Saturday 25 April 2009

Personal Impact in Communication

As part the EMBA at ESCP Europe, I took the "Personal Impact in Communication" elective. Some of the objectives for the elective were
  • Help one give strong impact to his or her communication
  • Help one improve their relationships with others
  • Help one deal with their emotions when they communication
  • Help one deal with unexpected communication situations.
The elective or maybe I should say workshop was facilitated by Marc Geraud, a trained actor, professional coach and trainer in communication.

I learnt some intresting facts about Communication and why do we feel stressed and shaky before and during a presentation in front of an audience. It has to do with our (human) primordial behaviour or to put in simply the way we are programmed as humans.

When facing an audience we feel stressed and wanting to be some where else rather there, because our primordial reactions cause increase in adrenalin & Cortosins in our bodies. These two harmones helped our ancestors to do FIGHT back or run away (FLIGHT) from looming danger. These invaluble reflex actions that helped our acestors also kick in when we face an audience. So, the trick, I learnt, is to know about this and the fact that it is but natural. Then later to try and control or over come this.

We learnt some techniques to overcome such situations invoving breathing techniques and preparations before facing an audience.

We all work hard on the content of the presentation, but apparently this is only but a small percent of the whole presentation. More important elements are body language, the way we deliver our speech, the way we connect to the audience (or the lack of it).

I have learnt quite a bit from the workshop and hope to work on it to improve my communication skills. I would also recommed such workshops to others looking for career in leadership, having to face audiences.