This intense period of working from home is having a huge impact on the way we communicate professionally. The one good thing is that everyone is in the same situation -the screen is our new boardroom, meeting place, forum, stage. We are all screen stars, working and socialising remotely. When we switch on the laptop or computer, we switch on a version of ourselves. Sometimes this version does not have the same impact we might have had face-to-face.
Is my next virtual meeting my 15 minutes of fame?
We asked NIDA Corporate training experts for their insights and how acting training can have an impact on our ability to communicate in this new screen-based workspace.
‘We have entered a new environment and everyone is finding ways to adjust. Dogs and cats are featuring in job interviews, our husbands, children, partners run through our office as we take part in planning meetings, forums, group catch upsor CEO briefings. We’re under pressure to home-school the children and attend client meetings and webinars. While we tackle another online platform we’re hearing our friends talk about the novel they are thinking of completing. All the while, we need to put our best foot forward in our professional lives,’says Director of NIDA Corporate Vanessa White.
Organisations are searching for assistance. By now we have all set up an at-home work space and hopefully found a quiet corner to work. We have worked out that wearing pyjamas to work is okay if you have a suitable shirt to wear over the top. The introverts have discovered they quite like working from home, and the extroverts are talking online in overdrive. How do we maintain a professional and confident exterior when we’re revealing all the aspects of our lives from our home office?
A rapport with our audience through the lens
Under this new paradigm, NIDA Corporate Course Manager and actor Sonia Todd sees an opportunity to extend on the skills needed for face-to-face communication and leverage them in front of the laptop camera. Film and TV actors build rapport with their audience through the lens, a skill directly transferable to the online business world. The choices around how we communicate, how we listen and how we choose to interact with others is available to all of us.
‘Our public coursesexplorethewayswe cannavigate group dynamics, keep communication channels open and maintainconfident andauthentic connectionsassistingpeopletoimprove the impact theyhave in online meetings.’
Tips from actors to make a crucial difference
Actingtechniquescan completely change our outlook and our ability to persuade and present ourselves online.Sonia has two tipsthat can quickly make a difference:
>> Body postureandbalance
Tip: sit with your feet flat on the floor,check that your spine is straight,yourshoulders are relaxed and open.Allow yourneck tohave some ease by building anawarenessthat the top of yourheadis floating upward,toward theceiling. This allows others to read your physical messaging as open and in control.
>> Creatinga flow with yourcommunication
Tip: this makesfor anengagingcommunicator.Whenfillerslike’um’,’ah’,’you know’,and’like’,startgetting in the way,simply pause andallow yourself totake a breath andthenspeak.This increases clarity andeasewith your communication.
Find out more about NIDA Corporate public courses online here.
