Honing your Presentation Skills

Patricia Ball is right on target when she points out how empowering it is to realize that we constantly have choices to make about our actions and response to situations. Once we sense this power, understanding that it is private and inviolable, and that it grows as we grow, we release ourselves from the miscommunication and fear of expressing ourselves that intimidate so many. We learn early in Straight Talk Is More Than Words that the power of choice is ours. We can give it up, but it can never be taken from us without our consent.

With her twenty years as a professional actor in live theater, Ball sees and clearly explains, the spectrum of techniques at our disposal for "setting the stage" for our message - from when and how to use humor; what difference gender makes and when it makes none at all; why power is related to the response you achieve; when brevity and silence are better than words; how to use the space around you as effectively as eye contact, a handshake, a smile and body language. And don't forget listening, a critical skill good talkers often ignore.

Straight Talk Is More Than Words is a book about communication and personal power. We learn how to better communicate in order to achieve understanding. After all, getting ourselves understood is the first step in getting what we want in the more tangible sense - a promotion, a lower price on a dream house, commitment from a store clerk to correct a mistake, a standing ovation from an audience which listened intently, and on and on throughout life.

Patricia Ball is right on target when she points out how empowering it is to realize that we constantly have choices to make about our actions and response to situations. Once we sense this power, understanding that it is private and inviolable, and that it grows as we grow, we release ourselves from the miscommunication and fear of expressing ourselves that intimidate so many. We learn early in Straight Talk Is More Than Words that the power of choice is ours. We can give it up, but it can never be taken from us without our consent.

With her twenty years as a professional actor in live theater, Ball sees and clearly explains, the spectrum of techniques at our disposal for "setting the stage" for our message - from when and how to use humor; what difference gender makes and when it makes none at all; why power is related to the response you achieve; when brevity and silence are better than words; how to use the space around you as effectively as eye contact, a handshake, a smile and body language. And don't forget listening, a critical skill good talkers often ignore.

Straight Talk Is More Than Words is a book about communication and personal power. We learn how to better communicate in order to achieve understanding. After all, getting ourselves understood is the first step in getting what we want in the more tangible sense - a promotion, a lower price on a dream house, commitment from a store clerk to correct a mistake, a standing ovation from an audience which listened intently, and on and on throughout life.