A highly successful CFO in the consumer goods industry asked for our support to provide him with techniques and ideas to enhance and stretch his already competent presentation style. With responsibility for all finance and corporate matters including acquisitions and divestitures, he was often called upon at short notice to speak to key stakeholders, both formally and informally.
Whilst fluent in English, it wasn’t his first language – he spoke with a strong accent which made him difficult to understand. He had two key presentations looming and was keen to make progress fast. He wanted advice about how to prepare for and deliver these meetings to maintain his executive presence and achieve the support of his audience.
Working on a one-to-one basis with three different coaches, each a specialist in their field, provided a different level of communication skills coaching to anything our CFO had experienced before. The depth and insight facilitated a significant improvement in all aspects of his communication, both formally and informally, within a very short space of time.
He was very happy that he knew what to do and was keen to practise immediately. Subsequent Board meetings went very well drawing plaudits from his colleagues. Furthermore, he mastered his instinct to work without a script which made his presentations more approachable and personable.
The Aziz Programme
After an initial benchmarking session with our Lead Communication Skills Coach, Khalid Aziz, three coaching sessions were planned: one with our Storytelling coach; one with our Performance and Presence specialist and one with our Voice expert.
Storytelling session:
- Use of credibility, emotion and logic and facts
- The audience requirements grid
- The 3-act structure and story spine tools for longer narratives and smaller anecdotes
- Balancing ‘colour’ (information, richness and detail) and advance (moving the action on)
Performance and Presence session:
- Raise personal authority by taking up the appropriate amount of space, both in face-to-face meetings and online
- ‘Changing gears’ throughout a presentation, a variety of highs and lows in terms of energy
- Advice and tips to stay confident in challenging presentation environments
- Breathing techniques for staying ‘present’ whilst presenting
Voice session:
- Use of pace, pausing, sentence length and breathing
- Exaggerating mouth movements to create and control vocal variety
- Flex and vary vocal delivery for maximum impact
- Non-verbal communication to emphasise messaging
Presentation Skills Coaching
Our presentation skills and public speaking coaching experts help senior executives deliver messages with more clarity, more impact and greater confidence.
Most of our clients are already experienced communicators but need to ‘step up a gear’ in their oratory. Often, they have strong technical abilities and now face the challenge of having to inspire, engage and influence a wider variety of (often more senior) audiences. We work regularly with senior executives to help them:
- present the numbers virtually
- rehearse for a results presentation
- prepare for an Investor roadshow
- develop stories for their repertoire
Our coaching programmes can be short – eg a dress rehearsal – or a broader programme aimed to polish skills in this area and which might include the support from a wider team of specialists. For example:
- media handling
- influencing and stakeholder engagement
- executive presence and impact
- handling challenging conversations
- emotional Intelligence, self-awareness of impact on others
- business writing
- winning pitches
“One of Aziz Corporate’s greatest strengths is the focus on the individual. My initial assessment was very positive. The subsequent coaching sessions were run by specialists in each area where I needed support. They identified my strengths and worked on these rather that working on general presentation skills techniques. I am fully armed with advice for all eventualities. Thank you.”
“Our team is well versed in helping people with a good command of English but don’t have it as a first language. Our mission is to make them understandable and influential. Although this requires dedication by the client and our team, invariably the hard work pays off.” Khalid Aziz, Lead Comms Skills Coach
