Beware the Heaviness of HIPO’s

HIPO is an acronym for Highly Important Person’s Opinion. In every organization, in every meeting, on every decision, HIPO’s will have an impact. Often HIPO’s are asked for their viewpoint and perspective on matters being discussed. They are listened to and their views taken into account and given more credence than other peoples about a […]

Nuns as Credible Witnesses

One of the factors that impacts on a person’s credibility is their job role.  Every society’s culture will bestow levels of status on roles, and by association on those people in those roles. Status may be underpinned and supported by law. For example lawyers are deemed ‘Credible Witnesses’ in court under British law. Cultural assumptions […]

How do you contribute to your credibility?

To enhance my public speaking skills, I’ve joined Toastmasters. In Toastmasters every speaker is evaluated using a set format. One of the areas evaluated is the speaker’s degree of comfortableness.  When evaluating any speaker, the evaluator is asked to assess “How comfortable was the speaker”? What is ‘comfortable’?   It’s not that easy to extrapolate into specific […]