Programme Description

The most compelling leaders our world has ever known – the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King – understood the connection between the power of ‘rhetoric’ and it’s capacity to rouse their follows to take action.  This focus on ‘rhetoric’ – the ability to powerfully persuade and compel others to follow you, through a combination of personal presence, confident communication, and the use of language to inspire and get results – is what sets apart extraordinary leaders from their more ordinary peers.

At The Centre for the Arts and Global Leadership, we believe that ‘Leadership Presence’ is a foundational tool for the leader’s journey and needs to be mandatory learning for all those in high-level leadership positions, especially those with a need to speak publically, lead larger teams, and obtain buy-in for transformational projects at scale.

This is particularly true for women leaders who are often not schooled in the communication skills needed to hold their own in positions of authority.

Our Programme:

Our programme gives leaders the tools to:

·      Develop the genuine self-confidence and self-esteem to propel their leadership forward

·      Do deep-level work into the mental ‘blocks’ and imposter syndrome holding back individual leadership progression

·      Focus on belly breathing to understand the potential of the voice and build the foundations for ‘leadership presence’

·      Define the leader’s unique contribution to the world through an exploration into personal vision and mission, ensuring the individual leader is able to speak with conviction about what they are aiming to achieve

·      Individual work on articulation, pausing, pace, modulation, posture to bring more authority and clarity to delivery, especially in non-native language presentations

·      Full development of a ‘key note’ speech to be used in public presentations/speaker’s bureau/sales pitches etc, and as the foundation of smaller-scale talks and presentations

·      Storytelling techniques to bring alive presentations, fundraising, marketing and sales pitches and compell the audience to take action and follow the leader

·      Focus on one-to-one meetings and getting buy-in for investment or other forms of support from ‘upstream’ leaders the leader needs to convince

·      Moderating panels to at once establish leadership authority and expertise, whilst bringing out the voice of others, ensuring a richer discussion that can support the individual leader’s objectives and career goals in a strategic way

·      Empowering teams teams and subordinates through leadership presence

·      Understanding the dynamics of power and how it relates to body language and what is needed to establish authority in how a leader holds themselves and interacts with others

·      Use of space and how to assert authority in board meetings and other situations where the arrangement of space confers power relationships

·      How to use a microphone to ensure ability to speak with AUTHORITY and not just VOLUME

·      Communicating spontaneously – feeling confident about being able to answer in the moment, without preparation