Sunday, May 31, 2009

Women as public speakers

My company, Black Isle, is embarking on a training programme with the women managing directors of a very large investment bank. We are asked to help them become better business speakers. The interesting challenge is to convince the women that the worst thing they can do is try to be like or be 'better' than the men.
Women are brilliant communicators and listeners. They deserve the reputation of being able to sense what sort of person they are dealing with from the very outset. Men are usually hopeless at spotting a fraud, until it is too late.
But, hisorically, I can hardly think of any great women public speakers.
Much of the problem is that they have traditionaly tried to be 'like' good men speakers.
By the end of July we will have much data on how our advice worked. Watch this space.

I would welcome any advice from any source that will help us structure the workshop. Also, if anyone can point out good examples of women speakers, I would be most grateful.

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