Introduction:

• Have you ever lost a business battle because you lacked the words to convince your opponent?

• Do you know how to structure your business presentations to capture the attention of your audience?

• What is the best way to communicate bad news? are you able to control your body language while talking to a large audience?

The ability to effectively influence clients, colleagues, employees and superiors is a critical aspect of being an effective manager. For this reason, companies today increasingly seek to hire executives with razor-sharp communication skills, as well as strong analytical abilities.

Powerful persuasion involves several vital elements. These include the capacity to communicate content in the right form and in an appropriate emotional context. It also requires knowing how to carry this out on an interpersonal level (in presentations, for example), as well as before large audiences. It also means overcoming the special challenges that can arise when speaking in a language other than your own.

Develop Your Communication Skills is a highly interactive program that offers individualized feedback and video analysis. It covers the following key areas:

• Rhetorical tools for interpersonal communications, presentations and speeches
• Using emotional and rational intelligence to persuade others
• Establishing personal and professional credibility
• Techniques of influence
• Non-verbal aspects of communication: managing nervous energy and a lack of confidence
• The art of storytelling to communicate your message
• Rational-base speeches (business presentations)
• Emotional speeches (special occasions/visionary)

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Capabilities Addressed

Based on extensive practice with video analysis and individual feedback, this program trains you to become an effective public speaker in English by addressing the following capabilities:

• Establishing personal and professional credibility
• Using emotional and rational intelligence to persuade others
• Rhetorical tools for interpersonal communications, presentations and speeches
• Tools to create a common ground, a connection between speaker and audience
• The art of storytelling to communicate your message
• Techniques of influence
• Non-verbal aspects of communication: authority, energy and audience awareness; managing nerves
• Rational-based speeches (e.g., business presentations)
• Emotional speeches (e.g., special occasion or visionary speeches)

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Program Content

Assessments:
Each participant will be individually assessed to ascertain his or her personal needs and private concerns. These assessments enable individuals to understand their own emotions and motivations, which is an essential precondition for understanding others’ emotions and motivations – and the key to touching an audience.

Planning your content:
There is a process to preparing effective communications.  You will not be effective by sitting down and writing notes on a piece of paper five minutes before you go to speak.  We will look at how to open and how to close your speeches.
 
Speaking Style:
Natural speakers exhibit three basic qualities: authority, energy and audience awareness.  Authority means “looking and sounding as if you mean what you say”.  Energy is “the impression that it matters to you”.  Audience awareness is the ability to ensure that your communication is interactive – and each listener feels recognized.

The Power of Storytelling:
Human life is lived in story format. Connecting with an audience requires the talent of telling the story behind your vision, your project, and your brand, not just listing the attributes of a particular product. These stories come from personal experiences that are relevant to you, thereby making your message more relevant and credible for others. This is more than just performing in front of an audience – someone can be entertained but still not remember a thing that was said. Storytelling is about distilling the essence of the message and making it memorable. In other words, “show rather than tell,” because illustrating a point makes a longer lasting impact than proving a point.

Speech Models:
We learn from role models. There will be a set of case studies of four world leaders with four very different leadership and communication styles: the inspirer, the negotiator, the persuader and the winner of arguments. By considering the strengths and weaknesses of each style, participants will be able to discern their own unique style, and make adjustments in order to capitalize on or compensate for the strengths and weaknesses inherent in their style.

Practical Tasks:
Participants will learn about and then be required to make three presentations themselves, which will be critiqued by their peers, and they will be given written feedback.

1. The Rational-based Speech: arranging your thoughts for interviews, informal meetings or business presentations, using a deductive format supported by rhetorical tools such as metaphors, examples, illustrations and analogies.

2. The Special Occasion Speech: creating the right emotional atmosphere as a means of persuading or inspiring others during a time of crisis, such as major corporate change or business restructuring.

3. The Visionary Speech: making people feel secure and winning credibility, in order to gain commitment for your project, idea or your dream.

(Program content may be adapted, in line with the program objectives.)

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Methodology

The program is a combination of lectures, case studies and in-class practical exercises, including the delivery of speeches. Participants are divided into small groups. These groups are designed to establish a high level of trust between participants and faculty, thereby creating a powerful learning environment.

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Benefits

For participants:

• Establish credibility and gain commitment from your audience
• Gain confidence in your public speaking
• Learn how to express ideas as opposed to just imparting information
• Discover ways to arrange logically sound arguments
• Learn how to deal with your emotions and the emotions of others

For companies:

• Drive open communication among your key employees
• Groom business leaders with a communication style that fosters commitment rather than compliance
• Contribute to retain talent in the company
• Break down departmental barriers and structures through the use of effective communication
• Improve and strengthen relationships with clients

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Who Should Attend

This program is directed at managers who wish to improve the impact they can have on people around them.

• Those newly promoted to leadership positions will benefit from the formal development of their communication style.

• Business leaders looking to effect change in their organizations will benefit from development of a communication style that fosters commitment rather than compliance.

• Those with a structured and rational background – engineers and accountants, for example – will benefit from the development of techniques to convey meaning behind the facts and figures.

• The program is particularly relevant and useful for those who deal with client relationships, or who have direct interface with the general public.

This program is delivered entirely in English and therefore a certain fluency in the English language is required.

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Faculty

	Brian O’Connor Leggett Dr. Brian Leggett is associate professor of Managing People in Organizations at IESE Business School. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Oxford Brookes University, a Master’s in Rhetoric from the University of California, and a Bachelor’s from London University School of Law. His areas of interest include the use of persuasion in the management process, particularly when it comes to corporate speechmaking in conflict situations; the relationship between organizational communication and the extent to which employees feel committed to and identify with organizations; the connection between leadership and communication; and the role of spirituality in the creation of long-term personal credibility for managers.
	Conor Neill Conor Neill is a Scientific Collaborator. He owns and manages three businesses. He is president of the Spanish chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization, a worldwide network of founders of recent start up businesses. He developed his experiences during 8 years as a manager in Accenture’s Change Management division, working with leaders to drive change in their organizations. He earned his Bachelor’s in Psychology and Artificial Intelligence at Nottingham University, and completed a bilingual MBA at IESE.
	Karen Sanders Senior Lecturer in Managing People in Organizations Department. She read BA Joint Honours in English and Philosophy at the University of Durham (UK) and completed her MA and PhD at the University of Navarra

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