2021 was the year of writing. I love writing, both professionally and for pleasure, and this year I have created 47 blogs and articles, plus shared my thoughts on my social media platforms Monday – Friday, almost every single week. I have loved the conversations, connections and engagement that have come about as a result! …
Last week I was in Denmark, virtually of course, one of the many joys I have of online networking. I was visiting the Athena women’s network in Denmark, and not only was it a great connecting meeting, but I also took some valuable life lessons from it. The meeting was a multilingual meeting in both …
Inclusive virtual meetings in multilingual & multicultural teams Read More
From the first time I learnt about it, I was fascinated by the MiND profiling tool from MyBrain International, as it is the first of its kind to be based on neuroscience, and helps us understand our professional and personal thinking preferences. This is why earlier this year I qualified as a practitioner in Applied …
How do your emails sound? What does your reader hear when they open your emails? How do they interpret it through their ears? Here is something interesting: your emails always have a tone of voice, whether you are intentional about it or not, whether you think you are hiding your real feelings about the topic, …
Do you consider small talk important in virtual meetings? Do you make time to build conversations, or is it just straight down to business? How do you connect to people in small talk and get beyond the obvious topics? I believe small talk is not just empty or superficial. For me it is an important …
When you give presentations, the way you signpost and transition from one section of the presentation to the next will help your English communication sound professional, structured and confident. The signposting and transitions are like the wardrobe for your content, giving a framework in which to ‘hang’ your key messages and give them support. They …
Signposting your Presentations: transitioning smoothly Read More
Do you experience communication stress? Today is National Stress Awareness Day, raising everybody’s awareness of the effects of work stress and strategies to address it. There are many different expressions of stress, and I know that my clients sometimes experience communication stress. What do I mean by this? If you have English as a second …
Key strategies for communication stress in international teams Read More
One of the areas that my clients find challenging is communicating effectively in English when there is no visual element, for example, when on audio-only calls and when the video is switched off. Specifically, the lack of cues to help interpretation, such as facial expressions and body language, can make it harder to connect and …
Before I start my programmes with my clients, I focus on clarity. Clarity includes understanding exactly what somebody wants, needs and why (wants and needs may be very different!) and helps to answer the question I am often asked: What’s my English level? The ‘why’ explores their vision of success for their English communication and …
Is ‘sorry’ a word used just as an apology for when you have done something wrong? One of the fascinating things about the word ‘sorry’ is that it has many shades of meaning in British English. It is not just a way to apologise, and the meaning can depend on context, the relationship with the …
