The Insurance Institute of Bristol
Leadership and Development Academy 2015 - Course outline
The Secrets of Successful Public Speaking
Michael Klepper famously wrote “I’d rather die than give a speech.” SureSpeech aims to take the
pain out of public speaking.
This full day course is for people to develop skills to deliver powerful and memorable speeches that
engage an audience. It provides techniques to overcome nerves, use voice and body language
effectively, make the best use of slides and other props.
Participants will have the opportunity to present and receive feedback. By the end of the day you
will be able to:
 Understand the key elements of an excellent public speaker
 Get messages across clearly
 Use their body language to gain greater impact
 Gain clarity, power and confidence to their voice
 Increase personal impact
 Gain more self-aware in public speaking, with the choice of change
How to be a more effective presenter
As a follow on from the public speaking session, this course will provide techniques to overcome
nerves, structure a presentation or speech and make the best use of slides and other props.
Participants will also have the opportunity to present and receive feedback from the tutor and their
peers. By the end of the day you will be able to:
 Structure presentations and speeches
 Use nerves to their advantage
 Present yourself in more confident way
 Understand that extra something: ‘presence’
 Know how to build rapport and engage your audience
 Make the best use of presentation slides and other props
Secrets of Successful Business Networking
While networking events may be a key route to market for those in the financial services industry,
many professionals find them difficult, frustrating and awkward. This course is designed for
professionals who are reluctant or inexperienced networkers that want to become more confident
and effective. It is also for those who enjoy networking and want to pick up some practical tips.
This highly practical workshop is structured around what to do before, during and after a typical
networking event. Delegates will learn how to:
 Prepare so that they’re networking with a purpose – using a checklist
 Read body language so they can get started in busy room when they don’t know anybody
 Start conversations
 Remember names
 Have the effective 5-step networking conversation
 Move on professionally and gracefully
 Demonstrate their credibility through using conversational stories
 Follow up professionally without being a pest
 Avoid making the one mistake that will ruin their chances of being successful
The Power of Storytelling in Business
How many times have you been fascinated by a good story? How many times have you stayed up
late reading a novel that you "couldn't" put down, or watching a movie that you couldn't turn off?
How many times have you pushed yourself harder after hearing the story of someone else's success,
or changed your opinion after reading a convincing article in a magazine or newspaper?
There's no doubt that stories can change the way we think, act and feel. Leaders, especially, can use
the power of a good story to influence and motivate their teams to new heights. Stories can inspire
everything from understanding to action. They can create legends that an entire workplace culture
can build upon, and they have the power to break down barriers and turn a bad situation into a good
one.
Stories can capture our imaginations and make things real in a way that cold, hard facts can't. So, do
you want to be a persuasive motivator? Someone who inspires and energises? If so, learn how to tell
a good story. How? This full day course covers just that. By the end of the day you will be able to:
 Understand why storytelling is powerful in business
 Know what makes a good story
 Understand what makes an excellent story teller
 Be self-aware so you can develop your own style of storytelling
 Learn when you should you tell a story and
 How to get results from your stories
Effective Leadership – become a trusted leader
Leadership is a balance between a focus on relationships and results. Not only do leaders need to be
trusted, collaborative and courageous, they must balance their focus on tasks, teams and individuals
to be effective. Furthermore, financial services professionals are operating in an industry which
remains the least trusted sector as reported by the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer. This means it is
crucial that new leaders understand how trust is developed both with their clients and colleagues in
order to be successful.
Delegates will assess and discuss their leadership style and skills, using John Adair’s model and his
personality profile. This insight feeds into a tailored action plan to ensure their focus on task, team
and individual is balanced and appropriate. This session will show how trust can be established on
every level, building character and competence, enhancing credibility, and creating leadership that
inspires confidence.
By the end of the session delegates will be able to:
 Analyse their preferences and judgements relating to results and relationships
 Describe what trust is and why it affects everything
 Recognise, understand and apply the four pillars of credibility
 Practice the 13 behaviours which are crucial in developing trust
 Describe John Adair’s Action Centred Leadership model
 Use the insight gained from completing John Adair’s leadership profile to balance their focus on
leadership tasks, teams and individuals.
 Prioritise their learnings by creating an action plan
How to have challenging conversations
Whether it’s dealing with a challenging client, boss or team member these crucial conversations
have the potential to strengthen or weaken a relationship and need to be handled with skill and
care. However many people avoid such conversations for fear of saying the wrong thing, saying too
much or sometimes not enough. Yet the issue is rarely resolved by ignoring or inflaming it.
This highly practical workshop focuses on the process, content and emotion of challenging
conversations. Delegates will leave with some practical tools and phrases to handle tough
situations, thorny issues and heated moments.
By the end of the session delegates will be able to:
 Clarify what they want to happen by the end of the conversation
 Recognise their own unhelpful stories and thoughts
 Describe the importance of facts, responsibility and empathy in holding challenging conversations
 Start awkward conversations and stop procrastinating
 Use a 3 stage framework with key phrases
 Manage strong or suppressed emotions both in others and themselves
 Apply the new knowledge, skills and phrases to real life situations to improve fluency
Media Skills
If you are using a well-planned video on your website, you’ll be able to connect with your audience,
24 hours a day, 365 days a year almost as if you were there! With hundreds of hours of video being
uploaded to the internet every minute, it’s not difficult to see why video marketing has become
increasingly advantageous for promoting and enhancing your business.
But how do you come across on video? What techniques are needed for your message to come
across to the listener despite you not being in the room? In this session you will be filmed and given
the individual techniques in order to present the best part of you.
Learning from a professional actor and director, you will gain a huge insight in the techniques that
work and be able to use them to your profession – whether speaking to people on Skype, delivering
a promotional video for your website or needing to communicate via a webinar.
By the end of the day you will be able to:
 Know how to use videos to benefit your business
 Gain tools and techniques to enhance your performance
 Engage viewers so they don’t switch off
 Bring clarity to their message
 Be self-aware - how you come across on camera
 Take away a short video
Client Relationships – to influence and impact
In a highly competitive industry, communicating with impact can make the difference between
winning and losing business. Yet one approach will not be effective with all clients owing to our
different personalities. Understanding how to tailor your approach can make a huge difference to
how influential you are – so that clients look forward to their interactions, speak positively of you to
others and don’t think about going elsewhere.
This session is a chance for you to step out of the busyness of day to day and reflect on the
relationships you have with your key clients and stakeholders. It is an opportunity to learn about the
science behind personalities and persuasion so that you can both communicate with influence and
impact.
By the end of the session you will be able to:
 Describe the 7 things that all clients want
 Recognise the 4 main personality styles
 Assess your own dominant style
 Describe the personality styles of your key clients
 Recognise what’s important to each of them
 Describe the 6 scientifically-proven principles of persuasion
 Apply appropriate persuasion principles to each of the personality styles
 Adjust your style of communication to strengthen the relationship
 Meeting etiquette
 Address challenges that working with other personalities can present