Mitt Romney’s front-runner status has been thrown into question once again after his triple loss in state primaries. For professional communicators, the reason for his difficulties is obvious–he doesn’t connect, and connecting is all about communicating. And in presidential election after presidential election, however, the candidate who connects best, wins.

Rhetorical devices and flourishes play a big role in increasing impact and helping us remember what’s been said, and President Obama is a master at using them. Learn advanced–yet simple–speaking techniques likes anaphora, anapest, and chiasmus by breaking down last night’s State of the Union address (don’t worry, we’ll explain).

At the World Innovation Forum, one of the presenters was Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. He talked a lot about happiness, what makes Zappos one of the top workplaces and, I think, a great place to buy from.

It’s been an enlightening morning at the World Innovation Forum in New York, listening to Harvard’s Clayton Christensen talk about his theory of “disruption.”

Did you know it can take much longer to prepare a short presentation–I’m talking about something really tiny–than, say, a 30 or 40 minute or even 1 hour version?

Boy, it’s a great time to be a speech expert as well as a leading authority on political communication. And both political parties provided a great show, particularly the speeches of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. They each had a job to do and enormous hurdles to overcome.

Oh, boy, how quickly things can change. As a leading authority on political communication, it’s been fascinating to watch Barack Obama’s recent communication struggles. It didn’t seem possible just a short month or so ago [see Fast Company article The Brand Called Obama], but it’s starting to look like Obama has a “tin ear” when it comes to interpersonal communication.

Are there really winners and losers in the charisma game?