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 you were not meant to say!
Or you start talking and realise that you are waffling, rambling and you simply wish you could turn back time to answer the question again – having given it a bit of thought first?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. One of the most common things we hear from delegates when they attend our Think on Your Feet® workshop, is that they wish they had a way to think before they spoke, but without having to pause too much.
This certainly does sound like a paradox. How can someone think before they speak, but also sound fluent and like the expert they really are?
Here are my top three tips to start you off.
- Decide you want to make a change – Firstly, you need to commit to changing the way you communicate. If you want to learn to think before you speak, you are going to have to resist the urge to launch into a long spiel and accept that you are going to do things a bit differently.
- Decide on your key messages – You then need to consider what key messages you want to get across in your communication. What is it that you want the listener to take away and remember? What are the things you want to say? If you only had 30 seconds to speak what would you say?
- Have a structure – Think about how you are going to structure your communication? What will you say first? How will you introduce what you need to say? How will you end it?
Structure
If you consider your structure before you speak, it will make it much easier for you to stick to your key messages and it will also mean that your message will be much easier for your listener to follow.
Our Think on Your Feet® workshop will teach you how to do all of the above. It teaches 6 different ‘plans’ to use for communicating messages and shows you how to quickly think and formulate your structure, key messages and response, in a very shorty space of time. It then shows you how to seamlessly deliver your message so that you sound clear, articulate, knowledgeable and credible.
It really does show you how to think before you speak!
Find out more about the world-renowned Think on Your Feet® at www.indigobusiness.co.uk/toyf
More about Gilly Meek
Gilly is an accredited Think on Your Feet®, Lateral Thinking, Six Thinking Hats®, The Skilled Presenter™ and Stakeholder Engagement (including Simulation)™ trainer and has delivered these workshops to numerous clients. Gilly also trains in management skills, negotiation skills, facilitation skills, impact and influence, and time management.
Prior to joining Indigo, Gilly managed the learning and development function for Global Radio, the UK’s largest radio organisation; training and coaching employees across a number of brands including Heart, LBC and Galaxy Radio. She has also led global initiatives for numerous multi-national organisations – including the design and delivery of management, leadership and soft-skills programmes.
