How words shape us! Here is a dinner table conversation with my 12 years old daughter that left me thinking how we need to redefine words. I walked up to the dining table and gave my daughter a big hug. "So, what is it about me that you like mum?" She asked. My response, "many things but I love the fact that you are a decent girl." She was aghast! Her response, "decent, you mean I am average." My...

In a meeting, a leader who is a leading a company that sells baby food says, "we have a pressing agenda item, we have to educate our distribution on the right use of our products. Hence, we will be rolling out a training programme for our staff on how to do that." Now the statement made by the leader aims at immense objectivity and as a result has stripped away emotions, aspirations and a...

"Anjali, I love the storytelling work we are doing here today. I will definitely use storytelling skills to inspire my team and engage my customers but I will never use it in front of my boss." Now, that is a statement I often hear. If you feel this way too, this blog is for you. What kind of stories do bosses want to hear? We tell stories to inspire, engage, motivate and influence. When it comes...

Research proves Gender Diversity leads to Innovation. We have heard this statement a million times and it is now noise versus great news. But, despite having heard this statement several times the importance of this statement has not reduced which puts the communicator in a difficult situation because it is an important statement that needs telling but when told falls on deaf ears. What is the...

September 2012, " Anjali the Creative Director is sick and we have to present the pitch to the client today, as a Business Director you will now have to lead the creative section too! " Along with 3 other team members I enter the boardroom for a pitch presentation, I am comfortable with 75% of the presentation because it is my space and then comes the creative section, I am slightly nervous and I...

A study by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research says 44 percent of a company's market value is directly linked to the CEO's personal brand. Here's some more detail–that same study said that when a CEO has a good reputation (which is another word for "personal brand), they are better able to attract investors, positive media attention, and talent. They also retain talent better, and are fortified...

You have received employee opinion survey results which reveal to you that people are not very happy in your team. You are frustrated because as a leader you have been doing plenty to make sure people are happy. You now have a number from the survey that gives you information on the levels of happiness in the team but measuring it doesn't mean you can control it. Just like a thermometer can...

I am working with fairly senior people of an organisations and we are writing a change story. Some questions I ask and the responses I get are given below Why are you adopting automation? We have a lot more work and it is not possible to do it manually. Why are you making your factory smart? That is the only way to sustain our presence. Why are you hot desking? The management made the policy to...

So why is it even important that we know, How Women Experience Shame? Because of one simple reason, when you know where shame comes from and there are others like you experiencing the shame, you don't blame yourself, which is liberating. According to Dr Brene' Brown, when women were asked to share their definitions or experiences of shame, here's what they said: Look perfect. Do perfect. Be...

Sydney 2008, whilst having a day on the road, doing sales calls, I get stuck in the traffic with a colleague for over 40 mins. Chatting is the only way to kill time. In this purposeless, purely out of boredom chit chat he shares details of his renumeration package with me. I am certain he has made a mistake with the numbers he shared. So I clarify, only to learn that I had heard it right the...

Content, stories, practice, timing, gesture, voice, attire (yes, this matters a lot to women, even if they say, " I don't care ), pause and the list goes on on for things you have to know, apply, be mindful of when you are wearing a speaker's hat. I am almost certain one can do a PhD in speaking. Won't be surprised if someone has done it already ! But if my daughter wanted to become a speaker and...

If Women Told Their Stories, They Won't Be Hidden Figures. Yes, that is the talk I gave on 8 March at National Gallery of Singapore.( You can watch the talk in the link below ) If the talk managed to whet your appetite to want to learn more about stories and how they can help you in a boardroom, meeting, presentation, etc, then you can start with this ebook. This ebook is a short read infused...

Ever been in a situation when you are in a meeting and someone says something you don't understand? Most likely, you didn't ask because you were ashamed of how ill informed you were. Well, contrary to your belief, you are not ill informed but there is just something new for you to learn. Here are 3 stories of similar situations, one of which is my own. hope you will be encouraged to ask and not...

"We want to tell our story." "We want to tell it fast, 90 seconds maximum." "We want people to understand what we do." We want people to know why are we different from others." "We want data in the story that brings credibility." These are some not all of the "We wants" I hear from brand marketers when we work on a story with them. The American Cancer Society creates an impact without the crutch...

Presenting is marketing because what are presentations for? To promote or sell an idea, product or service? The primary goal of the presenter is to sell an idea to the audience, and the best, most effective way to do that is through telling stories. Here are 3 simple questions you can ask yourself when crafting compelling story led presentations. 1. What's the point you are trying to make? What's...

To study narrative is to examine ourselves. We think in story, process our world through the lens of story, and use storytelling to communicate ideas. One prominent economist believes that stories are the heart of human behavior. He says to understand the power of narrative is to understand financial booms and busts — and to prevent crises from getting worse. Robert Shiller is a Nobel...

It takes 40 seconds to ride an elevator to the 61st floor of the Salesforce tower in San Francisco. On the day of the pitch competition, the elevator doors opened and inside stood Salesforce President and Chief Product Officer, Bret Taylor. The door closed and the elevator started to rise. Mars Mundy, one of the eight finalist had a frustrating experience with repair shops that he channeled those...

Leadership team of a large MNC is working on a change story. The team is knowledgeable, so eliciting reasons / benefits from them to structure a change story is fairly simple. The reasons/ benefits sound something like this Harmonisation Efficiency Single Source of Truth We have the reasons/ benefits, its now time to wrap a story around them. Once the leadership team is taught how to assemble a...

We can prove it scientifically. In academic terms, an "emotionally competent stimulus" is any video or photo that elicits a strong emotional reaction. These images can trigger fear, sadness, joy, hope, shock, surprise, or disgust. The turtle video triggers several emotions at once. Once we see or experience an emotionally charged stimulus, the amygdala—an almond-shaped structure in the brain's...

We want to introduce a change in our organisation, we put together a powerpoint with charts, graphs, reasons and benefits. When we finished our presentation everyone in the room has all the information and knowledge. They might even agree but would they change? Perhaps not. Carmine Gallo in his Forbes article elaborates this point, Big numbers rarely spark action, but a sea turtle with a straw in...

February 2001, I am sitting in an amphitheatre along with 10 other girls who are all going to become Singapore Airlines flight attendants post a 3 month training program. Its our day 1 in the Singapore Airlines Training Centre and we are just about to start our orientation. I am expecting for someone to come on the stage and start a powerpoint presentation with details like, Company Vision...

Yesterday, I walked in to a boardroom meeting with 3 gentlemen waiting for me to take them through what I had planned to solve their team's communication challenge. As soon as I saw dynamics in the room, I knew that I am going to face some challenge today and that awareness really helped me navigate the meeting. At one stage, I made a statement - Knowledge is not understanding. I saw one of the...

"Anjali your voice, tone, pace, pitch, dramatics can improve." Over the last 3 weeks, I have purposely put myself in a situation where I knew I would get honest feedback on my speaking abilities. I have never been a believer of tone, voice, pitch and dramatics ( excluding pace, which I think is important to manage). My argument has always been speaking authentically doesn't require a change from...

Who is Judy Murray? Judith Mary Murray, is a Scottish tennis coach. She is also the mother of professional tennis players Jamie and Andy Murray. Much like corporate world, sports is a male-dominated world. This makes attending conferences, workshops and certification courses an intimidating experience. It is never easy being in a minority. Most women look for a seat in the corner or at the back...

Indra Nooyi was PepsiCo's first female chief executive. She boosted PepsiCo's revenue 80 percent during her tenure. One of the most remarkable thing about Indra Nooyi is her ability to storytell. Her videos are shared regularly in women in workforce forums. Here are 3 videos of Indra Nooyi where she story tells beautifully. 1) Women don't help women enough in workplace...