How to Be Brave: The Return
I’ve had a few positive comments and dozens of hits on a blog I wrote in July called How to Be Brave. The gist of it was that it’s possible to overcome the feeling of fear by first of all acting as if you were not afraid. If you can put on a good enough act, then the feelings will fall into place afterwards. While teaching a course in non-verbal communication recently, a...
Read MoreHow to Stop Being Nice
Why is it that we’re all ever so nice? We’re taught to be nice from infancy. Nice doesn’t get brought breakfast in bed. Nice doesn’t cut dead the jobsworth. Nice knows its duties. Nice won’t assert its rights. Nice never challenges bad behaviour. Needless to say, I’m not nice. I read a shocking(!) book recently which reminded me that...
Read MoreNever Mind the Three Rs – What About The Three Cs?
So I’m sick to death of hearing about the golden age of learning when pupils were taught the ‘3 R’s’ of reading, writing and arithmetic… even though only one of them starts with ‘r’. So much for the golden age. I’ve got a better idea. What about the ‘3 C’s’ of comprehension, calculation and confidence? Comprehension is more important than spelling or grammar, because it...
Read MoreWhat Do I Say in Conversation?
This is one of the questions I’m asked most often by people who have a hard time talking to others. They can accept my points about the need for interest in other people, the different ways of building up personal confidence, the skills of listening and questioning, and all the other principles of inter-personal training. But the issue they really want me to address is, ‘I don’t have...
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