ABOUT US

We provide highly motivating and inspiring leadership training and personal development programmes, tailored to your business and individual needs. We have a passion to assist others in their personal development and to help individuals and organisations grow and sustain change, allowing them to connect with their staff and customers in a real and effective way.

We combine a diverse range of learning styles and mediums with experience of over 20 years working for one of the largest international retailers within the UK. Our aim is to provide affordable coaching, development, and leadership programmes to organisations, groups and individuals that empower people to take full ownership of their learning, enabling them to better look after themselves and/or their customers.

Whether you are looking for a one-off lunchtime session or a programme to deliver cultural change, we can help. We have a wide range of programmes and workshops to help you manage change, build an effective team, improve communication, build morale and improve customer service and more!

Thursday 29 September 2011

7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentation - Tip 7: Be There For Others

Sorry for the delay in posting our final tip from Michele Paradise on boosting your presentations but it has been sitting in the drafts section and didn't get published!  I'm sure it was a computer glitch and not just a blonde moment by me (Lucy)!!

Tip No. 7 is Be There for Others!!  Michele makes the final point that you are on stage for your audience and not for yourself.  Although this is true we think that you should acknowledge your achievements and give yourself a pat on the back for standing up with confidence and delivering an impressive presentation!!


TIP 7 - BE THERE FOR OTHERS

'Tying all of these skills together takes us to a single, final point. It’s this:

Remember: You are getting up there on that stage for your audience and not for yourself.  When you combine together the skills and techniques I have shown you here'  'then you will give them the great experience both they - and you - deserve!'

And at the end of the day, that’s what you’re doing it all for!'


If you have enjoyed these tips and would like to find out more about our workshop you can take a look on Saint Francis Hospice website or email us on sfh@positivechangeconsultancy.com.  If you would like a copy of the article please contact us and we will be happy to send it to you.



If you have missed any of the tips you can find them here:


Tip 1: Getting In Control of Your Emotional State
Tip 2:  Set Your Goals Clearly
Tip 3: Be Flexible
Tip 4: Use Engaging Language
Tip 5: Get Anchoring
Tip 6: Awareness of Movement

Tuesday 20 September 2011

7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentation - Tip 6: Awareness of Movement

Tip No. 6 of Michele Paradise's 7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentations is Awareness Of Movement.

TIP 6 - AWARENESS OF MOVEMENT

'One of the most distracting things a speaker can do is to continually fidget and move on the stage.  



It often gives the audience a sense that the speaker is uncomfortable and in some way “out of control”.

Knowing how to stand, how to hold the microphone and have great posture to speak to your audience confidently will make a great initial impression before you even open your mouth.

These skills can be learned, and having a “critical friend” to give useful advice can really move things along.

Oh - yes, I just remembered something else!

A very simple tip to go hand-in-hand with your posture, is to decide which hand you are going to hold your microphone in.

Using your non-dominant hand may feel alien or uncomfortable... but at the same time, it frees your dominant hand to gesture and to handle notes and props - without all that kafuffle that comes with swapping from one hand to the other.'



In our Delivering Impressive Presentations workshop on the 10th of November we will be working with delegates to help them become more self-aware.

We will be sharing Michele's last tip Be There for Others with you tomorrow.  If you have enjoyed these tips and would like to find out more about our workshop you can take a look on Saint Francis Hospice website or email us on sfh@positivechangeconsultancy.com.  If you would like a copy of the article please contact us and we will be happy to send it to you.


If you have missed any of the tips you can find them here:


Tip 1: Getting In Control of Your Emotional State
Tip 2:  Set Your Goals Clearly
Tip 3: Be Flexible
Tip 4: Use Engaging Language

Tip 5: Get Anchoring

Friday 16 September 2011

7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentation - Tip 5: Get Anchoring

Day number five of our 7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentations by Michele Paradise is Get Anchoring.  Anchoring is a classic NLP training technique and something that we teach you in our Delivering Impressive Presentations workshop.  We are lucky that one of our founding partners is a fully qualified NLP practitioner.

TIP 5 - GET ANCHORING

Michele explains that anchoring is essentially 'a way of associating a particular emotion in your audience with a particular gesture that you make, with a facial expression you pull, with a prop you use, or with a particular location on your stage.

You can see anchoring used by comedians who only have to walk on stage to get a laugh. The audience already associates that person with laughter, and this makes it easier for the comedian to pull laughs out of the crowd. Their face, their movements, maybe even their name is an “anchor”.

In the same way you can associate particular stories with particular parts of the stage, so that when you stand in those places or give specific gestures, the audience is already primed to respond to you with a certain emotion.

You might for example, take up one part of stage to tell a whole series of positive stories in which people get what they want from life. And then you might go back to that part of the stage to talk about the benefits of a product you are promoting. The emotion is already unconsciously primed.

There are many different ways to make spatial anchoring work to your advantage - so being aware of your gestures and your postures when moving through different parts of your presentation, as well as your location on stage, will make for your message getting across with far more power.'



In our workshop we use anchoring in a different way to help you to feel more confident during your presentation and whenever you find yourself having to speak in public.

Remember we will be sharing the rest of Michele's top tips with you over the next 2 days and if it sparks some interest or you would like to find out more about our workshop you can take a look on Saint Francis Hospice website or email us on sfh@positivechangeconsultancy.com.


Look out for Tip Six - Awareness of Movement tomorrow!!  If you would like a copy of the article please contact us and we will be happy to send it to you.


If you have missed any of the tips you can find them here:


Tip 1: Getting In Control of Your Emotional State
Tip 2:  Set Your Goals Clearly
Tip 3: Be Flexible
Tip 4: Use Engaging Language

Thursday 15 September 2011

7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentation - Tip 4: Use Engaging Language

Today's top tip from Michele Paradise is Use Engaging Language which is very important to get your audience captivated, but we feel it is also just as important not to use jargon to alienate your audience.

TIP 4: USE ENGAGING LANGUAGE

'It’s important that you speak to anyone whose attention you want to hold in ways that will grab them. Which means focusing on your language to make yourself heard.

One of the effects of using engaging language with an audience is to brighten up what you are saying with strong metaphors rather than technical terms.

You can often see people glaze over when there’s too much technical detail in a talk, because the speaker has misjudged how much in-depth knowledge the audience wants.'


We feel it is also important to consider that in a mixed group of people their knowledge of the subject matter may vary so using technical jargon can result in the loss of interest from some members of the audience and can result in having to give explanations to areas of your presentation in your allocated question and answers time.  You can also feel you are repeating yourself as the presenter, which can be very frustrating.

Michele goes on to say that 'there is something else you can do with your words to keep people listening: make sure you are using language that appeals to all the senses.

If you focus on only using “visual-style” words in your sentences, then people with a good visual imagination will clearly get the picture - but others who are more “touchy feely” won’t grasp what you’re putting across - and there may well be murmurs of discontent from those who think mainly in sounds.

There is a whole art to using language that engages all the senses. Once you get on the SCENT of how to do it, you’ll be able to PEPPER your sentences with words that give people a FIRM GRASP of your words, and make your message come through LOUD and CLEAR...'


Remember we will be sharing the rest of Michele's top tips with you over the next 3 days and if it sparks some interest or you would like to find out more about our workshop you can take a look on Saint Francis Hospice website or email us on sfh@positivechangeconsultancy.com.


Look out for Tip Five - Get Anchoring tomorrow!!  Chris will be teaching Anchoring in our Delivering Impressive Presentations Workshop on the 10th of November 2011. If you would like a copy of the article please contact us and we will be happy to send it to you.


If you have missed any of the tips you can find them here:


Tip 1: Getting In Control of Your Emotional State
Tip 2:  Set Your Goals Clearly
Tip 3: Be Flexible

Wednesday 14 September 2011

7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentation - Tip 3: Be Flexible

Be flexible is Michele's top tip no.3 and we couldn't agree more!!  Although it is important for presentations to be planned and structured it is also a really good idea to build in a bit of breathing space with timings, so if you need to be flexible you can.

TIP 3: BE FLEXIBLE


Michele says: 'You can plan to be flexible.

But why do you need to be flexible? Can’t you just deliver that well-honed, densely-typed script you prepared? Wouldn’t it be best to just get it over and done with, and get off the stage?'

We think NO. Most of us can't predict the future and will not be able to tell if our audience will be a bit sleepy after lunch, if there will be an impatient individual in our midst's or a million other if's!! It is always best if we are prepared to be flexible in both our timing and delivery style to more effectively hold the attention of our audience. As trained coach's our facilitators have a great perception of emotional state and often react to this and make adjustments in their delivery style and content to deal with shifts in emotional states. Michele points out in her article 'Designing flexibility into your behavior is absolutely key'.

Equally important to flexibility she say's is keeping your eyes and ears open and this is something we talk about in our presentations skills workshops. As Michele says 'You don’t know to be flexible if you don’t know what’s going on with your audience. Sensory acuity is one of the most important things you will need as a speaker and / or communicator in any context. You need to learn to look for the tell-tale signs. Is your audience glazed over? Are they looking nervy? distracted? Texting on their mobiles?

Building flexible strategies for each of these, and other scenarios, will give you mastery of the room!'

If you attend our 
 Delivering Impressive Presentations study day at Saint Francis Hospice we will give you essential skills in preparing, presenting and perfecting you presentations and teach you way's to keep your audience captivated.



Remember we will be sharing the rest of Michele's top tips with you over the next 4 days and if it sparks some interest or you would like to find out more about our workshop you can take a look on Saint Francis Hospice website or email us on sfh@positivechangeconsultancy.com.


Look out for Tip Four - Use Engaging Language tomorrow!! If you would like a copy of the article please contact us and we will be happy to send it to you.


If you have missed any of the tips you can find them here:


Tip 1: Getting In Control of Your Emotional State
Tip 2:  Set Your Goals Clearly

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Quote of the Week - Fear

This week we are focusing on tips to boost presentations and/or public speaking, so we thought we would look for a quote from someone we consider to be an iconic public speaker Oprah Winfrey.  We have talked about how we can convince ourselves we are going to fail and how fear effects our breathing in Top Tip No.1 so this quote is very relevent!

'Whatever you fear most has no power - it is your fear that has the power.'
~ Oprah Winfrey

7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentation - Tip 2: Set Your Goals Clearly

We hope you all enjoyed reading Michele Paradise's Top Tip No. 1 Getting In Control of your Emotional State yesterday for boosting your presentations here is her 2nd tip from her article in NLP Life:

TIP 2 - SET YOUR GOALS CLEARLY


Michele says:

'Before you make your presentation, or go to your meeting ask yourself: what are you hoping to achieve?  Be clear to yourself about your objectives - and REMEMBER - one of the most important objectives is to keep the interest of the people you are with.

One way to do this is to consider the material you are about to deliver, and imagine yourself “in the shoes” of your audience. Disassociate from any little dramas your may be having about making your presentation, and in a detached way, see yourself up on stage.

Is the way you are delivering the talk interesting? Are you varying pacing? Are you throwing in a smattering of jokes?

Learn from this, and work out what you can add or take away from the talk.

There are lots of different techniques that you can add to the mix to keep your audience interested.


For example, there are ways of structuring presentations and meetings that will absolutely keep your audience completely absorbed and wondering what’s coming next.

Here are three things you might build into the structure of your talk:
1. You can add “hooks” to the beginning of a talk that surprise and confuse your audience, maintaining their sense of curiosity throughout.
2. You can illustrate with stories that really engage the audience’s sense of wonder and delight.
3. And you can use audience participation and give them exercises to do.

These are just some of the extras that you can add to your presentation to make it fly. There are plenty more - but I’m sure these will give you food for thought!'



In our workshops we use a variety of different training methods to keep our delegates (audience) interested such as experiential learning.  In our Delivering Impressive Presentations study day at Saint Francis Hospice we will help you understand different learning styles so you can tailor your presentation or speech to your audience to keep them interested.


Remember we will be sharing the rest of Michele's top tips with you over the next 5 days and if it sparks some interest or you would like to find out more about our workshop you can take a look on Saint Francis Hospice website or email us on sfh@positivechangeconsultancy.com.


Look out for Tip Three - Be Flexible tomorrow!! If you would like a copy of the article please contact us and we will be happy to send it to you.  

Monday 12 September 2011

7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentation - Tip 1: Getting in Control of Your Emotional State

We have started advertising our Delivering Impressive Presentations workshop on the 10th of November and as if by magic NLP life sent us a really great article on 7 Top Tips to Boost Your Presentations by Michele Paradise which mirrors some of the skills and techniques included in our workshop. We thought we would share Michele's top tips with you over the next 6 days and if it sparks some interest or you would like to find out more about our workshop you can take a look on Saint Francis Hospice website or email us on sfh@positivechangeconsultancy.com.

TIP 1 - GETTING IN CONTROL OF YOUR EMOTIONAL STATE!

Michele say's that many people 'make themselves feel uncomfortable about the presentation they’re about to give: They convince themselves they’re going to have a terrifying time!'. Her and our advice is to 'Get your inner mind on side, not working against you'.

There are numerous techniques for taking charge of your emotional state. One of the simplest ways to do this is through controlled breathing. Michele describes this as 'Breathing For Calm'. As this is not the natural way most people breathe it is best to practice this technique in an unstressed state.

Michele says's 'Here’s what you do:

Pay attention to the area just behind your belly button, and notice that when you breathe you can take a really deep breath by pushing the muscle that is right down there outwards. Focus on that part of your body when you breathe, and in a relaxed way, prevent your rib-cage from swinging upwards and outwards.

It might take you a few moments to master the knack of finding that diaphragm muscle, but when you do,focus on it. Imagine that you are inflating a ball right at the bottom of your lungs, or in your stomach every time you breathe in. Set your imagination running, and your body will follow.


Now go a step further, really take a deep breath from the diaphragm. Inhale it steadily and slowly, and once it’s all in, hold it and count slowly to five.

Then exhale slowly, pushing all the air out, and go again, repeating the cycle three times.'

Through controlling our breathing and using this technique it has a calming effect on both our body and our mind.  'Because you have taken your attention away from the things that were going on in your head, your mind has stopped “whirling” with terrible thoughts. At the same time, your body is more relaxed and you are thus not sending negative “stressy” kinaesthetic signals for your mind to feed on!'
Another way to get control of your emotional state is through simply through having a PMA (positive mental attitude), Michele say's 'Now’s your chance to take control. See yourself being an absolute star on stage or when you meet someone, see yourself being calm and collected, and feel how good that feels.'

Remember 'Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.'  ~Winston Churchill

Look out for Tip Two - Set Your Goals Clearly tomorrow!! If you would like a copy of the article please contact us and we will be happy to send it to you.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Saint Francis Hospice and PCC present . . .


Delivering Impressive Presentations

at


On the 10th of November 2011


We are delighted to offer this wonderful study day held at Saint Francis Hospice Pepperell Education Centre, Havering-atte-bower.
The one day course is aimed at those involved in teaching groups, facilitation of groups and presenting at meetings.  Attending this study day will give you a transferable set of skills allowing you to present confidently to a group.

Content includes:
·       Understanding different learning styles
·       Improving your self-belief
·       Discovering your potential
·       Preparing, presenting, and perfecting your presentation and overcoming your nerves!

Cost: £75.00 per delegate and a % of the course cost will directy benefit the hospice.
Date: 10th Of November 2011
For more information you contact us on SFH@positivechangeconsutancy.com or book directy with SFH.

Quote of the week is back . . .

I've been a bit slack with our quote of the week but I promise to try to remember to do it once a week!!!  I'm in a silly mood today so I've gone with Dr. Seuss and also because my Christmas bug has started!! only 108 sleeps till santa comes boys n girls!!!

'Think left and think right and think low and think high.  Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!'
~ Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!

Sunday 4 September 2011

Time FM Interview

Chris recently went on Time FM 107.5 and did an interview about Parenting Skills and Workshops.  We have put together a little slide show to accompany the audio of the interview on You Tube for you to listen to.  We would love your feedback and if you would like to find out more about Parental Leadership or Parenting Workshops and how we help young people please contact us on 020 8590 7844 or email us info@positivechangeconsultancy.com.