NIDA Corporate has helped raise the level of public speaking and communication skills from proficient to excellent for the senior leadership team at leading Marketing and Communications services and the world’s largest independent procurer of print, Williams Lea Tag (WLT).
NIDA Corporate has helped raise the level of public speaking and communication skills from proficient to excellent for the senior leadership team at leading Marketing and Communications services and the world’s largest independent procurer of print, Williams Lea Tag (WLT).
WLT’s services include creative production and design, sourcing, customer communications and publishing and document workflow across digital and print. A business built on future thinking and innovation and dependent on strong and dynamic relationships, it is crucial for WLT staff to develop and maintain a strong executive presence with their clients. WLT leaders need to be persuasive, engaging and influential in their company pitches and product launches.
NIDA Corporate were briefed to provide the WLT with a framework to raise the level of their public speaking and communication skills from proficient to excellent, particularly through the exploration of dynamic alternatives to the ‘usual tricks’ of presentation delivery.
‘We were looking for a program that would give us competitive advantage in an environment where we are always presenting to clients, meeting with clients, even in conversation with clients and colleagues; it is so important to create that engagement with and belief in your message, and Corporate Performance is ideal for that,’ commented Andrew Swinton, WLT Managing Director ANZ.
One element to the two-day course had participants, who were from senior levels of the organisation, present in front of peers, with analysis and feedback provided post-presentation.
‘My first improvised speech, which was also filmed, showed a very nervous, blushing, monotone, mumbling, hand wringing, needing notes, shuffling shell of a person. I don’t know where I have been all these years,’ commented Samantha Bourke,WLT Operations and Implementation Manager .
‘Over the next two days, I learnt how to channel my nerves to my benefit. Now I can articulate and pitch to the audience, I can breathe, I don’t need to shuffle around,’ she continued.
‘I walked out of NIDA so incredibly empowered. I have tried for years to cure my stage fright, and in two days I feel like it has been purged.’
Key to NIDA Corporate’s techniques in this kind of training is incorporating a holistic approach to ensure participants focus on their entire presence.
‘Being provided with breathing, voice and other techniques on how better to present oneself allowed us to go away and practice these skills in order to improve. I love the analogy that presenting is no different to sport or acting where practice is important in order to perform well. We received the tools and the know-how of what to practice and how to practice,’ said Grant Shreeve, WLT Client Services Director.
Such was the success of the course, participants who had previously encountered nerves when presenting, were no longer inhibited.
‘I used my new skills when I presented yesterday in Melbourne,’ said Linda Lung, WLT Client Services Director. ‘I wasn’t even nervous and I actually enjoyed it!’
