Blog Entries for Dennis Beaver

Stage fright: less obvious than you might think

dbeaver — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0100

This past August, at the Graduate School of Banking at Madison, Wisconsin, Karen, a CFO at a midwest bank enrolled in my Effective Presentations class, came up to me right before the first session, seeking advice, not for herself, but for her CEO.

“Mr. Beaver, our CEO is a wonderful guy, really competent and has done so much for the bank, behind the scenes. But when he is asked to speak in public–even before people with whom he’s worked and known fo [...]

Your audience needs to know who you are

dbeaver — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:00:00 +0100

This past summer, at the Graduate School of Banking at
Madison, two students--one from Asia and the other from the
Caribbean--asked for help with a problem common to many who are
required to speak in public and whose accent, pronunciation or use of
English has proven to interfere with understanding.

“While I have lived in the U.S. since age 19, I still have pronunciation and accent issues. I’ve sensed comprehension problems during presentations that I am requir [...]