Being creative with how we communicate can pays dividends. How we present something can grab people’s attention. Make them sit up and take notice.

But how do you do this? You can use a different shape for your talk. Spice things up a bit.

Take the Pecha Kucha format.

Can you give me some tips advice on overcoming common communication challenges that people have?

This was asked to me by a client recently and it's a big question, isn't it? Especially in a world that involves more and more hybrid working.

I paused and then I asked them if they’d ever been to Iceland.

Being an effective communicator, speaking confidently in meetings and being a good networker, all have more in common than you’d think with the trifle.

The holiday season is here and one of the most popular Christmas desserts is trifle.

And just writing about it makes my mouth water.

Using pauses in your public speaking can be your best friend. It can be one of the most effective ways to improve your communication skills.

Here are three ways to use them and some nods to a politician and a comedian who are brilliant at using them.

Barack Obama uses them all the time. Eddie Izzard is a master. His brilliant Death Star saga is both a masterpiece of storytelling and pauses as God, Darth Vader and catering manager, Mr Stevens fight it out over the penne arrabbiata.

It’s coming up for Christmas and so it’s that time of year: The school nativity play. Now, there are the favourite parts that everyone wants, aren’t there? And when you’re a seven year-old girl, being an angel is pretty much the top of that list.

With dreams of floating about a stage in a delicate, white dress.

Except I didn’t get to be an angel in the school nativity play. But the role I did play taught me a whole bunch of communication lessons that have benefited my career in a way that flouncing about in a gorgeous white dress may not have.

The Rugby World Cup is edging to a close with the remaining 4 teams left in the competition. It’s thrilling stuff.

And apart from showing the million and one ways you can play about with a ball they’ve also had some fabulous lessons in how to communicate.

Lessons that can show us how to interrupt effectively, show top leadership skills and manage meetings successfully. Here's how.

I recently replaced a relic of an old phone. And spoke with someone who’s customer care and communication skills were off the charts. But it was one thing that he did which really impressed me.

And it’s a skill that goes a long way in developing rapport and trust with others. And we all love it when someone uses this skill with us.

Here’s what he did.

Communication skills coaching has a lot to do with gardening. Are you after a brilliant pot plant, a section of your garden looking stunning or do you want the whole package: landscaping the lot, to create a wow factor among your colleagues and the leadership?

What I am talking about? Well, it all started when I went to the garden centre at the weekend. And it swallowed me whole.

It’s where, in addition to 15 other indoor and outdoor plants,  I picked up Chamaedorea Elegans, which sounds like a posh sexually transmitted disease but isn’t.