How to master the art of communication and influence people

Actor Helen Anderson-Lee, Christoph, Madelyn and Hannah

To keep all of us all focused, happy and creative at work, our directors Christoph and Madelyn regularly organise fun and inspirational activities like going to TEDx or the Alexander McQueen exhibition. The most recent team event, a bespoke Presentation Skills Workshop organised by Partners With You, took on more of a training focus and was actually the one I enjoyed most.

At first, I was unsure of what I would learn. After all, pitching to impress clients and win contracts is what Grain has been doing since 2002. I’m not saying we’re pros at it, but we’re sure not amateurs either. I walked into the presentation workshop room and I immediately knew I would definitely go home with a lot of tips learned.

Our instructor is a practicing actor. She has worked both on stage and on TV. She started the workshop by asking us to talk about ourselves, our roles at Grain and why we wanted to improve our speaking and presentation skills. Later, I was surprised to know she had taken notes as we talked. After we made our introductions, she explained how some of us unconsciously giggled when we got nervous or fidgeted constantly when we talked, and how it would affect the rapport we establish with the people we talk to. We normally don’t notice these idiosyncrasies, but by mastering our speaking pace, posture and body language, we can lead the conversation the way we want it to go.

All the exercises we did were very useful. And I agree with a lot of techniques we were given: it is important to increase our awareness of what we do and the impression that we’re giving, compared to the one we would like to convey. Once we’re aware, we choose the impression that we give with our body and as well as with our words.

We also learned the importance of breathing correctly. Good breathing supports the voice and gives it richness, helps to control or eliminate a shaky nervous voice, and a decent amount of oxygen helps us think clearly. For this part, we did quite a few exercises to find our ribcage, use our ribcage and then to make a long hiss, a technique for controlling our breathing and core muscles.

After that, we moved on to the most important part: how we can apply these techniques when we present our ideas in a business environment. It was a pleasant surprise to know the way I feel affects the way I look, but it can also seriously affect the way I sound too – thoughts affect the pace, the tone and most importantly the mood of the voice. Further exercises showed us how to add pauses when we’re speaking to get someone’s attention, and how to achieve the pace we want.

It was a fun, fascinating and helpful workshop. I immediately changed the way I talk to people, both one-to-one and with larger audiences. I notice my posture a lot more and learn to leave one or two pauses during my presentations to get attention from my audience.

Madelyn Postman, our creative director, loved the techniques and applied them straight away in her guest lecture at the University of East London. She said: “I was relaxed, stood straight, remembered to breathe, varied the pace and generally spoke more slowly than my usual hundred-miles-an-hour speed, and didn’t giggle at the end of EVERY sentence. Thanks again for the workshop last week!”

You can find out more about the workshops on the Partners With You website.

The happy Grain team and Helen Anderson Lee, from Partners With You, after the workshop