In every industry, there are technical teams with specific skills. These teams have various internal stakeholders, (executive teams, managers and other employees) and external stakeholders (customers, providers and the public)… …success or failure hinges on the team’s ability to clearly … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Think on Your Feet
Think on Your Feet® when storytelling – utilising the Think on Your Feet® techniques to tell a story
People are more likely to remember information when it’s wrapped in a story. The flow of your narrative and the strength of the images you position, will help your listener recall what has been said and remember it. As humans … Continue reading
Ensure your sales team can confidently think on their feet
Sales can be a challenging profession and the way businesses sell is constantly changing. Effective communication is a cornerstone of success for sales professionals. Our clients tell us their sales teams consistently face communication challenges that impact their ability to … Continue reading
Indigo is proud to sponsor the YES22 People Choice award – but who will win?
“We are proud to have sponsored the YES People’s Choice award for over a decade now.” said Robert Fisher of Indigo. ”Having a brilliant mind and amazing ideas is at the heart of this competition – translating ideas into something … Continue reading
Be more John Wayne – the lost art of brevity.
I have always talked about clarity and conciseness as an entry point into good, professional communication. Lots of management books tell us that managers with good communications skills, are often more effective leaders. ‘John Wayne in pinstripes’ was a term … Continue reading
Are all graduates masters of verbal communication?
Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer When organisations develop Graduate Recruitment Days, you can almost guarantee that at the top of the assessment criteria is ‘communication’! Naturally, all employers are looking for an intake of new talent who can ‘hit the ground … Continue reading
Forget the “Big Resignation” – what about “the Big Presentation”?
Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer When taking on a new role, client or job, you will likely be asked to make “that big presentation!” You know the one… the career-defining introduction, the presentation that ties your stomach … Continue reading
Virtual selling – the new sales disruptor
Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer The world of the sales professional has changed. Consideration needs to be given to the skills that are now needed. The COVID pandemic has meant virtual selling has become the new reality of the sales function … Continue reading
Impactful and effective virtual communication
Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer 2020 made businesses adapt their channels of communication. Lockdown meant a focus on virtual platforms, with internal and external stakeholders working remotely. The emphasis for many was ‘Do we have the right platforms in place?’ Perhaps … Continue reading
The big presentation
Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer We all have that presentation, whether it’s online or face-to-face, the one that we really want to go well – the big presentation! Maybe it’s presenting our new strategy to the board, … Continue reading
Giving a project update
Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer Project updates are a key part of landing projects successfully – it’s really important to keep stakeholders updated on progress. The way you deliver your updates can be the difference between your … Continue reading
Deal with tough questions that make you feel nervous
Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer Nobody likes tough questions. Especially when you aren’t prepared for them! The feeling of a loss of control, that we might not be able to answer the question or that we can’t … Continue reading
Supporting Young Scientists – Young Entrepreneurs Scheme “People’s choice” award in 2019
Indigo are proud to champion university teams through our ongoing Young Entrepreneurs Scheme “People’s choice” award in 2019. Jack Fleet was a member of the University of Manchester’s winning YES19 team, Larvita. ‘Our business idea was a vertical insect farm producing … Continue reading
Navigating the new normal: getting your message across
Imagine that you have just concluded an online meeting or briefing. Everyone who was in that virtual space heads to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Their partner joins them. “What was your meeting about?” they ask. Are … Continue reading
Crucial conversations
Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer There are times in our career when we all have to have difficult conversations. As Managers, we may need to have a conversation with a team member to discuss a required behavioural … Continue reading
Getting your point across to a difficult stakeholder
Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer We all have those colleagues and customers that we find difficult. More often than not, it’s one of our important stakeholders. They might be demanding. They might talk over us or appear … Continue reading
Think on Your Feet® Charity Challenge 2020 – March update.
The Think on Your Feet® charity challenge is a new initiative for 2020. We first ran the competition in December 2019, it was so successful we’ve decided to keep running it. The challenge gives delegates the opportunity to practise their … Continue reading
Think before you speak
Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer How often do you find yourself launching into answering a question – then part way through you realise you’re not saying what you wanted to say? Worse still, you’ve said something that … Continue reading
Charity Challenge (February 2020 – Manchester) – Think on Your Feet®
We delivered another great Think on Your Feet® workshop in Manchester this week. Thanks to all our attendees for contributing so positively, making it a fun and engaging two days. Due to its success we ran our third charity challenge. … Continue reading
Charity Challenge (January 2020 – London) – Think on Your Feet®
Here at Indigo we’ve had a busy start to 2020. We delivered another busy Think on Your Feet® workshop in London. Thanks to all our attendees for contributing so positively, making it a fun and engaging two days. The charity … Continue reading
Sponsoring The Engineers And Scientists Of The Future (YES19)
The final of the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES19) global competition was held on Tuesday 10 December at the Royal Society, London. Teams of postgraduate students and post-doctoral researchers went head-to-head to compete for a prize fund of £15K. Every year … Continue reading
Charity Challenge (December 2019 – London) – Think on Your Feet®
Congratulations to Charlotte Cullen from Wolff Olins for winning the London Think on Your Feet® Charity Challenge last week. Charlotte delivered a passionate, informative and heartfelt pitch telling us why her chosen charity should get a £100 donation. Voted the … Continue reading
Soft skills are essential for strong business growth
As a seasoned communications professional with experience spanning four decades working with a variety of large and small organisations, I feel I have built up a powerful armoury of soft skills. Which is comforting, especially in light of the fact … Continue reading
A mum’s tale – Thinking on your feet after a career break.
After a career break to raise two boys, the day finally came to wave my youngest off to school. The time was right for me to return to work. I’ll be honest, although I was excited about the prospect of … Continue reading
When you need to answer quickly and persuasively…
Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet®, Six Thinking Hats® and Skilled Presenter™ trainer. Imagine you’re asked to present at a really important meeting. You’re ok with the presentation itself but the questions and answers section fills you with dread! … Continue reading
When your mind goes blank, when responding…
Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® trainer. You’re stood by the coffee machine, a Director happens to bump into you and asks you how things are going with that project you’ve been working on with her team. You open … Continue reading
Indigo Business Services Named Exclusive UK Distributor for Think on Your Feet®
RICHMOND, UK, 30 August 2018: McLuhan & Davies Communications, Inc. has appointed their exclusive UK distributor, Indigo Business Services Limited. Indigo will be the sole provider of their suite of business-communication workshops in the UK. “From September 2018 our 17-year relationship … Continue reading
Getting your message across in conversations
By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. Conversations, unlike formal presentations and written documents, give no time to prepare how to get our message across. In conversations, we can’t try … Continue reading
Making your words effective and dynamic
We all know that time is money: constructing documents, presenting or in dialogue. And the time it commands from your recipient to read, attend or listen. Whatever we write and say has to hit the mark. It doesn’t matter how … Continue reading
Do you plan what you say?
During my career I have received and delivered communication skills training, achieving both effective and candid outcomes. Much of this development has been preparing what I would say in any given scenario – and it’s served me well. However, there … Continue reading
Add IMPACT To What You Say
There have been times in my career when I had business VIP visits and opportunities to make an impact; to show just what an expert I was. I would be asked an easy question such as “how’s the project going?” … Continue reading
How do your listeners perceive you?
By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. The impression we make when we’re speaking is important. Whether we’re presenting, speaking on the phone or having a chat at the watercooler; … Continue reading
Making communication style work for you
By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. When we talk about communication style we are referring to the expression of ideas. Whatever you have to say, expressing it well will … Continue reading
Getting complex and technical information across
By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™, The Skilled Presenter™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. Communicating complex or technical information to an audience that has no special knowledge of the subject is always challenging. We recently … Continue reading
Engaging stakeholders
The skills required to understand, engage, manage and communicate with stakeholders. By Trish Thurley, Indigo Master Trainer and Richard Evans Stakeholder management can be the difference between success and failure for anyone who has to deal with other people. Who … Continue reading
The (ugly) truth about workplace communication.
Excellent verbal and written communication-skills is a standard requirement in today’s workplace. Communication plays a vital role in your company’s success and productivity. And ignoring it can be dangerous. Download our FREE infographic: The (ugly) truth about workplace communication. It reveals the … Continue reading
How do I answer that?
A month ago I was sitting in our Monday morning sales meeting with the Sunday blues hanging over my head. I jolted back to reality when I saw my boss glaring at me. There was a question looming between us … Continue reading
Understood and remembered – add structure and IMPACT to everything you say…
‘Brain fog’ – that’s what happens when you get asked a question you know the answer to, where your response is unclear, often a little confused and long! There can be many reasons for this: An intimidating audience (your team, … Continue reading
Top tips – communicating with difficult stakeholders
Stakeholder management can be a challenge, you often need to juggle between positive and negative groups or individuals. A logical way to build good relationships, especially when communicating with a difficult stakeholder, is by using techniques learnt on our Internationally … Continue reading
Breakthrough in communication DNA
Think on Your Feet International, Inc. have recently announced some interesting findings from the results of their study about how the left- and the right-side of the brain influences communication. The brain is an amazing organ that we still need to … Continue reading
Indigo Update – Autumn 2015
Welcome to our Autumn Indigo Update. There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes here at Indigo. We’ve been listening to your feedback, and over the next few months we’ll be bringing you some more exciting launches and offers – fulfilling our mission to … Continue reading
How do you turn a complaint into an opportunity?
Nobody likes hearing customers or stakeholders complain. So here are some suggestions from the globally delivered Think on Your Feet® workshop. Continue reading
Presenting boring facts and figures in an interesting way…
One of our recent Skilled Presenter delegates (thanks John Shaw) saw this pretty impressive way of communicating those dull statistics and sent it to us. Take a few moments to view this and tell me your not impressed with Stockholm… Continue reading
Presentation Panic! How to Control Your Nerves
Public speaking is a top fear for many people. It’s okay to be afraid as long as you try to keep that fear at bay when you give a presentation. You can be successful and be remembered by your audience. Here’s how: Continue reading
Think on Your Feet: 3 Steps to Success – Top Tip No. 3 – Remember the rule of threes to stay on track.
Our final ‘Top Tip’ is this series looks at when we are subject matter experts and get wrapped up in too much detail. If we are passionate, our emotions override our logic and we ramble. Continue reading
Think on Your Feet: 3 Steps to Success – Tip No.2 – Identify triggers to know how to respond.
In our last blog of this series, (see http://www.indigobusiness.co.uk/blog/?p=1108), we discussed listening skills, to gain understanding before reacting. The example we used was when you are talking to your team about implementing a new process and you hear “Why is this company always making things more complicated”. A good listener will acknowledge that change can be challenging. If spoken with sincerity it will help move the conversation in the right direction. Continue reading
Think On Your Feet: 3 Steps to Success – Tip No.1 – Listen before reacting.
How many times have you been asked a question that causes ‘brain fog’ even if you know the answer? Maybe your audience is intimidating. Perhaps the topic is sensitive or emotional. Suddenly, you find yourself stammering or rambling. And after the damage is done you remember what you should have said. Continue reading
Presentation Tip: Know when to quit!
The Skilled Presenter™ always does at least one dry run to focus on timing. Be willing to remove major sections of your presentation. Ask the following questions: Do my listeners really want to know this? Is it engaging? Is it persuasive? Continue reading
How to master the art of thinking quickly on your feet.
Caught off guard by a question at work, do you blurt out the first thing that comes to mind? Or do you take a moment to marshal your thoughts? Continue reading
What makes a Best Man?
I made some pretty big decisions around that time. One such decision was ‘who to have as my Best Man’. So what are the criteria for a good ‘Best Man’? Well, my Best Man, Andy, was first and foremost a great friend. He was (and still is!) liked by many for being trustworthy, great fun and a witty. Continue reading
