Vinh Giang Stage Academy

• Module 1 - The Basics
  • 88 keys: use your voice as instrument
  • only practice leads to improvement
  • No automatic transfer of skills: Your voice is your personality, speak to neutral ears people, judgements are temporary
  • Generousity of energy when communicate
  • remove non/filler words
  • visual image: body language, people assumptions about your dress/smile
  • vocal image: belief
• Module 2 - Vocal Foundations
  • rate of speech: vary (more influencial), unpredicatable (sometime slow - important, sometime fast - important) to hold your attention
  • volume:
  • pitch & melody
  • tonality
  • pauuse
  • self awareness
  • powerful rapport techniques
• Module 3 - Vocal Archetypes
• Module 4 - Storytelling
• Module 5 - Body Language

Skills necessary for good communications

• Expressing yourself
  • can you describe to yourself what you're tyring to say?
    • important points > tell a stroy > start + middle + ending
  • what do you want the audience to take away?
    • end with positive note
  • if you'll be talking, anticipate questions
    • frequently asked questions and prepare the answer
  • Use the simplest language to avoid ambiguity and confusion
    • speak simply, pause
• Your definitely want to...
  • ..conside: buleet points, small paragraph
  • be animated and engaging
  • be passionate and enthusiastic (X monotone)
  • be confident and honest (justify why it is incorrect)
  • story...
• Who are you communicating with?
  • company and technical level: executive, programmer, customers...(language proficiency)
  • formal or converational?
  • presentation type? conference or visual
  • mixed or large group? known and unknown people and interest level
• More on knowing your audience
  • what your audience expect you to say?
  • how your audience re-tell what you said to others?
  • break down difficult concepts
  • use anaecdotes and stories, and speaking of which...
  • beware of seeimg to appportion blame... (indirect challenge)
  • use questions to plant ideas
  • get somebody to talking
• How do you get the answer you need?
  • help them ank answer
  • keep it conversation (no X times questions)
• You must learn to listen!
  • active listening - pay attention, make eye contact, remove distraction
  • repetion if not clear
  • summarized what you heard
• Expectation management
  • be very clear when setting expectation
  • responsiveness (how quickly to response)
  • beware of setting implicit expectations
  • notify ASAP when expectations won't be met (give the reasons)
  • how should others contact you
• Inbox management
  • Inbox zero
  • design a folder hierarchy and file fastidiously
  • only read when you're going to process
  • use filter rules and color-coding/flags
  • conside emails can save time

Meetings

• In-person meetings
  • dress code, introduction for audiene, body language, eye contact, pay attention
• remote meetings
  • using webcam, make sure you can be heard, tone
• running a meeting
  • two pizza rule (keep it small)
  • do you need a meeting
  • send agenda in advance
  • only invite those who need to be there
  • start on time and stick to agenda
  • someone should take notes
  • send a recap afterwards
• meetings with your manager
  • what communication style works for you
  • 1-1 meetings are your time, not theirs
• meeting with your employees
  • likely a mix of personalities and communication styles
  • give feedback as soon as possible
  • reviews should not contain surprises
  • they may not like you, but you want to earn their respect
• intra-team relationships
  • find out the preferred communication channel
  • be polite, respectful, and grateful
  • do research before asking a question
  • try to solve a team problem before escalating
  • be helpful and others will help you
  • give credit when it's due to other
• inter-team relationsship
  • dont be combative or accusatory
  • organize regular meetings to show how your team works
  • organize regular meetings to discuss methods and processess
• meetings with clients
  • who are the audience
  • what are you trying to convey
  • what if they tell another person/team
  • am i communicting in clien's best interest
  • am i giving a credible and correct opinion
  • am i 100% tehnical content
  • is my tone correct?

Writting

• General writting skills
  • spelling check, grammar check, use proper capitalization and punctuation
  • break up long paragraphs
• additional writting skills
  • ask someone to proofread your writting
  • use images or charts
  • keep the language appropriate
• email can be dangerous and politeness costs nothing
  • to, cc lists
  • don't abuse reply-all or Bcc
  • politeness: greeting, please do, thanks..
• beware of reality long emails and email clarity
  • people may only read first few sentences
  • use headings to break up the email
  • include a summary of most important points at the end
  • make it clear if asking for something to be done + day/time
• reports and articles
  • clear purpose
  • structure: intro, sections, summary, appendices

Writing a Presentation

• introduction and what kind of presentation
• picking a topic
• picking a complexity level
• writing a title and abstract
• choosing a template
• slide deck content flow and slide content
• how many slides? and using images and diagrams
• using animations

Email

• Inbox zero
• design a folder hierarchy and file fastidiously
• only read when you're going to process
• use filter rules and color-coding/flags
• conside emails can save time