Video Clip of Top Exec Using Assertive Hand Gestures to Convince His Audience and Disabuse it of Wrong Notions

[Rewritten on February 26, 2017]

The clip below, which I recently “rediscovered” while combing through my archives, features then U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood giving an exemplary and instructive performance at a 2010 Congressional hearing. He appears at the 1 minute 5 second mark.

Whether you are a top corporate executive, a manager or supervisor, or, say, a low-profile environmentalist addressing a bunch of misguided climate change deniers, Ray LaHood’s hand gestures will be a valuable addition to your “nonverbal vocabulary” for accentuating your most important words and sentences during a meeting, Q&A, and the like.

Among the infinite variety of situations where LaHood-style emphatic gestures, especially palms vertical in a rigid slicing motion, can be eminently useful:

• when trying to convince, reassure, or inspire someone
• when trying to rid people of their disbelief or incredulity
• when reinforcing or underscoring a key statement
• when giving an oral guarantee

You can bet that in future executive coaching sessions, the LaHood clip will be one of my prized exhibits, especially when illustrating executive presence.

© Copyright 2017  V. J. Singal

 

 

“A Deep-Sea Serengeti”; “It’s Like a Dr. Seussian World Down There”—The First Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Engenders Brilliant Analogies

[Rewritten on February 22, 2017]

The creation of the nation’s first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean last September engendered tremendous excitement among anyone and everyone who wants to preserve some of the beauty that exists in our oceans. The event also generated some wonderful and imaginative use of similes and metaphors. 

Known as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and measuring nearly 5,000 square miles (the size of Connecticut), this underwater world, which is located off Cape Cod, is probably more wondrous and mesmerizing than the treasures in Aladdin’s Cave. It contains “lush forests, canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon, vivid bubblegum-like corals, extinct volcanoes...” and a huge variety of sea life, some of it not found anywhere else on the planet. Not surprisingly, Brad Sewell and other environmental advocates have described these waters as “a deep-sea Serengeti”; “an underwater Yellowstone”; and “a Dr. Seussian world.” 

For more, visit NPR’s September 15 report on the subject by clicking here. 

© Copyright 2017  V. J. Singal