Speech intelligence was the topic of today’s session with over 30 Company Secretaries joining LawDeb and DMJ Recruitment to hear from speech and communication expert James B.
For Company Secretaries being heard is an essential part of the job and confidence and clarity when speaking is a key part of that. These softer skills can often be forgotten in a world where much training is technical and regulation based.
So what were the key takeaways from the session?
Effective communication should be Agile; Authentic and On Point.
1. When practising your speech patterns consider how you use pauses, think of them as a feature and not something to be feared. Get comfortable with the pause and you’ll find ‘um’ and other filler words disappear from your speech, immediately inspiring confidence from your listener.
2. Use your pause to think of your next section – it is this next high energy burst that will keep people engaged.
3. Embrace your thinking eyes. Allowing yourself to look away from your audience to remember details and evoke memories adds to the authenticity of your speech. Bringing your eyes back to your listener then brings them into the conversation and makes it more memorable and enjoyable.
The session involved lots of audience participation and the group was a lively one who clearly valued the chance to catch up with fellow Co-Secs and to work on their communication skills. LawDeb employees were able to enjoy the session later in the day.
We will be running further events focused on these softer skills in future. If you are interested in attending please do contact kate.cullen@lawdeb.com
