- Invigorating and expanding your communications skills
For a more successful, fulfilling life ** Since 1993

Communication Training/Coaching

• The Power of the Spoken Word
• Conquering the pervasive disease of rambling: How to emphasize your point in Just Three Sentences
• Disarming and Neutralizing your critics and detractors without being offensive or disrespectful
• Some simple skills to create an extremely positive first impression
• Self-introductions that, in a mere 2 or 3 sentences, help distinguish your company and also spark listeners' curiosity
• For Immigrants: How to “connect” with the typical American professional
• How to minimize the diminution of women's communications in the workplace
• Merchandising your wares: How to win new clients
• Diminishers that lessen one's message and credentials
• How to Communicate with Impact and Sway (a comprehensive workshop covering most of the topics listed here; view pictures from a recent workshop)
• How to emphasize your strengths and accomplishments: Avoiding the "Bob Dole Communication Syndrome"
• Advanced Public Speaking -- Some tips
• How to deliver effective praise in Just Three Sentences (to help boost an employee’s morale, loyalty, and productivity)
• How to compel a peer or client into action
• Other invigorating topics

• Free On-site Demonstrations Now Offered!
  Allow us to demonstrate, in person, how we can help professionals make a quantum advance in their communication skills.
  To arrange for a free 18-minute demonstration of how our company can invigorate your communications skills, bolster your executive presence, and help you become more successful in influencing others, please contact us.

Schlumberger, Alcon Laboratories, ExxonMobil, CenterPoint Energy, City of Houston, Continental Airlines, Cooper Industries, Enron, Haverly Systems, Kinko's, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals; Reliant Energy, Royce Builders; Texaco, University of Houston-Clear Lake, Aldine and Houston school districts.

For a list of one-on-one coaching clients, click here.

“I have had the distinct pleasure of having V.J. Singal present to our Leadership Challenge Program...I have already witnessed the impact from his work. Our mid-level managers are more articulate and powerful when they speak.”
      – Hank Pitcher, Coordinator for Leadership Programs, Alcon Manufacturing, Ltd.

“ ... It is important that a lawyer is able to make his or her point quickly and succinctly. Your program helps anyone develop these qualities.”
      – William H. Bruckner, Bruckner & Sykes (a Houston-based law firm)

“(As a result of V.J.’s training) I am now better equipped to present particulars of our program, whether speaking with colleagues, addressing a group of people, or talking with the media...”
      – Therese Bevers, MD, Medical Director, Clinical Cancer Prevention, MD Anderson Cancer
           Center

by V.J. Singal

• Was he fighting a swarm of bees or what?
  It appeared as if AOL Chairman Steven Case was doing exactly that while addressing a conference of top CEOs. He made broad, sweeping gestures to emphasize his points, but the camera's close-up perspective cropped his arms just below the shoulders, resulting in a TV image of Case with wildly agitated arm stumps! Lesson: if you are being videotaped, keep your hand gestures close to the body.



• Looking down when you should be looking up!
  Be aware of misplaced eye emphasis, such as looking at your notes when you should be connecting with the audience...and the vice versa! Even highly-trained President Bill Clinton would sometimes consult his speech notes while uttering the most vital words in a sentence, then look up at the audience during the relatively trivial parts.



• That first sentence is crucial!
  When addressing a new audience, remember to keep your first sentence short and filled with simple words only. This gives listeners time to fine-tune their antennas to your vocal idiosyncrasies and thus absorb the rest of your presentation with ease.



• Don't be a bore...or worse!
  Frequent use of trite words such as very, basically, interesting will trivialize your message. Similarly, repeating a particular high-caliber word over and over sounds pompous or pretentious, and creates resentment in the listener. No wonder the use of synonymous words and phrases is the defining trait of America's most articulate.



• Master the stand-alone close.
  By that I mean a three- to five-sentence summation that is somewhat independent of the rest of your presentation, rather than a continuation of preceding material. Thus, if someone was distracted at any point during your speech, but did hear your forcefully delivered stand-alone close, they would still walk away with the gist.

Copyright © 1999 - 2008 by V.J. Singal. Articulate is a registered trademark.
Phone: 281-463-2500, P.O. Box 841155, Houston, TX 77284-1155