“I have to give a speech in a few weeks and I’m already nauseous and anxious. I need to talk to someone wise. Can you please call me?”
This was a voicemail message I received last week from someone obviously in need of help.
Every once in a while I get a call like this one, and [...]

Most presenters shy away from being the one to give an after dinner speech. If you’re not careful, talking when people are full and tired can be a recipe for disaster. Perhaps that’s why Winston Churchill said, “There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is [...]

Recently I attended a memorial celebration of the all-too-short life of one of my husband’s colleagues. Several family members and friends made touching tributes to the deceased, and as I sat in the crowded room I listened to these presentations not as Angela the speech coach, but as a mourner in a community of mourners.
Still, [...]

Nervousness and public speaking go hand-in-hand. And in all my years as a presentations skills coach, I’ve found that people’s anxiety tends to fall into one of four categories. These four levels reflect a speaker’s comfort level and confidence. Which one best describes you?

Level 1: Pressured and Petrified: People in this category tend to display [...]

In 2005, a year-long study conducted by Caliper, a Princeton, New Jersey-based management consulting firm, and Aurora, a London-based organization that advances women, identified several characteristics of women leaders. They found that when it comes to leadership, women are stronger than men in several areas. For example, women…

Are more assertive and persuasive
Have a stronger need [...]

Multi-tasking, a word no one used a few decades ago, is now firmly ensconced in our everyday language and has become a way of life for many of us. Generations X and Y in particular are known for the ability to speedily produce a surplus of results while working on many different tasks at the [...]

I was traveling via air from San Francisco to Maine recently. As the plane was nearing take off, the flight attendants started their usual safety demonstrations. I politely sat through the “how to buckle your seatbelt” and “how to use your seat cushion as a floatation device” spiels. Then, after the demonstration of placing the [...]

It’s a man’s world. Do you think this statement is obsolete in 2011? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Consider these sobering facts:

Only 12 Fortune 500 companies are run by women, down from 15 last year, as three left their posts and were succeeded by men.
Women earn 77.5 cents for every dollar a man earns.
The more [...]

Women are, by nature, very social beings. This is a good thing in many respects. According to the head of psychiatry at Stanford University, when women spend time with other women, they’re not just having fun; they’re also experiencing many health benefits. In fact, the research concluded that spending time with other women is as [...]

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-New York) got caught in his own web of lies…or perhaps he lied himself into a corner. Either way, his juvenile behavior, coupled with his terrible judgment, left everyone stunned.  
During his show, news anchor and political commentator Chris Matthews described an interesting political term called “rolling disclosure,” where you roll and roll [...]