Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Work/Business section.
To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:
- Claire Doole - Claire Doole Communications
Claire is a former BBC correspondent and international spokeswoman who is passionate about helping people communicate with confidence. Since 2006, she has successfully trained hundreds of professionals in the art of presenting and public speaking, talking to the media, managing communications in a crisis, and writing for the web. In addition, she has coached C-level executives and public figures to give powerful TEDx and TED style talks in Europe and the Middle East. A Swiss and UK national, Claire trains and coaches in French and English.
- Elizabeth Ballin - Life Coach
As a long time member of the international community in Geneva, Elizabeth Ballin has been coaching adults and students from all parts of the world. She has coached business professionals, musicians/artists, couples, families and adolescents. She is a fully accredited Life Coach by the International Coaching Federation. Elizabeth Ballin, Life Coach
- Patrick Hoza - US Tax & Financial Services
Since 1990, Patrick has many years of experience with US individual expatriate taxation under his belt, including High Net Worth Individuals, streamline/voluntary disclosure filings and tax consulting, as well as working with large multinationals like Novartis, BP, Hewlett Packard and General Electric. He has extensive knowledge in serving both US expatriates and resident and non-resident aliens with their US tax-related issues. Patrick Hoza is a Tax Director at US Tax & Financial Services, with extensive experience in all aspects of Individual US tax and Expatriation, including Hight Net Worth Individuals and large multinationals.
Patrick started his career in 1990 in California, with Westpro Ltd., as a Senior Tax Consultant, then spent the middle part of his career working at KPMG and Ernst & Young. During his time with Ernst & Young, he worked and lived in Russia, France and finally Switzerland. He has gained a valuable working knowledge of the respective income tax regulations in all of these countries.
Patrick holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Colorado, is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents and is a Certified Acceptance Agent.
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Melitta Campbell - Business Coach
Business Coach and Mentor with nearly 3 decades of business experience and a passion for helping women confidently build a business they love. She is also the founder of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Club and president of the Swiss Riviera Toastmasters Club in Montreux. Originally from Wales, she now lives in Montreux in a chalet she has renovated with her husband overlooking the Swiss Alps. - Sunita Sehmi - Walk The Talk
Founder of Walk The Talk, Sunita has been training, developing and now coaching Business Communication skills in both companies and educational establishments for over twenty years. She has a passion for helping people to maximise their potential and created Walk The Talk with the sole aim to drive each and every client to perform their best.
- Robert Harris- Forth Capital
With over 25 years experience working for some of the major financial institutions in the City of London, Robert is a founding partner of Forth Capital, the leading expat financial advisory company in Switzerland. Regulary quoted in newspaper articles and magazines, he is well placed to advise expats on a variety of financial issues that may arise during their time living in Switzerland.
- Debbie Croft - Croft Coaching
As the founder of Croft Coaching, Debbie has a passion for helping people overcome challenges, embrace change and live life to the full; with an ethos of “work hard, play hard”.
- Sarah Santacroce - Simplicity
A certified social media, internet marketing, and virtual event specialist, Sarah enjoys every aspect of small business marketing. Through her own business, Simplicity, it is her mission to help other small businesses and solopreneurs increase their visibility and use social media tools as part of their marketing strategy.
- Diana Ritchie - SSC Sàrl
A Director at Swiss Career Connections, Diana will provide you with some useful tips for job hunting.
Photo credit: CNN
By Claire Doole, Claire Doole Communications
The Greeks got it right 2500 years ago. If you want to influence or persuade people you have to show ethos (character), pathos (emotions of the audience) and logos (the logic of the argument).
This principle – known as Aristotle’s Golden Triangle – is the cornerstone of powerful oratory – used by politicians, leaders and laymen when speaking in public.
So on the day we bid farewell to President Obama and usher in four years of Donald Trump as US Commander in Chief, I thought it would be interesting to briefly assess his inaugural address and see how he applied the golden triangle.
Aristotle argued that ethos, pathos and logos were not only equally important but also mutually supportive. For instance, a speaker would be more likely to sweep his audience along with his emotional appeal, if he had previously established his credibility and constructed a robust argument.
But does this hold true with Donald Trump, known for his pathos but not necessarily for his ethos and logos?
To date, Trump has made very few scripted speeches. At many of his rallies he spoke off the cuff, playing to his unstructured conversational style.
Would he have less pathos when constrained by a speech and a teleprompter but more ethos and logos?
By Sunita Sehmi, Walk The Talk
Happy New Year and what better way to start the New Year with an uplifting piece on Happiness!
American and Israeli teacher, and writer in the areas of positive psychology and leadership, Tal Ben-Shahar, was born 1970. As a lecturer at Harvard University, Tal created the most popular course in Harvard's history. Influenced by the pioneering work of Dr Martin Seligman, the world-renowned founder of positive psychology, Tal Ben-Shahar states that his goal in teaching positive psychology "is to create a bridge between the Ivory Tower and Main Street.”
In addition to his work at Harvard, Tal consults and lectures around the world to executives in multi-national corporations, the general public, and at-risk populations, addressing such topics as happiness, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, mindfulness, and leadership. I was incredibly lucky to have interviewed him: as you will read, he really walks the talk! Enjoy!
By Claire Doole, Claire Doole Communications
Emmanuel Macron, the French presidential hopeful, was getting ready to take the stage, and all I knew as panel moderator was that he was meant to sit in the chair second to the left.
He and I were taking part in the Women’s Forum for Economy and Society in Deauville. I had no idea what he would say on our panel discussion about the economic advancement of women. His PR team were nowhere to be found.
So when the makeup artist whispered to her colleague that she was about to go upstairs to do his make-up, I followed her into the inner sanctum.
I needed to know if he was willing to speak in English – a red line for some French politicians – or whether he would be speaking through an interpreter. I wanted to briefly introduce myself and the first topic for discussion – the gender pay gap between men and women. From experience, I know it is important to build rapport with high-level panelists, and to sense if they get my British humour.
He did – peering over my clipboard and asking what questions I would be posing – in perfect English.
By Sunita Sehmi, Walk The Talk
Susan Anderson has devoted more than 30 years of clinical experience and groundbreaking research in working with victims of abandonment trauma.
Founder of the Abandonment Recovery movement, she is author of four books including Journey from Abandonment to Healing, Taming Your Outer Child, Black Swan: Twelve Lessons of Abandonment Recovery and a WORKBOOK: Journey from Heartbreak to Connection.
“Of all human fears abandonment is the most primal. Left unresolved, this deep personal wound can linger beneath the surface where it undermines self-esteem and interferes in our relationships from within.”
Tell us about yourself. I’m a psychotherapist specializing in helping victims of abandonment trauma, as well as other types of loss and heartbreak. I’ve spent the past 30 years researching and writing about the abandonment and related issues of relationship conflicts, attachment, separation, addiction, grief, and personal growth.
What got you into abandonment and healing? Twenty years into my career as a psychotherapist specializing in abandonment, I had my own traumatic abandonment experience. The love of my life – my marital partner of 20 years, suddenly up and left me for another woman. I felt overwhelming pain and devastation, forcing me to realize that the tools I had been using to help my clients were simply not powerful enough to overcome the lasting effects of this trauma. There was nothing in the literature of psychology or self-help that offered any true remedy, so to help myself and to help others, I began researching new ways to repair abandonment’s painful wound. The result is the Five Stages of Abandonment and Recovery.
By Claire Doole, Claire Doole Communications
Many of the people I coach in the art of powerful presenting are highly intelligent and articulate. They are medical doctors, academics, bankers and lawyers.
But they are not journalists, like myself. They often don’t have an innate sense of storytelling or they know too much and struggle with getting the level of detail right.
This is where structuring your thoughts for maximum impact comes into play. I recommend two ways to structure your thoughts that will guarantee the audience is focused on the key messages, and not on trying to decipher meaning in a disorganized presentation.
IMPACT
All trainers love mnemonics – memory devices. Here is one to help you structure a presentation.
- Introduction – get the audience’s attention with a bang and make sure the benefits are clear.
- Main messages – outline your purpose and your key messages – what do you want the audience to take home so that you achieve your purpose? Do you want to inspire, sell, persuade or inform?
- Points – what are your main points? How are you going to structure them? Chronologically, most important to least important, geographically or thematically? Remember to support your points with facts, data and stories.
- Associate – make sure your supporting examples are relevant to your audience.
- Conclude and recap – summarize and repeat your key messages.
- Take-away – finish with a bang. This can be a call to action – what do you want your audience to do, feel or say as a result of your presentation?
