Communication Skills
Express yourself clearly and connect with anyone effectively. 28 articles, newest first.
Communication Skills
Bottom Line Up Front: How to Get to the Point
Bottom line up front (BLUF) means saying your answer first and your reasons second. Why experts bury the point, plus scripts for meetings, email and bad news.
Communication Skills
How to Hold a Room on a Video Call
How to hold attention on a video call when cameras are off: answer before the lag does, count your points out loud and make your listening audible.
Communication Skills
How to Say Your Price Out Loud Without Flinching
How to tell clients your price: say the number, then pause. Scripts for pushback, discount requests, and raising rates with current clients.
Communication Skills
How to Sound Charismatic in Your Second Language
Communication skills for non-native English speakers that work at your current level: your pacing, your pauses, your hands, and a rehearsed opening.
Communication Skills
How to Be More Assertive Without Being Aggressive
Assertiveness is the honest middle path between staying quiet and steamrolling. How to be direct and warm at once, with scripts that work and the research behind them.
Communication Skills
What to Do When Your Boss Interrupts You
When your boss talks over you, going quiet erases your point. Here's how to reclaim the floor, fix the pattern, and keep the relationship intact.
Communication Skills
Talked Over in Meetings? How to Reclaim the Floor (and Your Ideas)
Keep getting steamrolled in meetings, or watching someone repeat your idea and get the credit? Here are the in-the-moment moves to take the floor back.
Communication Skills
Why Most Communication Training Fails (and What Actually Works)
Most communication training fails because nobody rehearses the behavior. Here's what the research says makes skills actually stick.
Communication Skills
How to Be More Assertive in Conversations (Without Being Pushy)
Learn how to be more assertive in conversations with a simple, research-backed method: name the boundary, claim a goal and say it with calm, clear words.
Communication Skills
How to Calm Someone Down in an Argument (3 Steps That Work)
How to calm someone down in an argument: the three-R method (research, resolve, rapport) and scripts that defuse anger without saying 'calm down.'
Communication Skills
How to Predict Someone's Behavior (From How They Talk)
Learn how to predict someone's behavior by uncovering their self-narrative: the story they tell about themselves, revealed by a few research-backed questions.
Communication Skills
Communication Skills for Founders
Communication for founders shifts as you scale. Pitch decks, board updates, all-hands rituals, and the moves that protect your voice.
People School
Vanessa teaches the full method in People School, across 12 modules, with live workshops in Executive.