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Role play makes delegates' day

Working life is full of challenges, including the way we interact with those around us. While we may expect this to come naturally, expert advice can help to improve our techniques to achieve more positive outcomes, says Jonathan Farrow.

Judith Gilmour, the motivational keynote speaker from the 2007 MGI UK & Ireland AGM, focused on this theme at a recent seminar titled Impact and Influence, attended by delegates from Rickard Keen LLP, Seymour Taylor and MGI Midgley Snelling. Topics covered were:

• getting and holding the attention of others
• gaining respect from others
• achieving co-operation
• acting confidently
• gaining visibility in meetings and presentations
• setting limits and saying no
• gving negative feedback constructively
• receiving negative feedback without losing face
• dealing with anger in others
• keeping control of one’s emotions.

Judith started the seminar by asking everyone to rank which of these issues they found most difficult. It was comforting to find that everyone had the same fears and mental blocks and this created an easy atmosphere where the participants felt able to relax, open up and work together on finding solutions.

Judith kept the day moving through use of interaction and role play which, although daunting at first, became more natural as the day progressed.

I am sure that all participants would agree that the day was well spent and that some good tips were learned to enable us to deal with situations that have caused problems in the past.