Professional Communication Skills: Developing Leadership

Owning the room and making professional impact

“One voice can change a room… can change a city… can change a state… can change a nation.”
— Obama Foundation

A young man with long hair and a beard stands on a stage, holding a microphone, addressing an audience. Behind him, three other men sit in chairs, listening attentively in a conference room with a large screen displaying an abstract image.

Have you been told you need more speaking experience?

Have you been told to leave the speaking to someone else? Do you always work with a lengthy script, or do you leave bullet-points to the last minute? Do you rely on reading presenter’s notes and hiding behind your slides? Do you find yourself wanting to speak up and hold your own in meetings, but confidence, uncertainty, or timing get in the way?

Or… Do you love public-speaking and want to get a clear idea of your own style and how you could enhance what you’re already doing?

A group of women sitting on stools and chairs in a brightly lit room with large windows, having a casual discussion or presentation with some women taking notes.

This work will help you develop powerfully effective professional impact, presence and communications.

Developing a professional way of being that brings with it an authentic sense of who you are is key to success in your business and career.

Your voice is as individual as your fingerprint, and deserves to be heard. It’s unique to you, a skill to improve on, muscle to condition, and identity to share. It’s what people hear when they remember or think of you. It’s what makes them sit up, listen and get in touch — or not.

Quality of voice is the most powerful professional tool you have. It delivers the meaning and intention of your message. It is the most human element of communication, using sound and language to connect with the cognitive, emotional and physical systems in your audience.

If you develop one communication skill, invest your time and attention in your voice. The rest will follow.

A woman in glasses holding a microphone speaking at a panel discussion, seated among other panelists in a conference room.

Over the course of 1-12 sessions we’ll consider how you present yourself and how this impacts both your voice use and others’ impressions of you.

We’ll examine how you craft stories (presentations, meetings, conferences, interviews, and so on) and whether your language and voice support your message, meaning, and intention. We’ll look at whether different work environments enable or subdue certain aspects of yourself. We’ll think about how you can harness or counter these to improve professional relationships. Practical voicework will be woven throughout the development of your professional impact, alongside assessment of where you are in your career or organisation — where you’ve come from, and where you might like to go.

A gold-framed glass table with a closed notebook, a pen, a pair of round glasses, and two glasses of water. Two people are sitting around the table, one with white hair and another with a smartphone. The setting has a wooden floor.

This work will help you clearly identify how you communicate professionally.

It will increase your awareness of what’s holding you back and how you might address this. It will give you the confidence to speak up in meetings, to risk being heard — and therefore being noticed. It will give you the courage, presence and gravitas to hold attention and be listened to. It will make you feel powerful in your interactions, with increased clarity and confidence in your decision-making. It will help you identify whether there are professional relationships that are impinging on your voice use and develop strategies to manage, recover, and move on from these. You’ll feel grounded in your own personal style, connected to your own sense of self and values, and more able to meaningfully engage with the people around you.

A woman with gray hair and black glasses smiling during a meeting with two other women in a conference room, with a whiteboard and a screen in the background.

The work can take place in one-off sessions devoted to specific events or concerns, or a course of 4 to 12 sessions.

I will develop a bespoke programme according to your aims, allowing for discussion, progression and development of the work. Check-ins take place across the programme to ensure we’re aligned in our working. Sessions can take place online or in-person and are usually 1-hour long. A taster session is available before you commit to longer term work.

  • <autoplay speed=4></autoplay>“I appreciate the guidance and the space to explore these patterns with awareness, and curiosity! Your notes on long-held beliefs really resonate - I can already sense how deep some of these patterns run.”

    — Emma

  • “Thank you so much for such a thoughtful and generous response. I really appreciate the care and intention in your words — there’s so much richness there, and I’m going to take some time to sit with the questions.”

    — Sarah

  • “Wanted to let you know yesterday went really well! I was really happy with how it went, and I got so much incredible feedback from everyone. Thank you so very much for all your help getting here! Our work together has certainly made a big difference.”

    — Claire

Ready to feel more confident, sound more compelling, and speak with ease?

Book a Call to Discuss Owning the Room.