Over the last 24 years I have successfully run dozens of courses for organisations…

BUT….

Yes, there’s a BUT

Those 24 years have also taught me that the most effective way for people to change how they feel about public speaking is actually training AWAY from the organisation. We are not just talking about presenting or public speaking, we are talking about helping employees to thrive. On this page you’ll see why lots of companies are now signing up their colleagues a few at a time to a open course rather than organising in-house training days.

Why do I say that?
Over time I have witnessed much deeper and more long-lasting shifts in confidence and skills with people attending the open course. Yes, I’ve  had some very powerful in-house experiences too, but overall the open courses produce better results.
And there are specific reasons for this…

A Safe Space
Fear and anxiety around public speaking are very personal, and facing these fears can make people feel vulnerable. During the course, we often have conversations about the fear around public speaking — and that includes talking about how it feels to be the centre of attention, why we feel anxiety and shame in these situations, whether at work or in social or family situations.

People attending my courses talk about Impostor Syndrome — “if they really knew me deep down they wouldn’t give me this job”. (A whopping 70% of the general population have the impostor syndrome so it’s very likely to be part of your organisation.) Public speaking anxiety usually comes from feeling negative judgements from others (real or imagined). It’s hard to explore that honestly and openly with a room full of colleagues. How would you feel?

Learning Specific New Skills
Within this safe space, people can talk about challenging things and, more importantly, can learn the new skills they need to feel safe and build confidence from the inside out. That’s why organisations find it helpful to send two people at a time to my open courses. Your staff can immerse themselves into exploring what’s in their way, and you don’t lose your whole team to a two-day training. At the moment, I have about 10 organisations who regularly book spaces for their people “out-of-house”. And since I’ve been clearer about the differences between open courses and in-house training, more organisations have been choosing this option.

My Courses Are Different…
They work on a psychological level to help people build confidence from the inside that they can use at work, at home, or out in the big wide world. How many of your employees could do with more confidence? The course is not how to structure a powerpoint, but it will give people far more confidence to build a story/presention for themselves and connect with the audience in a more powerful way.

The exercises I use throughout the two days are focused on helping people learn the skills to handle problematic thoughts and feelings better, to understand what blank faces in the audience really mean, to learn how to be the centre of attention with more ease, to help them take their place without apologising for doing so. These skills are not only good for public speaking and presenting but they are good for general confidence.

 
I’m happy to chat to you if you want to explore what this means for your organisation and how I can help accommodate your needs.

Talk to me, John Dawson on …

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