Posts Tagged ‘Communication Skills Training’

mindfulness emotionally aware

Mindfulness… How to Be More Emotionally Aware…

Mindfulness seems to be a buzzword of the moment. But putting its “zeitgeistness” to one side, what actually is mindfulness and how can it benefit us?

Amongst an array of definitions, the following is perhaps useful:

“Mindfulness is paying attention to and acknowledging thoughts and emotions as they arise and as they dissipate, thereby savouring the present moment and allowing all else to just be.”

Being In The Moment

Mindfulness is about allowing whatever is taking place within us to take place and to accept that this is happening without judgment and without any internal conversation with ourselves about it. Thereby we live in the only moment that has ever existed, the present moment. To practice conscious awareness is another way of articulating this. Mindfulness is naturally a composite of practices such as meditation, yoga and the martial arts where an inner focus on the breath is fundamental. Thoughts cannot be controlled directly so there’s no point in trying. Equally all thought and emotion is valid and allowable because you are experiencing them.

How To Practice Mindfulness…

So, how does one do it? A simple way to begin is to take 10 minutes first thing in the morning to meditate. Avoid the phone, email, TV, newspaper etc for just a little while. Sit in a comfortable position on the floor, ensure you have quiet around you, place your gaze on a point about one foot in front of you on the floor, smile a little smile and breathe. Now close your eyes and focus on your breathing, allowing all other thoughts, whatever they may be, to come and go like traffic at a roundabout. After a few minutes focus on every sound you can hear around you – breathing, other sounds in the room, the house and then exterior sounds like traffic, passing airplanes etc. Allow your ears to hear these sounds and then let them pass. After 10 minutes, very gradually open your eyes and then slowly get up and begin your day. Congratulations, you’ve just consciously spent very high quality time with yourself and this will act as an anchor throughout your day.
If possible, build a small 5 minute window to do the same as above to help reconnect with that inner peace – especially useful when undergoing stressful times. Many theatre directors will begin a run through in rehearsals with a minute or two of absolute silence before beginning the run, to calm group anxiety. Simple and effective, it seems that often all we have to do is to get out of our own way.
To put in harder leadership terms, conscious awareness or mindfulness refreshes our thought cycle leading to creative thinking and better decision making. We are more prone to listen well to others and practice active listening.

The Benefits of Mindfulness…

1. Enhances productivity, creativity and innovation
2. Fosters a culture of meaningful communication
3. Reduces tension within individuals and within relationships
4. Nurtures the increasingly vital skills of flexibility, adaptability and improvisation
5. Enables us to better manage challenges, pressure and stress
Ask yourself, just how mindful are you? How mindful could you be? Now, are you ready to make the adjustments to gain the benefits?
Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

Elevator pitch effectively

Elevator Pitch… How to Pitch Your Idea Effectively…

The elevator pitch strikes many of us as fairly hackneyed and cliched these days. Perhaps we still find it too salesy and pushy as a speculative approach to a potential investor or client who we’ve just bumped into and best left to Americans who generally don’t have the same fear. They, when compared to us Brits at least, can happily steam ahead with their elevator pitch whenever they want. Or so it seems.

There are various approaches to making a favourable impression within just a couple of minutes and that after all is the best you can hope for in a short space of time. So perhaps that should direct your thinking with respect to an elevator pitch.

3 Approaches to the Elevator Pitch

Some choose to give a mini, condensed presentation complete with introduction, middle and ending all within two minutes. A lot for the listener to take on board, can feel stilted and really what are the chances of them remembering all the information that you tried so keenly to cram in.

Others go straight to the heart of the issue knowing that time is pressing in the perfect elevator pitch. This has the advantage of stripping away that which is largely unnecessary given the context but unless very careful in the initial approach, you could come across as overly direct and robust.

Possibly a more effective approach is to establish a two way conversation. After all, dialogue succeeds where monologue fails. This approach favours beginning a natural conversation where you introduce yourself and give just the headline of your idea, project, whatever and then ask an open question and use whatever time there is, regardless of how little, to listen. Remember that it doesn’t need to be over the top flashy or a dramatic performance. Read your audience in the moment – how are they feeling right now? Tired or energised? Adapt your energy to match them and you’ll have a much better chance of being remembered for the right reasons.

Dialogue Succeeds where Monologue Fails…

Do this all in an unhurried manner. In other words aim to have the most effective beginning to a fuller conversation. Far easier for you to do and much better for the recipient. This way, if your idea or pitch was truly of interest, you’ll leave them wanting to know more – which is exactly what you want.

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

leader or manager which are you

Manager or Leader… Which One Are You…?

There has been a huge explosion in the number of people with manager somewhere in their job description in the post war period. Everyone’s a supposed manager these days. Arguably, many are under an illusion of importance. When vast swaths of middle management are removed from organisations, usually very little changes begging the question what did they ever do in the first place? But try removing those on the shop floor who actually make the widgets and see how immediately productivity is affected. Also, try to run a large company, football team or school choir without real leadership and notice how quickly the organisation loses its way and stops performing.

There are reams of studies given over to the differences between leadership and management. In brief the manager maintains where the leader develops, the manager administers where the leader innovates and the manager controls where the leader inspires.

Real Leadership

So, perhaps there are only a few positions of real leadership – probably you can only ever have so many cooks – therefore only a few chosen individuals out of the many who call themselves a manager, can ever hope to ascend to the position of a leader. So what are the traits that only those select few have beyond their peers?

The Difference Between a Leader and a Manager

Here’s an attempt at distinguishing the necessary traits between a leader and a manager:

Managers – reactive, controlling, prescriptive, maintaining the status quo, putting in the hours and graft, disciplining, running things, dealing with the nitty gritty, risk averse, authoritarian

Leaders – big picture, creative, inspirational, risk taking, strategic, unique, charismatic, proactive, breaks rules, gives credit.

Many people, possibly most, approach there managerial careers in a manner that means they won’t ever be considered as future leaders. Might be a good manager but leadership is made of rarer stuff it seems.

It almost seems that real leaders have more in common with artists than with hard headed corporate managers which neatly returns us to the notion that art and business have a lot to learn from each other yet.

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

leadership lesson say less mean more

Leadership Lesson – Say Less, Mean More…

A leadership lesson can come in many shapes. In Al Pacino’s Looking For Richard, where Pacino examines the themes of Richard III, a passing comment from a theatre actor is “If we had learnt anything from Shakespeare, we would say less and mean more…” Simple and powerful advice for anyone, especially those in positions of leadership.

How many of us can say that we actively try to improve our ability to listen? Probably not many. Indeed from childhood onwards far more attention and importance is generally placed upon developing the ability to speak well.

By focusing our attention on the speaker, we naturally afford them and their ideas greater respect. In showing a greater respect for those who are speaking, we engender trust and others are then likely to be more open about their ideas and we stand to gain as a result. Nothing feels as good as being really listened to it would seem. Unsurprisingly, we are generally better in a first date or job interview as the newness of these situations energises our senses and we make a concerted effort to show the best of ourselves which includes good listening. Contrast this with a parental frustration with their non-listening children where the impotent command “Listen..!” usually yields nothing.

Active Listening

Active listening is particularly useful, where nodding your head, maintaining appropriate eye contact, giving small verbal signals(uh huh) and facial expressions all help to build a real dialogue without having to say anything in particular. Active listening entails not only hearing the words the other person says but also registering how they are saying it – volume, pace, tone, modulation, facial expression, posture, gesticulation.

Listening alone is pretty hard though as it is only natural to begin forming one’s own thoughts and opinions in response to what we have just heard and it’s not like we get a choice to switch off that inner monologue. Consequently the biggest challenge is to listen well until the other person has come to a halt, if they ever do. And then, if they spoke at length, as a well intentioned listener we then have to rewind the tape to revisit the salient moments in oder to base our next comment on as full an understanding as possible.

In The Moment…

Actors are trained to within an inch of their lives through rehearsals and performance to work moment to moment, placing all their attention outside of themselves and on to their acting partner in a scene, thus reacting within character to whatever external stimuli they are presented with.

Similarly great listening is the stuff of great leadership. Think of the senior people you admire within your organisation. How is their ability to listen? Do they use appropriate eye contact? Do they pause before their turn to speak? Do they use the language that you just did? Do they summarise and reflect back what you were saying before giving their perspective? If so, you are having a conversation with a great listener so make the most of it.

Listening effectively is a quiet (literally) means of building leadership credibility and also, in this noisy world which we inhabit, the most challenging. Yet it remains a seemingly simple and straightforward task.

“If we’d learnt anything from Shakespeare, we would say less and mean more.” High time many more of us put that into practice.

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

nature of competition

The Nature of Competition…

Competition between rivals is at the heart of the exhilirating movie Rush. Focusing on the intense rivalry between James Hunt and Nikki Lauda in the run up to the 1976 Formula 1 World Championship. Could either have achieved what they did without the presence of the other pushing them on constantly?

Hunt and Lauda are clearly two very different men with two hugely differing attitudes to life. But both shared a passion to win races and so each drove (literally) the other on to success. Lauda shown to be meticulous, studious and obsessive in the extreme, Hunt a flamboyant, party-hard ladies man. Daniel Bruhl who plays the uber analytical Lauda is particularly impressive.

Respected Adversaries

Rush, a rare film that places the dynamic of intense competition at its heart, makes you wonder if Coca Cola would be the giant they are today without Pepsi snapping at their heels back in the 80’s. Whether Apple would have ever become the biggest company by way of market capitalisation, if Microsoft weren’t so complete in their domination. Or even if Manchester United could have dominated English football without their rivalries with Arsenal, Chelsea et al.

Rush – An Energetic Tour De Force of Cinema

Amongst the predictable bravado, machismo and blatant rivalry we see moments of extraordinary mutual respect and acknowledgment between Hunt and Lauda. Hunt dishes out a physical lesson to a journalist who mocks Lauda. Lauda reveals that it was Hunt’s race winning appearances on his hospital room television that served to intensify his absolute need to get better just so he could get back in a car and race again, after a near fatal crash leaves him severely burnt.

We eventually witness Hunt win the Championship by coming 3rd in the final race thus earning enough points to clinch the title. What’s really interesting is that he could not have done this without Lauda’s presence. Perhaps we owe our competitors a debt of gratitude for their ever motivating presence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKAr42gxjhM

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

management by hand grenade

Management by Hand Grenade

Management by hand grenade is how Paolo Di Canio’s leadership style as manager of footballing side Sunderland was described. And management by hand grenade is the style that has got him sacked. He often spoke about players lacking the right level of desire, that there were not enough leaders on the pitch and that he wanted more “nasty” players – a term he used frequently.

His managerial style was characterised as having a very much a me and them attitude. He was fond of dramatic statements and had a questionable history of falling out with players and footballing authorities wherever he went.

Autocratic Leadership

He favoured an autocratic leadership style and would routinely berate his players in post match press interviews – a surely divisive and dangerous tactic. Contrast this with the approach of truly accomplished man managers who get the genuine buy in of their team.

Di Canio’s focused on passion and making big statements both on and off the pitch – exactly as he was as a player in years gone by. Therefore he could often endear himself to a certain section of stakeholder – the fans, who may well be tired of overpaid, pampered players not putting in the performances that are expected of them.

Lack of Ownership & Personal Responsibility

Regards personal responsibility he never ever said “that’s my fault”, “i take full responsibility”, “i made a mistake”, “sorry”, “i need to change what i am doing” etc. In fact and crucially Di Canio continues to claim that he will not change his style.

Just a few games into the new season saw a player revolt which led immediately to his sacking from the job. His stand off with fans after the most recent defeat telling them to keep their chins up may in his mind have been an attempt to take responsibility but it played out very differently and looked to many like he was saying “what can I do, it’s those non-performing players you need to talk to.” A pretty obvious display of incongruent body language compared to the verbal message.

Reign of Fear, is no Reign at all

A reign of fear is no reign at all. Yes discipline is important, undoubtedly more so in a professional football club than in many organisations.

In short, man management these days requires more listening, probing through questioning, reflecting back, checking for understanding, taking personal responsibility, developing lastig relationships underscored with mutual trust. Alex Ferguson eventually realised this and stopped using his famous “hairdryer” tactic on players – he would loudly chastise under performing players at half time from a range of two inches until they were saturated with fear. In short, management by hand grenade just doesn’t work, influence or have much effect.

Adopting Coaching Approach

The idea of coaching or being supportive to players and staff would be alien to Di Canio.

Also, the blanket approach to man management went out a long time ago as the real art is about understanding each individual and motivating them appropriately. That’s the art of management – that flexibility, awareness and appreciating that all things change.

The lights have certainly gone out on management by hand grenade – public humiliation, denigrating the efforts of others and attempting to control through a reign of fear. And when autocratic management seems so out of place in the macho world of football you realise that times have truly changed.

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

leadership development

Leadership Development Today

Posted on 14th September 2013 in Communication Skills Training, Leadership Development

Leadership development means that leaders must be able to reach beyond a reliance on only their cognitive ability to demonstrate other capabilities.

Just two decades ago, the majority of white-collar employees expected to be paid a modest salary, receive standard benefits and keep their job for years as long as they did what they were supposed to do. Few expected to be coached or developed. Fewer still expected their leaders to understand them, to be intuitive, to create energy, or to break down barriers and facilitate the flow of information. Times certainly have changed as these days top graduates see strong coaching, mentoring and leadership development programs as important as salary in choosing prospective employers.

New Behaviours

Leaders now need to protect, to inform and to have the strength of character to do the right thing. Which also means ‘fessing up’ when they haven’t done the right thing.

Behaving purely dispassionately and coldly analytically will distance you from the others. Good leaders need to be right in the mix, getting their hands dirty. It will be appropriate at times to display emotional connectedness and vulnerability – all believable human qualities.

Draw on head, heart or gut behaviours as differing situations and events demand.

Too often, leaders reflexively rely on their proven way of solving problems, approaching relationships or capitalising on opportunities. They automatically assume they can approach fresh challenges in the way they always have. They end up being partial leaders, which creates problems. I guess thats why the term innovation is bandied around so often these days. Innovation through conscious leadership development is needed as so many leaders have failed.

Leadership Development as Training Focus

As a consequence of a shifting landscape and greater focus on the actions of leaders, leadership development has grown rapidly as an area of study and training. There are a plethora of training options out there, offering everything from presentation impact to executive coaching to managing critical conversations to media skills training.

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

Art & Business

Art and Business – An Interesting Relationship

Art and Business are polar opposites right? Making money surely has nothing to do with a purely artistic endeavour?

At Dynamic Presenting, we believe there is a much closer relationship between art and business than perhaps many would readily accept. Of course everyone knows that art is a huge business, epitomised by characters such as artist/entrepreneur Damian Hirst who has arguably made making money his principal art form much like the average hedge fund manager does. And after all, hedge fund managers have been most keen to acquire the type of conspicuous, seemingly over-priced art that Hirst has produced.

Learning From each Other…

We would go further – art and business can and should learn a lot from each other. Theatre companies, actors, writers, painters, sculptors, stand up comedians, dancers, film makers… et al could all further their respective causes by observing business people. Artists could learn a lot about organising their work, finances, marketing, setting goals etc. Similarly corporate folk most used to using the logical and strategic quadrants of the brain could through improvisation and artistic freedom learn to innovate and think differently – how often do we read business articles where company heads bemoan the lack of innovation in their ranks?

Dynamic Presenting aims to build a bridge between art and business in order to nurture healthy dialogue between them. We adapt exercises from theatre rehearsals in order to energise and develop the presentations, pitches, speeches and communication of business leaders.

Ajaz Ahmed makes some interesting points in his Guardian article about the sometimes uneasy overlap between art and business

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/oct/16/bridging-gap-art-business

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

Bespoke Leadership Development

Leadership – It’s Something We Can All Do

Posted on 18th February 2013 in Communication Skills Training, Leadership Development

Leadership development is a fascinating growth area of study and research. Every day there are a million blog posts, tweets and updates on Facebook and LinkedIn around the broad notion of leadership and developing necessary skills to be deemed good at it. There are more “Top 10 Tips to become a CEO” than anyone who is actually working to become a CEO would have the time to read.

We at Dynamic Presenting have been guilty of getting in the mix and piling it all on the heap as well. Some articles and posts out there are very informative, engaging, sometimes amusing. Others are just repetition of well known nuggets of wisdom.

Do Leadership

When it comes down to it though, leaders simply have to DO leadership like an actor has to turn up on stage regardless of how rehearsals went and deliver what they have to. They have to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in, in whatever way they deem best. Just like learning to drive, there’s no point turning it into an academic exercise insisting that theory is all important. Get behind the steering wheel and get going. Each time you stall, you will learn more about your own resilience, determination and creativity than through any studied means.

Dynamic Presenting’s Bespoke Leadership Development

That’s why when we deliver bespoke training courses for our clients, we focus on their specific needs in the moment and are more than happy to change up our day’s agenda if that will yield greater benefits. We also place the accent very firmly on DOING many practical exercises…repeatedly.

See how Dynamic Presenting’s bespoke communication and presentation skills training could benefit you.

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

Leadership lessons film set

Leadership Lessons Learned from the Film Set….

Posted on 12th February 2013 in Film, Leadership Development

Leadership and all its attendant skills are perhaps the only role for the director on set. Everybody else from actors to crew to production assistants tends to have a pretty clear view of what they need to do and in a sense if th director wasn’t there they would all do their jobs with professionalism and aplomb. But the director is the one withe vision – quite literally in regards to a movie  and acts as the hub or conductor of the orchestra. Decisions have o made constantly and quickly by the director as the buck stops with them. Filming is a precarious, fraught, edgy business with many pitfalls, status games and consequent ongoing learning for all involved.

Film Director as Leader

Succinct, practical tips about film making and leadership from Nigel Cole, a TV and film director. Life on a film set can be pressurised with everyone looking to the director for decision after decision. Actors, cameraman, designer, script supervisor, 1st assistant director, make up…. etc. Everyone takes their leadership from the director. Yet a truly respected and supposedly talented director will not simply issue commands but will know how to communicate with and motivate those around him on set so that everyone’s creative talents are unleashed for the creative benefit of the film.

Truly effective leadership is called for on set to maximise the talents of everybody present. Understanding when to kick and when to stroke, as a theatre director once told me is the nub of the talent. In essence actors will give a good performance, the crew will do their roles with aplomb… In a way the director is the only person without a very specific role to perform.

Authoritarian Leadership

Clearly parallels exist with any other form of leadership where instant decision-making is needed. The age of the authoritative business leader, with some exceptions, seems to be largely over. Similarly, the film director who barks at his minions in a vain attempt to establish status and authority, is now a rare presence.

There is never enough time, budget or people to quite pull off the movie you wanted to or had in your mind’s eye when first imagining the finished film. The phrase “T’was ever thus” springs to mind. Business life is exactly the same. Leadership is routinely faced with competing demands, lack of resources, people management issues…

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication