Communication Skills Training

Poor communication skills can be at the heart of many obstacles that people face in work:

Nerves taking over during a presentation so that the audience does not feel comfortable and stops engaging.
Reports, e-mails and presentations which bombard people with facts but do not hook them in emotionally.
Leaders so quick to fix a problem and be seen as having all the answers that they issue immediate instructions, rather than supporting their team to find their own innovative solutions.

Many people are so focused on what they consider to be the core skills of their work, often the expertise which led them to be hired in the first place, that they do not realise that their communication skills are holding them back. Or, if they are aware, they might think that some people are just naturally good communicators, and that those skills are not things which can be improved.

But our communication skills absolutely can be improved: there are simple behaviours, tools and tricks which can be learnt and used which make a huge difference. On the other hand, it’s possible to learn those tips from books and blogs and then try to put them to use at work and fail at the first attempt.

The key is to have both great tools and to practise them. That’s where my workshops come in; I will share the results of 20 years of theatre directing, an obsessive study of communication tools, and thousands of hours of training experience, to teach you those skills. And then I will enable you to practise those skills and provide personalised feedback. As a result, you will leave my workshops experienced in using the tools and with a clear map of how to keep honing and developing.

My current programme of workshops consists of:

Each of these are one day long courses for up to eight delegates.

I am also always delighted to make bespoke workshops to meet your team’s particular needs. Please get in touch here (link) to arrange a call to discuss how I can help.

Mentoring

Learning in a group is a very powerful way of developing your communication skills by practising with your peers. Sometimes, however, people want to take a deeper dive, either to focus in on specific communication challenges, or to work on these issues in a more private setting.

I offer mentoring on communication skills one on one either face to face, or on Teams or Zoom. If this is something you feel you would benefit from please get in touch and we can arrange a short complementary call to examine the issues you are facing and see how we could work together.

Experience

Previous communications skills training workshop clients include PWC, Slaughter and May, British Airways, Taylor Wessing, BC Partners, Carlsberg, Ahli Bank, Medicines Discovery Catapult, Nestle, Reckitt, Paysafe, NNL, Trelleborg, McLaren and more. I am an associate trainer for h2h and In Flow.