective decision is made. Research shows that to get commitment from people, one must get them to say ‘I will do it’ by the end of the meeting. The keyword for the duration of the meeting is “Action.” Chris Labash’s 5Ps, as he thoughtfully quotes, “are very important to get the most out of a conference.” These include ‘Purpose,’ ‘People,’ ‘Preparation,’ ‘Participation’ and ‘Point.’ The very basic question, ‘Do we need a meeting in the first place?’ is the one most important element that determines if the meeting will be driven to an outcome. The key elements of a great meeting, if put in hierarchy, would follow a common path. Each element is important to ensure a result-oriented delivery.

After the purpose is determined, chalking out an ‘agenda’ enables a smooth topic-by-topic discussion without digression, again an important factor! “Stick to what we want to discuss today” should speak for this point. Next, the number of participants would make the list at number three. Research shows that in meetings with more than ten participants, a challenge bigger than driving the meeting is to handle the people first. Associated with the participants is the ‘time of day’ factor, which also has a big hand in determining the likelihood of how good or bad the meeting would be. It is Tuesday and you’ve made plans with family over the weekend. Tickets are booked. Reservations are made. Boss sends a meeting invite for Friday 4PM. Uncomfortable and uneasy feelings usually engulf the room. Was that meeting perfect? May be, or may be far from it! Latter is most likely.

Next question, “is the ‘location’ well equipped with the tools/electronic items such as projectors, A/V products etc. which are necessary for this meeting?” Absence of a projector, for example, in a business proposal meeting could show how a company is organized and decisions would be made rather quickly. The next item in the hierarchy is the meeting ‘invitation’. Depending on the kind of workplace, culture, topics, agenda etc. the aesthetics and content of the invitation play an important role. Attaching a draft agenda is always the best idea for people to be prepared. The contents of the invitation also drive our next important handler – “What should I bring to the meeting? Paper to take notes, perhaps!” The above are the so called ‘before(s)’ of a meeting. What follows next is the actual meeting.

Being late for a meeting should always be a capital ‘NO.’ Arrive early, distribute the final agenda, start the meeting with introductions and the purpose of the get-together and run the meeting! Behavioral ground rules for the meeting become apparent from the person who drives the meeting. Bluntly put, “If a person speaks, others should listen!” is how the meeting should run. The confidence and attitude of the chair should send a message across participants of what they are there for and what is expected.

After all, a meeting without action is nothing but conversation, which is not effective. The metric of the meeting is its outcome, the solution to a problem – in any form, document, individual assignments, pictures, videos, etc.. The elements described above are a tool which, when used religiously, would simply inculcate the necessary steps in a person over-time. These could be highly effective for the person in the long run with no extra effort pulled from within. The essentials of how to lead and run meetings would simply come by habit.

Guest Post: Jagadish Harihara Subramanian

2011-07-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

Jagadish is a Master's student at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College and one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world oral communication.

Being “social” beings, we all want to interact with other beings and the best way to do this is through oral communication. Communication is identified in many forms of human activities, like asking for food when hungry, asking for help when in trouble, warning others in danger, asking questions, answering queries, sharing ideas, cracking jokes, singing songs, etc. All these types of communication are best done with a mix of voices and gestures -we call it “Real-world Oral Communication.”

Technology and globalization have made the modern world a smaller place. The challenge naturally arising from it is the need for effective communication to reach a wider audience. The message to be delivered can be critical news, an important warning or an innovative idea that has to spread to - may be - the whole world! Such type of communication is called “Information Dissemination.” Whatever the message is and how much ever big the audience is, the best way of spreading information is through oral communication. Human brains can easily capture voice and gestures because it is the most primitive and natural form of communication.

One of the advantages of oral communication is the ability it provides the speaker to persuade. In this competitive world, our victory depends upon how effectively we can persuade others to do things our way. A clear, purposeful, targeted and well-articulated speech will attract attention; but not necessarily persuasion. For persuasion, the speech has to be precise, coherent and logical. We can achieve this only by understanding the passions and predispositions of the audience, and by tactfully organizing various phases of our speech. We must start with an idea or a statement acceptable to the prejudiced mind of the listeners. Otherwise, they might quit listening in the beginning itself. Once they get along with us, present the idea we wish to persuade in a way that will agree with the passions of the listeners. They will then pursue this idea as one of their own goals. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech is a good example of persuasive speaking. Instead of simply calling for ‘racial equality,’ King articulated how promoting racial equality would make each one of them uphold the U.S Constitution and its ideals better. This touched the patriotic minds of listeners and resulted in the intended action.

Along with the advantages, oral communication brings about certain disadvantages, too. The fact that it is very hard to hide our emotions when talking can result in bad conversations. Sometimes, we may want to slyly move away from expressing our inner feelings directly to a person. But if confronted in a conversation, it may get spilled. At some point in our lives, we may be forced to participate in “difficult conversations.” A discussion with a subordinate regarding a complaint against him, an unavoidable conversation that may embarrass the other person, a heated argument, etc., are examples. Failure to handle such difficult conversations can result in fights, losing trust, ego-clashes or hurting others’ feelings. We may either become too passive and lose the argument/conversation or become too aggressive and think we have won. However, in either case we lose. To reduce the difficulty, converse politely and don’t be too aggressive or passive. Also get to the point soon!

Oral communication is like a deadly weapon that you can use to persuade others do what you want. But beware! If you don’t use it carefully, it may recoil!

Guest Post: Deepak Rangarajan

2011-07-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

Deepak is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College. Here he writes about real-world oral communication.

I strongly believe in the quote “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people” by William Butler Yeats. Yes, it is true that in real world, most of us fail to communicate information in simple terms. The reality is the more succinct the information, the easier it is to understand. In the current competitive world, the majority of companies have started emphasizing communication skills and as a result lots of job opportunities are available for those people who can articulate their thoughts effectively.

Effective communication must follow some basic rules : The topic must be concise; it must cater to the needs of the audience; it must be attractive enough to make the audience listen; it must be presented with positive body language; the speaker must be relaxed and try to connect with the audience. There is enough evidence to suggest that any information communicated visually will reach the audience faster than those communicated verbally. The reason is that people get attracted to what they see and hence it is highly recommended that one should incorporate efficient oral communications with visual representation. In addition, there are circumstances when we had to face difficult conversation, such as negotiating salary with Human Resources. In such scenarios, we must first try to engage with the people by sharing feelings or exchanging pleasantries and inquiring questions such as how is he/she doing or talk about something that is of mutual interest to both of us. This will make the audience like our conversation and they will gradually connect with us.

I had a personal experience in my previous organization when our CEO presented a session about our quarter performance. Most of us had already experienced similar presentations from other top management people and felt uninterested. To the surprise of all, the session was very interactive as our CEO articulated his thoughts clearly, the slides were very succinct, and he emphasized more on the visual part rather than text in his presentation. For instance, he conveyed the quarter performance and his message for the future through an attractive picture. The message he conveyed was “You are only looking at the trees, but I am looking at the forest;” it had an image of a person looking at the entire forest and a person looking at a single tree. The actual meaning was that each of the employees was only looking at the task that was assigned to him/her rather than focusing on the holistic picture, i.e., the company goal, which was to empower the world to learn. The employees were very attentive throughout the session and understood what their levels of responsibilities were. Hence, this was one such case where an effective oral communication with visual representation made people realize their responsibilities.

Guest Post: Nisha Balasubramanian

2010-08-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

Nisha is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about real-world presentations.

Aah! Presentations. It rings a warning bell every time you come across it. The very fact that we have to speak to a professional audience is frightening enough, let alone the stark reality that we have to make an impression as well. So, what makes a good presentation?
The 3P’s to a good presentation are:
- Prepare
- Produce
- Present

The most important key to a good presentation is to know your audience. It is imperative to design your presentation according to the taste of your audience. Know what you are speaking about and buy into the idea that you would be presenting. How else would you be able to sell it to the audience, if you are not convinced yourself? Think from the audience’s perspective. Be very sure of what you want your audience to take away from the presentation. This helps you to be well prepared and have a sense of direction for the presentation.

Once you have the directions, couple that with a title that is catchy and creates immense interest in the audience and you have a perfect recipe for a good presentation. It always helps to start with an agenda so that the audience knows what they can expect. This surely helps to give flow to your presentation as well. Follow the 6 X 6 rule, i.e., have six words per line and six lines per slide. This not only gives good clarity to your points but also prevents the audience being distracted by the slide when you talk. Present accurate and relevant facts. You don’t want to be embarrassed by the audience questioning your facts. So now that you have the contents in place, have prepared interesting power point slides, and are all set with the presentation, what next?

Most of us do the ‘prepare’ and ‘produce’ parts perfectly but fail to pay enough attention to how we present. What good is any food which doesn’t look delicious? One way to spruce up your presentation is to use technology to your advantage. Use of laser pointers and overhead projectors does add value to the presentation. Positive and minimal body movements, a clear and modulated tone, fluent speech and a likeable demeanor go a long way toward making the presentation a roaring success.

Some of the key dos and don’ts of a successful presentation are:
1. Develop the presentation around two or three main messages.
2. Keep the presentation short and simple.
3. Use short phrases instead of long, winding sentences.
4. The presentation should be consistent and cohesive.
5. Always cite the source of your data, if you are quoting it.
6. Add pictures wherever necessary and relevant. Pictures can make the presentation very comprehensible and interesting.
7. Practice in front of the mirror; it is always better to be prepared.
8. Be alert to questions during the presentation and make sure to answer them comprehensively after the presentation.
9. Have a pleasant demeanor, and more importantly, be a story teller.

And most importantly learn to RELAX!! Take deep breaths to ease out the nervousness and try to be yourself, after all you are the presentation.

Once you follow these basic fundamentals of a good presentation, I am very sure you will end up wooing your audience. All the best with your presentation!

Guest Post: Lulu Chen

2010-08-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

Lulu is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. This is her second guest post on the blog. Here she writes about real-world presentations.

Imagine on a beautiful Monday morning you are sitting down to listen to a presentation. What kind of presenter will help maintain your good mood from the weekend? A gentleman who talks in a very long-winded way? A scholar who tells you all the nitty-gritty details of his research works in the past three years? A junior analyst who is very nervous and has no spare attention for her audience? No! They will definitely color your Monday blue.

So, don’t be the one that ruin people’s Monday morning! A good presenter should be selective, sticky and able to receive feedback from her audience.

Being selective in the amount of information to be presented is crucial. Presentation is used to communicate a concept or idea which is generally new to the audience. Our brain takes time to process new information, and before it fully understands the current batch it does not have the capacity to entertain the next batch of information. After a few rounds, if our brain cannot catch up with the presenter, it will close off, leaving the presenter talking to a pool of quiet air. So, be selective in presenting points. It’s best not to give an overwhelming amount of new information. If it’s really a lot, group them into magic number ‘3’. Pace out the speed of talking and leave time for audience to digest. It is also important not to give all the back-stage details of the point you want to highlight. The audience’s attention span and patience are limited. They will ask questions if they are interested in the details. Plus, it’s never the last time you meet with the audience – take your time to slowly tell them your story.

Sticky is another tactic to knock your points into other people’s minds. As we can infer from the word ‘sticky,’ the presenter should focus on the topics and craft simple messages to deliver the topics. While simple, they need to be concrete as well. For example, if the CEO of UPS tells his express delivery guys, ‘We need to provide best services to our clients,’ the delivery guys may not know how to deliver the ‘best service.’ But if the CEO says, ‘We should not open any delivery package on our own; we need to ensure 100% on-time rate; we will not deliver package to wrong places,’ then it’s more sticky and concrete for the delivery guys to follow.

Last but not least, listening to and observing the audience is the critical part that makes your presentation a success. It’s always good to make the presentation a conversation, which requires the presenter to listen and interact with the audience. The audience will feel more respected if they are being heard. In addition, by observing the audience, the presenter will know what she should skip and what to expressively elaborate, so as to keep the attention of the audience.

In summary, as a likable presenter, we should always be selective, sticky and observant to our audience.

Guest Post: Sharat Sannabhadti

2010-08-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

Sharat is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. This is his second guest post on the blog. Here he writes about virtual communication.

If you are an international student like me I am dead sure you will have ‘Skype’ on your laptop. If not Skype there will be some software similar to ‘Skype’ that lets you chat with your family back home free of cost! Isn’t that great? I can talk to my family whenever I want, and with video chat it is just like talking to them face-to-face. The technological developments in communication have so drastically changed our lives! Thanks to virtual communication, we are connected to each other 24/7.

Today we use some or the other form of virtual communication almost daily in our lives. There is email, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, chat applications, social networking sites, blogs and what not. Why is everyone communicating virtually today? (Sometimes I have even chatted with my teammate sitting right next to me instead of talking to him face-to-face!) Here are some major advantages of virtual communication that I can come up with:

1. Lets people situated at different corners of the world communicate
2. Saves travel cost
3. Saves time

In fact during the recent global economic downturn many organizations cut down on their travel costs by conducting virtual meetings. The movie ‘Up in the Air’ takes it one step further. In the movie, they use video conference calls to fire people. Videoconferencing primarily helps to save on travel costs and time. But one other major factor is that through video conference calls they can avoid the awkwardness of letting someone know that they are being fired to their face. It is strange because even in the case of videoconferencing it is just like talking face-to-face. The key point here is that it is almost ‘like’ face-to-face conversation. There are some key differences. The main advantage in this case is that the communication can end whenever the person giving the bad news wants it to end. Virtual communication does not score high when it comes to sharing human emotions as compared to face-to-face communication (although video communication has reduced the gap by a great amount). Many projects involving virtual teams fail just because of the lacking ‘human touch’ in such type of communication. It is difficult to develop a high level of understanding, co-operation and comfort with someone whom you have known only through e-mail conversations.

There are advantages and also disadvantages to virtual communication. But the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Virtual communication is only going to develop further. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have brought in a whole new dimension to our lives. There will definitely be newer inventions coming up in this space and it will be interesting to see how they change our lives!

Guest Post: Nidhu Nalin

2010-08-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

Nidhu is one of Chris Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about real-world presentations.

In today’s fast paced and competitive business environment, do you think the ability to perform your task is enough for you to succeed? You would agree with me when I say that it is definitely not enough. In addition to having the right skills to do the job, it is equally important to have the right presentation skills. Before we dwell into factors driving successful presentation, there are two key things which you need to keep in mind. First of all, you as a presenter need to very well understand your audience. The crux of all types of communication is your audience. Next utmost thing is that ‘YOU’ are the presentation, not the material.

Take your time to prepare very well for the presentation. This starts with knowing the material to be presented thoroughly. It is also important that the data being presented is accurate. This is very critical factor when it comes to business presentations. You might just lose out on that $2.5 million deal, if your projected return on investment of 30.5% misses out the decimal point and looks like 3.05% on your slide package. Always carry all the required materials which will come in handy. One of the worst things you do not want to do is to read the slides. You can carry notes to remind you of the key points which you intend to cover. You can also consider providing handouts to the audiences, if required. Logically organize all the topics you plan to cover. There should be a smooth transition when you switch between the topics. What could define the limit of oddity when you suddenly start talking about the soft drink to be launched by the company in between of explaining the benefits of the new mascara?

One good way to organize your presentation is by using the diamond approach which is depicted in the adjacent picture. You can start with explaining the purpose and end with a definite action plan.

Practice your presentation. You can start with practicing in front of the mirror followed by engaging your friends to see you presenting. It definitely helps to understand your weak points and gives you a chance to improve. Also, keep a check on the timing when you are presenting. Allocate appropriate time to each of the sections of your presentations.

Adding humor to your presentation is a very tricky option. You need to be very careful about what and who is being made fun of. Someone might get offended or people might not react to your jokes at all. The safest bet is to crack jokes on yourself.

With all these preparations done you are ready for the presentation. Arrive early at the venue and check to make sure that you have all the logistics in place like computer, power, AC, and lighting. Relax before you begin and be confident. Open the pitch with a warm welcome and start talking. Do not move around too much in the room as this might give them a feeling of watching a tennis match. Maintain positive eye-contact with your audience; this will help the audience to connect with you. Another way to engage audience is by asking questions. Ask relevant questions. It is always good to present your relevant personal experience in the form of a short story to the audience. Now don’t tell me that you do not have any interesting story to tell. Everyone has. If you do not have any, then that simply means that you haven’t really put your brain into thinking. Time your presentation well. Do not go beyond the stipulated time. However, being short is not a crime as no one is going to get annoyed with you for delivering short speech. An important point is that the audience should be able to take away the purpose of the presentation with them. Hence, it is important to summarize in the end and to nail the final points. Best presenters in the world were not the best during their first presentation. Nobody is born with the right presentation skills; however they are built over time with the right attitude and preparation.

Guest Post: Adhivitheey Gouri Shankar

2010-08-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

Adhivitheey is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

Did you know that most professionals who attend meetings on a regular basis admit to daydreaming (91%), bringing other work to meetings (73%) and dozing during the meeting (39%)?[1] That’s significant time wasted. So what can we do to make meetings productive and promote invitees to participate constructively rather than avoid meetings?

I have had very productive meetings where everyone had a sense of accomplishment and a few where the meeting seemed to lack purpose. I believe that this happens when the coordinator is unclear of his/her objectives and calls for a meeting more as an errand than to satisfy a requirement. To conduct productive meetings, one must document objectives clearly and invite the right set of contributors. They must inform participants of their role and the contribution expected towards reaching actionable, time-bound decisions.

Some meetings fail in spite of well-defined objectives because of inefficient mediation. The mediator must not only send out invites and arrange resources but also demonstrate credibility of participants, model behavior and bring up the right questions. I have also noticed how by endorsing of dismissing an idea, mediators sometimes severely hamper healthy discussions. They must promote the sharing of ideas while channeling discussions towards reasoned conclusions.

Finally, a meeting’s success can be measured based on the relevant action items it generates. However, agreed action items and their reasoning are of no use unless documented accurately. I have attended meetings where topics discussed and the conclusions noted were very different in the meeting minutes. Clarifying doubts, accurate note-taking and timely summarizing are essential components of a productive meeting.

One way to make sure all the above parameters are considered is to use Prof. Chris Labash’s 5P method: Purpose, People, Preparation, Participation and Point. We start with deciding the meeting’s “purpose,” which helps us determine if it is a requirement or can be substituted with a better means of communication. We then consider the number and set of “participants” who can effectively contribute to the purpose. “Preparation” involves arranging resources and sending out a draft agenda to make sure participants are prepared to contribute with ideas. Once the meeting begins, the moderator should facilitate “participation,” by encouraging thought and leading the meeting to a logical conclusion. Finally, “point” deals with action and taking away something tangible and measurable from the meeting.

[1] A network MCI Conferencing White Paper. Meetings in America: A study of trends, costs and attitudes toward business travel, teleconferencing, and their impact on productivity (Greenwich, CT: INFOCOMM, 1998), 3.

Guest Post: Rituparna Dey

2010-08-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

Rituparna is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about multicultural communication.

We go out for lunch at Houlihan’s. I order a lunch combo—it’s chicken soup in basil tomato sauce, a chicken wrap, and french fries. The waiter asks me, “Do you want soup-or-salad?” I am still unfamiliar with the American twang. I hear it as, “Do you want super salad?” I say, “NO! I want a lunch combo.” My teammate willingly interprets for me. All is good. ;)

My bill comes to $11 including tax. Our waiter indicates that we need to mention the total amount before signing the receipt. I fret for a minute, glance over my teammates’ shoulders to check how much they are leaving as tip. I finally walk out as confidently as ever, after having signed my name on the merchant's copy and leaving 0 bucks as the tip amount :).

I am not sure whether I should have left something. I have a nagging question; I somehow cannot leave anything less than a dollar for a tip, so should I actually leave 50 INR or more as tip? I think of a thousand and one things that can come from $1 in India. So when my cousins call, I pose the same question to them. They indignantly shout back, “Oh, how can you do such a thing? It is a crime in the US to not leave a tip. Most of these waiters have to pay taxes wherein it is assumed that they are earning a 10% tip on each table they serve. So, it is advisable to pay a 10% tip. We even pay 20-30% if we are highly pleased with the service.”

Rich philanthropists? I would say so, but my heart still cringes when I leave a $2 (read 100 INR, more than two meals at Shantisagar and so much more...) at each restaurant.
So far, I have been to PF Chang's, Bravo's, Stir Crazy, Bamboo (Thai), Benihana- so that’s a $10 tips.

By my magnanimity, I am probably being very instrumental in getting the American economy out of recession. ;)

Guest Post: Ying Liu

2010-08-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

Ying is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about real-world meetings.

Are you going to hold a meeting? Wait until you have answered these questions. Do you know the purpose of this meeting? Do you have an agenda? Do you know your role? If you have all these answers and well prepared, go ahead. But if you do not, I strongly suggest that you should consider these questions thoroughly before a meeting. Why? Take a look at interesting the statistics below, and then you will find the answer.

Approximately 11 million meetings occur in the U.S. every day. 91 percent people admit to daydreaming on a regular basis meetings, 96 percent miss meetings or parts of meetings, 73 percent say they have brought other work to meetings, and 39 percent say they have dozed during meetings. These figures are surprising and terrible. It comes along with low efficiency and few results. The need to improve our meetings is evident. So how can we run a meeting effectively and efficiently? The following points are critical.

The first step is to know the purpose of the meeting. Get to the heart of the matter in a simple and logical way. And differentiate the short term and long term objectives. Tell people directly what the current situation is and what is expected to be fixed. Then set an agenda to prevent the meeting from drifting off-topic or interminably dragging on. Begin with what was accomplished since the last meeting. Don’t waste other people’s time.

The second important thing is to know your audience. In order to achieve the purpose, you need to understand your audience first. As Professor Labash mentioned, the people invited should add value and expertise and provide new perspectives to existing issues. Then you can take corresponding strategies to convince them or get help. In addition, make sure key people will be in attendance.

Third, make sure to result in action. The best result of a meeting is to develop ideas, to motivate people, and to move people and ideas to positive actions. A meeting without action or improvement is not a meeting, but a conversation. Thus, try to figure out a concrete solution, follow up, and get things fixed.

Real-world meetings need to be managed so as to avoid being ineffective. As we discuss above, study the objectives, set the agenda, and meet the needs of audience when preparing. And then start on time, end on time, and get things done in the real-world meetings.

Guest Post: Aravind Bharadwaj

2010-08-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

Aravind is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

http://humor.erichermes.com/dilbert_meeting1.gif

Today’s workplace demands more collaboration than ever before. All decisions are consensus-driven and teamwork is extremely essential. As per a survey by Gartner, meetings take up over 20% of the average employee’s work day. Although so much man power is channeled to meetings, usually very little is derived from it.

Very few of the meetings I have had to attend had an agenda, and almost none of the meetings stuck to the proposed agenda. I can recollect a meeting from my early days at work. My manager had set up a 1-hour slot and invited several operations analysts and senior managers. There was no agenda or any specific context to the meeting. I was a silent observer once the meeting began. Very quickly I began to realize that different attendees were talking about completely different things. The meeting went on for an hour and ended abruptly. Quite a few things went wrong with the meeting. The lack of agenda paved the way for an open-ended discussion on almost any topic. No one was moderating the meeting and there were several parallel threads. There did not seem to be a common shared purpose or understanding. Most importantly, there was no tangible outcome after the meeting.

In retrospect, there are several things I could have done to fix the meeting (or several other similar meetings). Agenda should be the center of every meeting with the moderator ensuring that all items on the agenda are covered and that the meeting does not deviate from the agenda. It is also important that people discuss issues in a logical sequence allowing opinions and discussions in the mean time. Further, it is critical that all participants in the meeting understand the context of the meeting and the items being discussed. It is the moderator’s responsibility to bring others up to speed before the meeting by sending documents and other supplementary material.

Professor Labash mentions four key personality types as it relates to meetings - thrust, drag, lift and gravity. I realize that it is important to have people who thrust and lift in a meeting than people with drag and gravity attributes. Meetings should be headed towards action. Meetings which don’t result in actionable results are a waste of the accumulated manpower engaged in it.

Guest Post: Rituparna Dey

2010-08-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Rituparna is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about real-world meetings.

Effective Meetings Generate Good Results

One business meeting in a day translates to two hundred and sixty four meetings in a year, which rolls up to seven thousand nine hundred and twenty meetings over an individual’s working career of thirty years. Isn’t that an awful amount of time doing meetings? Time is the most precious commodity in today’s world. Contemporary research reveals that most real world meetings are a waste of productive time. I read somewhere “Most meetings are social street lamps attracting the unproductive moths in an organization.” So, how do we make meetings effective? Chris Labash, in his Professional Speaking class, discusses pointed guidelines to conduct effective meetings.

Is my most appropriate vehicle a meeting?

The first question to be asked is - Do I need a meeting to accomplish my meeting results? Is it the best opportunity I have to solve my problem? Taiichi Ohno, who reinvented the Toyota Quality system, mentions that asking ‘Why’ five times would allow one to determine the root cause of a problem. For example: “Why did my project fail? Why did the scope change? Why was scope creep allowed? Why was the process not reviewed? Why was I not consulted? These answers would lead to another question – “Who were the people involved?” You have now realized that you need a meeting with those people to address your problem!

“Begin With The End In Mind” – Stephen Covey

What do I want to accomplish from the meeting? What is the purpose of this meeting; what is its focus? Whom should I call to my meeting; who are the people? What should the agenda be? Answers to these questions will help in identifying a framework to develop an effective meeting plan.

“Are my critical meeting members available?”

Ensure adequate representation in the meeting. Are decision makers present at the meeting? Meeting organizers should also check whether the most critical people would be available to attend the meeting. People can be dull or energetic. The organizer must ensure that a good mix of personalities is present in the meeting.

In my first job, our project manager once scheduled an impromptu meeting to address project delay. My lead did not attend because he had to rush to another meeting. The rest of the team, most of whom were juniors, could not contribute much to the meeting. As a result, the meeting was inadequate and another had to be scheduled in the presence of the project lead. The consequences were bizarre – as it was our deliverables were lagging behind; on top of that we lost an hour in an unfruitful meeting.

“Is my preparation adequate?”

What is the best time to hold my meeting? Mondays-Thursdays 10am-11:30am has been approved by consensus to be the most effective for a meeting discussion. Post-lunch is not a good time since people are sleepy. On the same note, Fridays might not be a good choice since people are anxious to start their weekend early. Organizers should choose a meeting place that is equally accessible to all participants. Do I have a meeting agenda that I can adhere to? Rank the tasks hierarchically on their relevance. It is best to circulate the agenda to all participants well in advance so that they can review and suggest changes. In addition, it ensures that everyone comes prepared to the meeting. Good pre-meeting preparation ensures that brainstorming in the meeting is effective and the next steps are fruitful.

“How can the leader be a ‘servant’ of the meeting?”

How should the meeting leader facilitate the meeting to build enthusiasm, to generate commitment and motivation and to enlist participation from the attendees? How should he encourage participation? The meeting leader must arrive early to set the stage for the meeting. He should do quick introductions, review the objective and agenda and subsequently throw the ball to the group. He should demonstrate energy. He should never endorse or reject an idea during a brainstorming session. He should be a better listener and involve everyone in the discussion. It is up to the leader to ensure that the meeting does not go off-track. A survey by GM consultants reveals that 74% of people do not want to waste time in meetings and 88% of people like active participation. The leader should ensure that desired results are accomplished from the meeting.

“What are the next steps?”

The leader should summarize the meeting points at regular intervals. The success of a meeting lies in identifying follow-up actions that can be derived from the meeting. Effective meetings outline the action item, identify the person who is responsible for its execution and finalize the due date and success metrics of the action item.

“What happened in the meeting?”

It is always good practice to publish meeting minutes and the action plan within twenty-four hours of the meeting. A leader should appoint a note-taker for the meeting. He should send out minutes to all the stakeholders so that people can start working on their action items right away.

Effective meetings are the ones that start and end on time. Bad meetings are frequently characterized by poor timing sense, absence of objectives, absence of agenda and ownership, unanswered questions and lack of follow-up actions. Someone once remarked, “A meeting without an agenda is like a journey without a map.” You frequently get lost and the destination is gray and distant. The leader to a meeting is like the captain to a ship. As leader, it is up to you to dominate, elicit decisions and facilitate discussions without indulging in self-indulgence. As leader, you can transform real world meetings.

Guest Post: Anuj Gupta

2010-08-05T08:58:00.001-07:00

Anuj is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. This is his second guest post on the blog. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

“Meeting. Not again.” This used to be the general reaction of my team mates when we used to get an invite of a meeting from our manager. It was because most of our meetings were without any purpose, direction or agenda. People who didn’t have any role or participation in the meeting were also invited. There was no respect for the schedule as almost every meeting overshot the stipulated time. In fact, we had a joke going around that the person who could survive our manager’s meeting could survive any meeting in the world. The idea here is not to get rid of the meeting but to keep it effective and efficient.

Meetings are an indispensable part of the corporate set up. According to a survey done in the UK, more than 5 years of our careers are spent in meetings. It can prove to be a really effective tool in getting things moving forward. However, most professionals don’t know the art of conducting effective meetings. The answers to the below mentioned questions will definitely help you in conducting effective meetings.

1. Do we need a meeting? The answer to this question will eliminate the meetings which were never required. If a meeting can be avoided with the help of emails or other modes of communication, it should never be conducted.

2. What is the purpose of the meeting? Every participant of the meeting should have a clear understanding of the objective of the meeting. The convener should clearly mention the purpose at the beginning of the meeting.

3. What is the agenda of the meeting? The list of the items that need to be discussed in the meeting should be sent in advance. It will give you the opportunity to take the feedback from participants and add any missing points. The points in the agenda should be prioritized based on the importance. Agenda gives direction to the meeting and acts as roadmap to stay on point. Therefore any digression should be dealt with appropriately to make the meeting a success.

4. Who should be invited to the meeting? People who can effectively contribute to the proceedings of the meeting should be invited. People who you think will have a say in the final decision or who will add value to the meeting should definitely be called.

5. What preparation is required for the meeting? If you are a convener you should make sure that the place where meeting is scheduled has all the required logistics. If you are a participant you should come well prepared with all the details which will make your contribution to the meeting useful and effective.

6. What actions came out of the meeting? As Professor Labash aptly mentioned, “A meeting without action is not a meeting, but a conversation.” Every meeting should end with some action points. People should be identified to complete these next steps.

Guest Post: Sharat Sannabhadti

2010-08-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

Sharat is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world meetings.

‘Meetings are a waste of time’. This is a common sentiment observed by all people across different organizations all over the world! In fact, it is so popular that there was a Dilbert comic strip on this topic.

PHB (Dilbert’s Boss): Let’s figure out a timeline for deployment.
Dilbert: Ted is the only one who knows about that and he is on vacation.
PHB: let’s see how far we can get without Ted.
Alice: You mean without knowledge or insight?
PHB: We can make reasonable assumptions.
Dilbert: Or we could wait for Ted to come back tomorrow and ask him.
PHB (shouts): I CALLED THIS MEETING AND IT’S NOT A MEETING UNTIL SOMEONE’S TIME GETS WASTED!!
Dilbert: I apologize for my efficiency.
PHB: Apology accepted.
(Source: Dilbert Comic Strip, Nov 23, 2008)

What causes meetings to be time-wasting sessions? During my 4 years in the corporate world, I have been to a number of meetings. I have observed a few major reasons that cause meetings to become synonymous with time-wasting sessions. Most of the meetings fail because the agenda for the meeting is not established in detail and is not communicated to every participant of the meeting. In other cases, the person conducting the meeting lacks a sense of time and lets the conversations or behavior deviate from the main topic of the meeting. Other times, the people participating in the meeting are not prepared to provide valuable input. So, are meetings always a waste of time? Are we all going to waste 10% of our entire lives attending meetings? Well, hopefully not. There are some steps that good meeting conductors take to ensure that meetings are useful to every participant. They are as follows:

1. Purpose: There should be a clear purpose for conducting a meeting. One has to be clear that the situation needs a meeting to be conducted and no other means of communication such as email can be used as an alternative.

2. Agenda: The agenda for the meeting should be very specific and should be shared with everyone attending the meeting. It should be detailed, providing details about the duration of the meeting, the person responsible for noting down minutes of the meeting, who is going to lead the meeting, etc.

3. Number of people: There should not be more than 10 users ideally. Having many users in the meeting will lead to a lot of effort being spent managing the people, defeating the main purpose of the meeting.

4. Time: The meeting should be at a convenient time in the week so that all the concerned people can participate in the meeting.

5. Duration: The meeting should be planned for a specific duration so that the time is used efficiently during the meeting. Ideally a meeting should not be conducted for more than 2 hours. A person, preferably the meeting conductor, should be responsible for keeping track of time during the meeting.

6. Place: The venue for the meeting should be convenient (preferably a central place) so that it becomes easier for the people to reach the place.

7. Participation: All the concerned people (stakeholders) must be invited to the meeting. The meeting conductor should make sure that every participant gets a chance to contribute. The meeting conductor should act as a facilitator. His role is to guide the discussion by asking questions and taking input from everyone. In the end he is supposed to summarize the points discussed.

8. Action/Result: Every meeting should end with clearly defined action points, the people responsible for each of the points, and the timeline associated with these points. Without a definite result or a clearly defined future action plan, the meeting is a waste of time for everyone involved.

So let us all take an oath today that we will follow the above rules and educate others in becoming good meeting conductors. Let us make our world a better place by turning meetings into ‘time-saving’ sessions!!

Guest Post: Rituparna Dey

2010-08-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

Rituparna is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon University. Here she writes about getting the job you want.

“We never get a second chance to make a first impression” -Anonymous

Organizations want to hire employees who reflect the organization’s values and are presentable to their stakeholders. In the last company I worked for, I often conducted first-round technical interviews. On a particularly busy day, I had to wait for 30 minutes before my interviewee showed up. In addition, when he did arrive, I noticed that he was in sweat pants. My first thoughts were- “Would I be willing to project him to my top clientele?” He clearly did not value my time. He had not dressed appropriately for the interview. His attitude reflected lack of seriousness and utter carelessness. Although he was technically sound, the position required a true professional, and unfortunately I had to let him go. First impressions do matter! Turn up early for an interview. Allow enough room for contingencies like a traffic jam or a road accident. Dress up according to the norms of the organization, although a business suit is the most preferred attire. Talk amicably – everything counts towards your favorable disposition. When an organization hires you, it acquires you in entirety. Your demeanor, attitude and skills portray the values of the organization. Make the interview memorable for you and for your interviewer.

“Completed 12 years of high school”

I happened to come across this accomplishment in one resume! Be practical. Under normal circumstances, any company receives hundreds of resumes for one position. How do you think you will stand out? How will you increase your chances of getting past the first stage? Why should I summon you for an interview over the 30 resumes that I rejected? Your resume needs to be concise and relevant to the position. When you arrive for an interview, carry copies of your latest resume and hand one over to the interviewer. You never know whether he has had the opportunity to look through your particulars.

“Why do you think you would be a fit for this company?”

I was interviewing with a well-known IT firm for a software developer position. After four grueling rounds of technical interviews, I was scheduled to meet the HR. Thinking that it would be a breeze; I stomped in only to be spellbound by her first question. Although, I had an idea of what the company did, I did not know why I would be a value-add to the organization. Very strange, but my interviewer instantly realized that I was not sufficiently cognizant of my prospective employer. I had not highlighted my enthusiasm to learn about its history. Nor had I bothered to ponder about whether I would fit in its culture. They trashed my resume. After hearing Chris Labash talk about how important it is to be a good fit in an organization, I would have done the same!

“Tell me something about yourself” or some variant is a sure-shot icebreaker in an interview.

Should you have a rehearsed answer or is it impromptu? I suggest, think in advance, about what you want to say. Rehearsed answers often sound memorized- you definitely do not want to appear as a school kid reciting a verse. However, each company wants to hear something specific. Hence, your answer, tailored to the organization you are interviewing for, should be checkered with your asset points.

“There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water.” – Kate Chopin

Was your interview successful? Was it interesting for the interviewer? Will he remember you 3 days after your meeting with him? The answer to all three questions is YES if you have managed to turn your interview into a conversation. Look for natural pauses to enter into a discussion. Throw insightful comments. The last time you interviewed with a company- did you wish for your interview to end or did you regret that it ended too soon? If you are in the latter group, you were conversing with the interviewer.

“Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are” - Syrus

Do not be afraid to ask questions. Ask the interviewer about the projects you would work on or the culture of the company. It exhibits your readiness to join. Should you have questions about compensation, be upfront at the end of the interview. Quote industry benchmarks to display your awareness of the situation. You might even ask him what follows the interview stage.

“All’s well that ends well; but we are not quite there” (modified well-known proverb)

The end is as important as the beginning. After the interview, thank the interviewer seriously and shake hands. Remember – you still have a chance to correct your goof ups. You could send him a thank you note or email. This is your last chance before he makes up his mind. According to CareerBuilder, "Nearly 15% of hiring managers say they would not hire someone who failed to send a thank-you letter after the interview. Thirty-two percent say they would still consider the candidate, but would think less of him or her." You could actually hurt your chances by not sending that tiny note.

“Who says there is no a reason to cry over spilt milk?” (modified well-known proverb)

You are out. The show is over. Relax! Ruminate! Think about what went right. What should you work on before your next interview? Should you improvise your answers? How did the interview close? What is your gut feeling about the interview? In fact, research shows that good post mortems create better thank you notes. The learning prepares you for your subsequent interviews.

Now is when your job interview is formally over.

Guest Post: Aruna Bhat

2010-08-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

Aruna is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about getting the job you want.

What is my field of interest? Am I right for the job? How do I get the job I like?

How important is it to answer these questions? Seems very, as they decide where we finally land in our career. After all, we all work to live and hence it only makes sense to do what we enjoy doing. This article talks about the points one needs to keep in mind when searching for a job.

First and foremost, one has to figure out what interests them the most. Do not fret if you cannot decide immediately on this! Most influential personalities in the world were not clear about their goals till very late in their lives. Try to clear your mind of all diversions and think about the one thing you would love to do for the rest of your life. If you like talking to people and are a good orator, then you are probably good for a consulting or a management profile. On the other hand, if you enjoy working behind the scenes and are good in technical aspects, you are suitable for a technical job. Once decided, the next step is to think about how to go about it. Make use of the one thing that practically gives you all the information you need; the internet. Research on the kind of job you are interested in, network with friends and acquaintances and discuss the prospects.

Once you are satisfied with the outcome, browse through the companies which have openings for similar positions and assess whether you fit the role. Learn about the background and any interesting facts of the company on a higher level. On a granular level, learn about the business of the company, their strategy and their upcoming projects. Also, read about its competitors and where it stands as compared to the competitors. Try to get in touch with the current employees and ask them about the culture of the company and any information that will help you decide if that is indeed the company you are looking for. It is important to research these factors as at the time of interview, it shows the interviewer that you have done your homework and are interested in working for the company.

Now that you have figured out the kind of job you want and researched on the company, your next task is to prepare an impressive resume. Due to the volume of resumes the recruiters receive, it is believed that they spare just about a few seconds on each resume. Hence, they look for keywords to help them filter good resumes from the bad ones. The rule here is to keep your resume short and concise with keywords relevant to the job description. Print your name clearly along with your e-mail ID and contact number. Then, briefly write in one sentence about your experience and how it fits with the company. This should be followed by qualification and work experience. Instead of writing paragraphs on your past roles and responsibilities, mention two or three significant responsibilities which yielded results. A good resume goes a long way in getting an interview call.

Up until this point, you have done everything that it takes to get an interview call and you do not want to ruin your efforts by feeling drowsy at the time of the interview! Ensure you get a good night’s sleep to keep your brain active and alert the next day. Dress professionally; reach early at the venue and be polite to everyone around because it talks volumes about your personality. During the interview, keep your cool and be confident. Talk about your asset points and tell the interviewer how you fit the company’s culture and how you can contribute for its growth. All the research you did on the company initially will guide you through this. Talk about STAR (Situation, Task, Approach/Action, Result) as applicable. Try to turn an interview into a conversation by asking questions. After completing the interview, take a few minutes to retrospect on the events that happened at the time of the interview. As a last step, send them a thank you note for giving you an opportunity to interview with them and if possible give them one more reason as to why you think you are right for the job.

To conclude, these points, if religiously followed, coupled with good communication can definitely fetch you the job you aspire for.

Guest Post: Punit Parikh

2010-08-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

Punit is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. You read it correctly. Life would be fun if every day of the week would be a Sunday. Alas! Only if this could be true. Let’s face it we all have suffered from Monday morning blues at some point of time in our professional lives. OK, we have tried getting to bed early, have our clothes washed and ironed on Sunday night but it clearly does not seem to work every time. When we introspect, we ask ourselves am I really enjoying my work? Do I really belong to this organization? Am I a good fit in this organization? If you answered “NO” to above questions, then continue reading and I promise to untie the knots.

Thanks for continuing to read. Remember acting upon a thought is half the battle won! Now that you have identified it is time to switch not only jobs or organizations but also get a career for yourself that you value and cherish, it is action time. Let us get started by identifying the organizations and job profiles that match your skill-sets. For example, if you have never done any kind of computer programming then you have very slim chances of getting a job at Microsoft or Google Inc in an engineer work profile. Once you listed down organizations and work profiles it is time to get on your internet and do online research about the organizations you wish to work. In this internet era, there is plethora of resources available and there is no excuse for lack of it. You can use Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to connect with people who work in those organizations in the same profile. Try to learn from their experiences. Try to gauge the culture of the organization from your online research and interactions with people who work there. This will give you a preliminary idea about the organization and work profile so that you can make an inform decision.

Next, let us build our own database that includes our strengths. Building a database, does that sound intimidating? Punit, what are you saying it isn’t difficult? No, it is not. All I am asking you to do is talk about yourself. Don’t you enjoy talking about yourselves? OK, it is not talking about how good looking you are and all good stuff. It is about your professional strengths. Therefore, get your pen and paper, and start listing them down. Do not hesitate to ask your old co-workers, mentors and teammates about your strengths. Voila! Part of your database is complete. The other half will complete when you tie an engaging story to each of your assets to justify it. For example, rather than simply saying I have good analytical skills you should say my analytical skills helped our organization save or increase revenue by X %. Support this claim by a story. Story? Yes let me tell you what I mean by a story.

A good engaging story should follow the STAR technique. Describe a Situation to set the context of your story, describe your Task, describe your Action and finally describe the Results produced by that action. Once the database is ready, we can refer to this and select those assets that are highly valued by different organizations. For example, if you are interviewing with Apple Inc, you definitely want to highlight your creativity strength in addition to strong technical and analytical skills. This database will be a very handy tool in your job search.

I hope you found this information useful. In my next blog, we will tackle another important aspect of job search. I know by now you must have already guessed. It is none other than editing your resume!

Guest Post: Pratik Chawla

2010-07-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

Pratik is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon University. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

Why do you work? An obvious answer would be to earn money to meet your needs. So, what if you win a lottery? Would you immediately call up your manager to say that he can’t suck any more life out of you? And then you spend the rest of your life of leisure at your new beach house in Miami! I bet many of you would jump to grab this opportunity!

Well, for the rest of us (which accounts to 99.99% of the people), the good news is that a job can be FUN! How? Let’s find out. First of all, you really need to know what you are good at. And knowing your strength to, what kind of job you would want to apply your strengths. Imagine if Zidane had used his feet for tap dancing rather than playing football! Sounds scary! Isn’t it? So, in any case, make sure you do not land up this way! List the companies with expertise in your field of interest. Reach out to people working at the company, through personal contacts or through social networking sites, and check how well you fit into the job and the culture of a company.

Now that you have aimed your target, it’s time to shoot. But hold on, do you have the right bullets? That is when a strong resume plays its role. A resume should be strong enough to pierce through the multiple filters that HR guys apply to select candidates for interview round. How to get that? Well, make sure your resume reflects the perfect fit for the desired role. Highlight all your skills and accomplishments, and most importantly get it reviewed by an expert. All set? Now find the best way to get your resume across. If you know someone in the company, tell him to refer you. If not, then try to find a person through networking. If you can’t get to know anyone in the company, only then post the resume directly on the website of the company.

Did you get the email saying “you have been shortlisted for the interview”? Leave your computer, get out of bed and get your best suit to dry cleaners. You cannot afford to wear a wrinkled shirt on your D-day. On the interview day, dress neatly, do not put a lot of cologne; make sure you carry many copies of your resume and that you reach at least 15 minutes before the interview. Use this time to fix your dress and redo your hair.

At the time of interview, be confident and relax. I remember one of my friends was so terrified at his interview, that he actually asked the interviewer if he could go for a piss! So, empty your tanks well before. Try to turn the interview into more of a conversation. How? Ask questions!

Lastly, thank the interviewer for giving you the opportunity and if possible, acknowledge the interviewer over an email, when you reach home. Well, you have done it all. Congratulate yourself for a good interview, and learn from the bad ones.

Hope you do not have to wait long to hear the golden word, “Congratulations!” from the company. All the best!

Guest Post: Nithin Betegeri

2010-07-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Nithin is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

Riding the Job Search Boat

“You can describe Michelangelo in detail but do you know what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel? You can describe a Shakespeare’s sonnet about love but do you know what it is to look in a woman’s eye and be totally vulnerable?” When Robin Williams asked these questions to Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, I wondered how will it be to work at #1, Infinite Loop, Cupertino; the place where Apple Inc. is located. We all know that the story of one person, one computer, changing the world is an inspiring read. But does it quench the thirst to create the next best innovation after bread came sliced?

It does not matter what books or others say until we experience this beautiful world ourselves. The same philosophy is true with a job search as well. A job review site may highly rank a company for its work culture but can you really be sure until you work there? Of course, you can’t be. I believe that one’s search for a job should begin from oneself. We question our interests and passion. The answers to those questions should indicate the company that we should look for.

I am an artist who likes experimenting with colors on a palette. I love technology for the wonders we can create out of it. Combine both of them, and you will know what I am passionate about. I do not like Apple because of the ratings in the latest Wired magazine but because it works on products that I am passionate about, products that I would love to develop as an engineer. From my experience, introspection is always the first step of one’s job search.

Once we have a list of companies, we should research on their work culture, products and history. We should understand what it takes to work 9 to 5, five days a week for them. We should understand their value system, and know what makes someone a best employee at that company. These analyses will not only help us in our interview, but stoke our passions further. It will help us refine our choices as well. Last but not the least; we should research the recent trends in those industries and companies that are available ubiquitously over the internet.

Once our background work is done, we should apply to these companies in every possible medium. Apply over their websites, call them, mail them, and finally, contact friends and alumni working in those companies. No medium is bad enough for us to give opportunities to express our interests and passion. We should express our interests and talk about benefits to the company from hiring us. We can match our skill sets to those required with that of the job posted. That’s what it takes to follow our passion. We should repeat this entire process until we land interviews. It does not matter if it’s a recession or a honeymoon period for the market, persistence and hard work will surely bring results. After all, as Adidas puts it, “Impossible is nothing.” Isn’t it?

Guest Post: Nisha Balasubramanian

2010-07-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Nisha is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon University. Here she writes about getting the job you want.

How many times have we had a feeling of “Oh my Gosh!!!” after an interview? Well almost every time!!! What is it that went wrong? I thought I was the best fit for the job, but I feel lost now. What was I thinking? All these are very common feelings one has after an interview. How do we overcome this? How do we find ‘the right job’? What does it take to crack an interview? These are some questions that I will try to answer here and I am sure it will help you be better prepared for your next interview.

The first and the foremost task at hand is to find out what interests you. Before you begin your job search, you need to know what kind of job drives you the most, which job makes you hit the office with full enthusiasm day after day. Most of the time people fail to understand the need to identify their area of interest. As a result they just follow the crowd and finally end up in a job that leaves them not only unsatisfied but also frustrated to the core. Finding the right job is like finding your true love. In order to do that go back to your childhood days and remember what did you always wanted to become, identify the subjects that used to interest you the most during your undergraduate studies, talk to your best friends/mentors/colleagues who may help you identify the things you like to do the most. If you have had prior work experience, think about what you liked the most and what you disliked about the job. This would give you a sense of direction for your career path. Yes, that is the word- CAREER. The secret of having an excellent job is that it should fall in line with your career path.

Once you have identified your area of interest, the next step is to look out for opportunities that match your interests. List the companies with profiles that interest you. Do thorough research on the companies you may want to work with- their core competencies, their product and services, their target market, the work environment, your role in the company, the compensation, etc. Talk to current and former employees about their experiences with the company. Once you have all these details, check if it matches your career interests and if you would you really like to work for the company. Often people just look out for things that they are missing in their current job. They forget to see what they like in the current profile which they might miss in the new job. Most importantly, one has to see where the new job will take them in their career, in the long run. Alas, finding the right company is as important as choosing a life partner!

So, you have defined your interests, short listed the companies you want to join and have applied for the job. The next big thing and I would say the most important is to crack the interview. One fact you need to register in your mind while preparing for the interview is – “Be well prepared and be yourself.” So what does an interviewer look for in a potential employee? Are they just looking for a bunch of people, who can do any task assigned to them within minutes but are afraid to communicate with the person sitting next to them at work? Sometimes you really need to think from an interviewer’s perspective. Below are some of the aspects which MUST be considered while preparing for the interview:

Do extensive research on the company. Try to find minute details of the company as well as your job profile. Prepare several intelligent questions to ask your interviewer. This shows that you have really done your research well and that you are genuinely interested in working for the company.
Prepare specific examples from your past work, which may help showcase your skills and experience and how they will be of great help to the company you intend to join. Having your PAR (Problem-Action-Result) stories in place, about your experience, your education, and specific skills goes a great deal in portraying you as a serious candidate for the job.
Take out sufficient time to review your resume. It is the first thing which the interviewers look at and that one page resume says a lot about your personality and goals.
Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Try to find out what you are good at: consult your co-workers or trusted friends to get feedback on your work. List down all the skills which you think might help you fit it to the kind of job you are looking for. You don’t need to just focus from a work perspective, but what kind of a person you are, what is that one thing that differentiates you from the others, how the company will be benefitted from hiring you. Highlight them during the interview. At the same time, it is very important that you get genuine feedback on your weaknesses, so that you may be aware of tough situations that you may encounter in your new job and think of ways to overcome them. Find a way to frame the weaknesses positively, so that the prospective employer knows that you are aware and working on your weaknesses.
Find out your market value as per the industry standards. The company hiring you would like to know whether they can really afford you. Let them give you an offer first, but if you know what you are worth, do let them know. The employer will surely appreciate your honesty and confidence.
On the D-day, it is most important for you to look confident. I know it is very difficult to stay calm on the D day and it is perfectly fine to be a little nervous. But the important thing is how confidently you portray yourself to the interviewer. Put on your best suit and make sure that you are well groomed. They generally look for people who will take control of a crisis situation confidently.
Print out a few extra copies of your resume and cover letter. This will help you tackle a multiple interviewer situation.
Arrive on time for the interview. Arriving early gives an impression that you want this job at any cost. At the same time, arriving late gives an impression of being careless. Smile and shake hands when you meet the interviewer for the first time. Do the same, when you leave after the interview.
Last but not least, send a ‘Thank You’ message to the person who interviewed you. A handwritten note will go a long way in creating a favorable impression.

Phew!!! I know that was an extensive list of “Things to remember” but the most important thing is to RELAX and SMILE. After all, the company needs people who are pleasant to work with. All the best for your interview!!

Guest Post: Nikolaos Kagkalos

2010-07-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

Nikolaos is one of Chris' 2010 Professional Speaking MISM students at Carnegie Mellon University. Here he writes about the art of interviewing.

I still remember a teacher of mine during the undergraduate school years repeating and almost yelling at my class: "You, guys, when you have free time in the future, just go to interviews. Not one or two. Not even three or four. GO TO MANY! Tens, twenties...go to as many as you can! If you can do a hundred, it's awesome!" What a wise advice for future graduates...

The crucial question for everyone who seeks a job is: "What does a company wants to know about someone who wants to hire?" The pyramid of the information the company wants to gather has many levels; company wants to know about the knowledge of the candidate, his/her personality, confidence and trust, sincerity and probably thousands of others. A little bit above all these is the value of the person, that is, how much the company can get from him/her. But above all is the question "Is he/she a pleasant person?" or "Does he/she fit?"

From the candidate's view, what company should we choose to work for? Everyone has a bunch of companies they would like to work for. We see people saying: "I want to work for Google so bad! I have seen pictures from their offices and they are so cool!" Yeah! But this is not a good reason to apply there. And just the name of the company does not mean too much sometimes. Before applying, do RESEARCH; what is the history of the company? What is the culture fostered in there? How do they treat employees and how much do they pay? What are the prospects of promotions? All these enquiries lead us to clarify whether the company is the right pick for us. And how do we get the answers? Ask! Google it! There are many ways to find out. As long as you really want it, you can find the way to get it. Remember: the more information you get, the less are the chances to be hired by a company that does not fit you.

From the time you pick your target and before you arrange an interview, you should be able to answer convincingly questions like:

Why you are here?
What kind of person are you?
What can you offer to our company?
What differentiates you from the rest?
Desired salary?

In addition, be prepared for "hypothetical, real situation questions". For example, "what would you do if..." or "let's say the company...how would you act?" Depending on the position you seek, build working scenarios and answer them. As an inference, organize your thought, write down your answers, practice on them like it was a performance. Make mock interviews with experts from your school or teachers or even with yourself in front of the mirror! It is very important to know everything by heart.

After all this preparation, hit the target. Go for the company and seek an interview. You cannot do much here. If they want to hire people, you will be called - and this will be based on your solid resume (or in other words, your personal...flyer). Put much effort into this and remember: make it short and accurate, demonstrate results, and use keywords. Once you are called, also figure out the following tips to get the most out of it- which is getting the job:

Try to know the company - again, it is very important
Prepare your answers and pick interesting life stories that describe yourself
At the time of the conversation: perform like an actor, be relaxed, be natural, make the interview look like a CONVERSATION by asking questions!
Express in a diplomatic way how passionate you are for the job
Be polite. Support your opinions in a good manner BUT never go beyond the limits

Interview is mostly actions; get your act together, practice, perform. Many words sometimes do not count - actions do. So go out, walk and get what you want!

This content is based on my personal experience and the lectures of Professor Labash.

Guest Post: Nidhu Nalin

2010-07-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

Nidhu is one of Chris' 2010 Professional Speaking students at Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University. Here she writes about getting your dream job.

When you wait impatiently for your turn to face your job interview, what is the only thing that is going on in your head? Most of you would agree with me when I say that the question is whether I will be able to crack this interview or not? Likewise, the things concerning Mr. John are will you be able to fit in the organization? Will you be adding value to the organization? Will you be able to do the job? And yes, you are right! Mr. John is indeed the interviewer.

When you stand outside that door to meet Mr. John, you should remember that the even though you have the right skills, education and experience for the job, so do those 90 people who have applied for the same job. So, what will make you that unanimous choice? Of course, the interview which you are about to give. Let’s explore further into developing the right interview skills.

As noted by Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, “When you meet someone for the first time . . . your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions.” Hence it is very important to create a positive first impression. Greet your interviewer with a firm handshake and a pleasant smile. Dress appropriately. Personal grooming and hygiene are important. Do not wear anything which is too distracting. For example, your interviewer might get distracted with that green eye-shadow of yours instead of focusing on what you are talking. Having said all of that, it is equally important that you are comfortable in whatever you are wearing.

Throughout the interview, maintain positive eye-contact. Speak in a polite manner. While responding, do not be too slow or too fast. This is your chance to present yourself as a best fit for the role, hence talk about things which describe you as a person capable of doing the job. Repetition of information already present in your resume should be avoided. Once in an interview, my interviewer asked me not to repeat the things which are not there in my resume.

Do research about the company and the position for which you have applied. In today’s information rich world, it would not go down too well with the interviewer, if you appear to be ignorant towards some big recent event associated with the company. Having the right information about the company shows your true interest in the company and more importantly will support your answer to the question “why do you want to join our company?”

While talking about yourself, do not be abstract. Always corroborate your statements with a relevant story from your experience. For example, if I simply say that I am a good problem solver, I am being too abstract. However when I say that once in an award function which I was anchoring, the certificates got delayed by 30 minutes, and to make up for the time delay, I started asking random fun questions to the audience. The audience enjoyed the fun-question event and we could smoothly continue with the function once the certificates arrived. This depicts strongly that you are a good problem solver in addition to being quick and creative.

Engage in conversation instead of a question answer session. What could be the best possible way to engage in a conversation? Ask questions. Look for natural pauses or just excuse and ask for any relevant question. By saying relevant, I am indicating that you would obviously not interrupt Mr. John to ask whether dogs are better than cats as pets. However, if Mr. John says that he also used to play football in his college and loves the game just like you, then it is not inappropriate to ask which team he supports for FIFA world cup 2010.

The way you end an interview is very important. It could be as simple as saying “Thank you for your time” or extend to something more elaborate. According to Shawn Graham, the author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job, the job interview close is the equivalent of the “call me” moment at the end of a good date.

Research done by CareerPlaybook indicates that about 65% of the time, the hired employee meets fewer than 50% of the job qualifications. Hence, in addition to having a powerful resume you need to have the right interview skills in place to get that dream job.

Guest Post: Lulu Chen

2010-07-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

Lulu is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about real-world oral communication.

‘We have satellite offices all around the world, and each office only comprises a few people. While we want to support staffs’ basic IT needs, we can’t justify spending too much money on a few people in each site. How can you help us? ‘

‘Well, our product is the most comprehensive one in the industry now, it assemblies all the features of similar products and it is ranked number 1 in the Gartner Magic Quadrant!’

I’ve been hearing a lot of sales talks in my work, and the above conversation happens regularly. It is funny. More than 70% of business proposals for IT don’t meet the requirements in full. While there’s so much pressure on the sales people to close deals with us, they usually don’t listen to our specific requirements and our concerns. Instead, they go on and on with their prepared sales pitch. Normally these people don’t get the deal with us at the end.

Sales is an art that needs persuasion, negotiation and intimacy in relationship. But most importantly, it takes good listening skills and good knowledge for the sales person to be flexible and relax enough to swing the conversation.

For those good sales people I meet, they start the presentation by asking our requirements and concerns. They listen for the ideas and interpret between the lines. After they get the idea, they respond directly to our requirements or concerns – accurately, no zigzag, no avoidance. The prepared slides would just serve as an aid whenever the speaker needed. This is how typically good sales people capture our hearts. We trust that this is the guy we can speak with – responsive, sharp and knowledgeable. Good knowledge plays a part in the sales process, and more important is a good listening attitude.

The good listening attitude is powerful in any oral communication, be it a negotiation, a persuasion, or just a simple chit chat. Listening not only makes the other party (who is speaking) feel better, it also make ourselves look significantly smarter if we respond exactly with what the other one want to know; and surprisingly, they do tell us what they want to know if we listen carefully.

Guest Post: Anuj Gupta

2010-07-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

Anuj is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about real-world oral communication.

Can you imagine a world without any sort of communication in it? Not really. It has become an integral part of our lives and is as critical as breathing. Although there are many forms of communication, one of the most influential ways is ‘oral communication.’ This is because we can convey our message blend with real emotions. We can express grief, anger or happiness, which is really hard in other forms of communication like written.

Most of the communication we do is done verbally. This makes oral communication all the more important. It is used for various purposes like presentation, persuasion, conversation, etc. But differences in culture, accent and language make the whole process of communicating verbally difficult. Moreover with the ever increasing knowledge base it is getting tougher and tougher to keep the communication concise. In such a scenario, it is important to understand your audience and keep them in mind while communicating. This can make a big difference in the effectiveness of your communication.

It is also important to understand the fact that speaking and listening both are integral part of communication. Generally people tend to forget the listening part and concentrate only on speaking which adds to clutter. Unlike speaking and writing, we are never trained on listening which makes it all the more essential to enhance our listening skills. This can be done by creating a desire to listen, getting rid of both mental and physical distractions, reinforcing the speaker and giving him feedback in the form of questions. This actually makes the overall experience better for both speaker and listener and leads to an effective conversation.

In my previous work experience, I used to converse with people from the UK on a regular basis. The first few days were really difficult for me as instead of listening to them during meetings, I used to concentrate more on what I would be saying next. But as I started to know more about my audience and started focusing more on the listening part, life became so much simpler. The conversations became meaningful and we were able to get some action points out of every meeting which is an essential feature of effective communication.

Guest Post: Adhvitheey Gouri Shankar

2010-07-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

Adhvitheey is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about oral communication.

Did you know that the term “infant” derives from the Latin word “in-fans,” meaning “unable to speak”? Research suggests that 55% of the information we trust is visual and only 45% is vocal and verbal [1]. However, it is interesting to note that our first form of communication is still vocal. This interaction, albeit unintelligible, suggests the importance of oral communication as a means of expression for humans.

Communicating orally firstly involves gathering thoughts. This can prove to be quite a challenge with the constantly increasing clutter and distractions in this digital age we live in. We then organize these thoughts into a form that the receiver understands. With globalization and ever-increasing cultural interaction, understanding the receiver’s perspective entails significant interaction. Finally, we use intonation, pronunciation, inflection, pitch, volume and tone to express the thought. Although we are programmed to perform these tasks genetically and improve on our skills with increased interaction and time, there are specific cases where our ability to orally communicate is pushed to its limits.

Persuasion, preaching, teaching and negotiation involve significant oral communication prowess. It requires a deep understanding of the audience and the communication medium. This depth could well be the difference between harmony and discord or a deal and a standoff. I have noticed how a major part of being a good leader involves convincing people to accept orders rather than forcing them to serve a cause. I believe that using oral communication to convince and cause action is a skill of paramount importance for any leader.

We can classify effective speakers into those who use reasoning to appeal and those who speak from the heart. A speaker who uses reasoning uses the first part of communication, “gathering thoughts,” effectively, explains ideas, and presents facts & figures. With adequate understanding of the audience, he/she speaks in a way such that listeners automatically draw the correct conclusions. In comparison, a speaker who speaks from the heart focuses on the second part, “understanding the audience”. He/she relates to the audience and their feelings and convinces them to act a certain way. In summary, I believe that the best oral communicators use a combination of both. They understand their audience, use reasoning & facts as tools to strengthen their credibility, and present information in a form that empowers listeners to act.

Guest Post: Aravind Bharadwaj

2010-07-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

Aravind is one of Chris Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students, and writes here about oral communication.

Have you ever played this party game? About 5-6 people sit in a circle and a message is passed around by whispering to the person sitting next to you. The original message turns to gibberish by the time it goes around once. Oral communication arguably has the largest proportion of information loss among all means of communication. Several statistics have shown that less than 7% of what is said orally is remembered. However, in a world inundated by bits strewn all over the place, oral communication still holds its ground as a very personal mode of communication. Oral and face-to-face communication is predominant in instances which tickle the human emotion.

I remember the day when I got my first job. It was the 4th round of interviews and I was speaking with a senior MD of the firm. Since the previous rounds were not nearly smooth sailing, I had to convince the interviewer that I was the best fit for the position. I believe it was the harmony of oral communication and body language that helped me express my candidature and land the job. The power of oral communication as a tool for persuasion is immense. From a parent having ‘the talk’ with her teenager to great leaders sparking revolutions, oral communication can influence people like no other form of communication.

The personal touch of oral communication is clearly evident when it comes to difficult conversations. In the movie ‘Up in the Air,’ George Clooney’s character (Bingham) works for a firm that fires people. Bingham and several other consultants are successful solely on their abilities to communicate and convince laid off employees about the ‘bright future’ ahead of them. A new technology that promises to lay off people from a remote location fails miserably resulting in the return of the good old technique. The personal touch of oral communication is key in holding difficult conversations such as laying off an employee or breaking up with your lover.

Oral communication provides us with subtle hints to determine the personality type of the speaker. As Professor Labash mentioned, the tone, choice of words and sentence structure can help us determine if the speaker is a sensor, an intuitor, a thinker or a feeler. Recognizing the personality of the speaker will let us alter our communication style quickly and align it with theirs. While other modes of communication will let us gauge the personalities over time, oral communication gives us a heads up from the very first sentence.

While oral communication has its disadvantages, I believe it is irreplaceable by another form when it comes to connecting at a personal level. There may be instances of couples breaking up over a text message. But the day when it becomes a norm is still far away.

Guest Post: Kumar Kunal

2010-07-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Kumar is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students at Heinz. Here he writes about real-world oral communication.

Communication is exchange of information. It is the key in binding different worlds around us. Various fields like Arts and Science, Technology, Music and Literature have evolved by the exchange of ideas. It enables awareness and a level of understanding. Since time unknown, man has adopted and evolved the technique of communication. Communication varies from simple greetings, ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello,’ to complex information exchange in various languages. However, communication is not only about languages and greetings.

What was different in the orators from freedom struggle? What is different in the CEOs, the business magnets and the inventors? It has to be something more than just mere talk.

Power of convincing, techniques of putting forth your ideas, conviction in the ideas which are being promoted, and ability to virtually demonstrate futuristic proposals are all key abilities which are crucial for communication. To achieve effective communication, it is also important to know your audience and the subject. There is a lot more to learn from motivators and innovators like Steve Jobs than what meets inexperienced eye. The zeal, the enthusiasm and the passion in the belief and the strength of their ideas is reflected in their talks and promotions.

Oral communication is a very powerful tool. This can help make or break views and perceptions. On a positive note, it helps to build the future. On the other hand, one should also be aware of its negative impact and not get veiled with the wrong ideas. All the terror pockets are also a result of this tool.

Good communication always widens the scope of learning. The architecture of social beings depends on information exchange. It is rightly said, “The art of communication is the language of leadership.”-James Humes. The only caution should be the choice of leaders. It goes without saying, “Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”- Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Guest Post: Rocky Kurien

2010-07-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

Rocky is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here he writes about virtual communication.

“The world is a smaller place.” This is a phrase all of us use in our daily lives. But have we ever wondered what it is that has made this world a smaller place? Apart from the improvements in transportation the innovations in communication have played the biggest role in bringing all of us closer. Virtual communication is now widely regarded as the next big wave.

So what is virtual communication? Virtual communication refers to all means of communication which happen in virtual reality (computer media). This involves a plethora of technologies from a series of communication technologies which enable users to communicate real-time and range from synchronous methods to recent trends in Web 2.0-blogs, wikis, etc. which are classified as asynchronous.

Synchronous virtual communications range from VoIP calls, internet chat and video conferencing to some technologies which we only imagined in the realms of science fiction. Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP phones have tremendously impacted the communications industry. It involves routing of audio calls via the internet instead of traditional phone lines. This service has drastically brought down the costs of audio calls. Initially starting off as a means of personal communication through providers like Skype, this technology has scaled up and is now leveraged by major corporate organizations for their business communication. Despite its benefits, audio communication has its limitations, the most important being the miscommunication which occurs due to lack of face-to-face conversation. Video conferencing is a revolutionary virtual communication technology which overcomes this limitation. It enables users to see each other via computer screens while conversing. Cisco Telepresence is the most well known video conferencing technology, has widely been adopted by industry, and enables teams from far flung corners of the world to work efficiently and collaboratively without any of the traditional travel costs and inconveniences. Another rising virtual communication technology is holographic communication. Something we have so far seen only in the Star Wars movies, it is fast becoming reality. It involves projecting a real-life hologram of the person you are communicating to giving the feeling that she/he is right there in the room with you.

Asynchronous virtual communication involves technologies like wikis, blogs, online journals, social networking sites, etc., which have drastically impacted our daily lives. Initially starting off as social media, it has enabled people to express their views, share ideas and communicate with others on a much global scale. The Facebook revolution and rise of Wikipedia and online blogs are examples. Businesses have also started adopting these technologies in the form of corporate blogs, wikis, etc., to enable collaboration and sharing of knowledge.

Virtual communication technologies have truly transformed our daily lives. It is an exciting field and we can hope for many more innovations which will further shape our lives in the future.