Skillstudio Articles

Listed below are summaries of our most recent articles. We've also included an index to our main articles and other resources and hope you find this useful.

Why even complicated messages are always simple

Do you ever fall into that really obvious, hugely gaping elephant trap? The one where you’re presenting or explaining something to someone and those readily available, deadly words slip out: “It’s a bit complicated”. Because your audience will take their lead from you. If you believe it’s complicated (which, of course, implies that it’s difficult to ... Read more >>

How to use clear English as your ’stressometer’

Your worst nightmare has become flesh. You’re in the meeting that your colleague was supposed to have got the presentation ready for. But they’re conveniently sick. Instead, it’s you flustering your way through a mass of charts, graphs and figures that resemble nothing less than a Jackson Pollock. As you speak, you find you’re floating above yourself. ... Read more >>

Media Skills – Tips for Radio Interviews

When you are interviewed on radio you have an incredibly short amount of time to make an impact. So it’s important that you don’t waste a second or mess up – as you probably won’t have time to recover from a mistake. This can put you under a lot of pressure – which doesn’t help your ... Read more >>

Effective Presentation Skills

In these recessionary times, you might well need to be a highly effective presenter just to remain in your current job – or find new employment. To achieve this, it’s first necessary to identify what creates an effective presentation and what skills are needed. It is also important to understand that effective presentation skills are not ... Read more >>

Conquer the Fear of Public Speaking

Why is it that as soon as the term public speaking is mentioned many people start to feel a dread creeping up inside them? Having a conversation with a few people is something that most people do quite naturally, but if they are suddenly asked to stand up in front of everyone and carry on ... Read more >>

Professional Presentation Skills

In today’s competitive world, the need to present a highly professional image is now more important than ever. Unfortunately however, it’s easy to miss some of the opportunities available to help you present yourself in the best possible light and, as a result, enjoy the success you deserve. A professional presentation style requires the confidence and ... Read more >>

Media Coach Tips for a TV or Video Interview

Whether you are speaking on television or in a video conference, the need to be able to answer tricky questions with ease and get your message across successfully is very important. However, although you may know your subject well and have no difficultly in being interviewed in a face to face conversation, when there is a ... Read more >>

The Benefits of Voice Coaching

You probably use your voice for a substantial part of your working day but you may take it for granted that it will do what you want it to do. You may need to speak with greater authority over the telephone, get your ideas across well in a meeting, persuade your colleagues along a certain ... Read more >>

Job Interview Skills

Many people dread the thought of having to attend a job interview, but with the right preparation it can be your best opportunity to show potential employers why you are the right person for the job. The skills you display at your job interview play a critical role in whether or not you get that job ... Read more >>

Face the Media with Confidence – a Media Coach Writes

With the continuing demand for news stories and articles to fill the hours/pages of the media, more and more of us, for one reason or another, are finding ourselves the object of media attention. The exposure the media can give you and your company is enormous and equivalent to thousands of pounds worth of advertising. For ... Read more >>

How to Improve Your Media Skills

Speaking to the media has become far more common in recent years for people from all kinds of industries. If you have a media interview coming up, here are some tips to help you feel more prepared and thus present yourself more confidently. Managing the Media The prospect of being faced with a media interview – whether ... Read more >>

How to become a powerful charismatic public speaker

Presentations or speeches, whether to a large or small group of people are essentially about three things. Energy clarity and humanity. Energy, in that we all need lightly more energy than we think we do need. Clarity, that’s clarity of thought, clarity of message, clarity of delivery. So that the listener will understand and remember what you’ve said. And thirdly, humanity. ... Read more >>

Why is Body Language important?

If we are trying to make a good impression – both socially and in business – we often smile and hold contact the other person’s eyes as we shake their hand. The difficulty is that we give off thousands of other unconscious signals through our body language that other people will ‘read’ instantly and instinctively. By ... Read more >>

The Poetry of Obama's Campaign

What can our own politicians learn from the soaring public speaking skills of the new President of the United States of America? Marina Hyde (A bad week for the cause of banality and witless snidery, Guardian, Saturday 8 November) talks of politicians both past and present listening to Obama’s victory speech in Chicago in the ... Read more >>

Is Miliband morphing into Blair?

What’s happened to David Miliband’s voice? At the 2008 Labour conference he sounded like Rory Bremner doing Tony Blair. Or, to put it technically, the heir to Blair has abandoned the “dark L”. That’s not some sinister Labour faction plotting against Gordon Brown but the sound we make when pronouncing words with an “L” towards ... Read more >>

Four common fears about public speaking.

When we stand up in front of a group of people and start to speak nerves kick in. This is an animal response to nerves that sends our equilibrium reeling. But there are many factors that increase our feelings of nervousness when public speaking. There are two broad types: Internal – that is how we personally respond; and External ... Read more >>

Public Speaking Nerves

Why the body responds as it does to public speaking. When early man was attacked by wild animals, the body sent panic alarms to the neural pathways in the oldest part of the brain, the amygdala. When you are nervous, the amygdala, still assumes you are in physical danger and sends an electro-chemical alarm to ‘fight ... Read more >>

How to Overcome Public Speaking Phobia

Many people absolutely dread the thought of public speaking or having to do a presentation as it fills them with complete fear. As soon as they think about it, their minds become full of negative thoughts and reasons to avoid it. Has this ever happened to you? And have you ever thought… I’ll forget what I ... Read more >>

Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking

Public Speaking is one of the most common fears and something that lots of people try to avoid at all costs. But if you really want to be successful in your career, the ability to overcome your fear and deliver a speech to an audience in a confident and persuasive manner is one of the key skills you might just need and this article ... Read more >>

Job Interview Questions and Answers

Many people when faced with an important job interview panic because they dont really know how to answer many of the likely questions they will be asked on the day. Simply put, their interview skills are poor. Some of them spend lots of time trying to memorise the set answers they have found on websites which claim to ... Read more >>

Executive Public Speaking Coaching

Being able to deliver a speech to a large audience in a confident and persuasive manner is one of the key skills needed by many company executives. But isn’t this public speaking just the same as delivering a business presentation to your team back in the office? Or do several other factors come into play when you are faced with ... Read more >>

Executive Presentation Coaching

Having the confidence and presentation skills needed to present a powerful and persuasive message are key skills needed by all company executives if they really want to succeed in today’s business environment. Whether its delivering that all important company pitch, presenting at the next executive board meeting, or motivating and inspiring your team at the next company conference. But how do you acquire some of ... Read more >>

Executive Presentation Skills

It is becoming increasingly important in today’s business environment for the executive to be an expert communicator in order to be successful. In any area of business, the people who are good communicators are generally the ones who get ahead and achieve the success they want. Having the confidence and presentation skills needed to present a powerful and ... Read more >>

Is Body Language that important?

“Words account for only 7% of communication” Fact or Fiction? Have you ever heard (or seen) some people mentioning that words only represent 7% of our communication? If so, you might also have heard them mention that tone of voice makes up 38% of our communication and that body language takes up the remaining 55%. But is this ... Read more >>

How to Inflict Death by PowerPoint

Many of us have probably been there, done it and have the teeshirt as well. But what are the key presentation skills needed when lulling your presentation audience into a stupor just before you apply the master stroke of inflicting a slow death by PowerPoint? How do so many people succeed at this? What’s their secrets? And can we all do the same? In this ... Read more >>