Actors have a charismatic presence and the ability to influence. They are great communicators, they carry out every action with purpose and confidence, they are masters of their own thoughts, magicians of creative ideas, and they make bold, clear choices!
What difference would it make to mental wellness, productivity, sales, customer acquisition and the experience of your clientele if your staff could harness those powerful skills?
How have actors have developed these dynamic flairs?
They don’t happen by accident. Actors train relentlessly!
Here are some of the areas they train in and why this is relevant to you:
Non-verbal communication:
The actual words used in a conversation only accounts for a fraction of how others receive it. This is because almost 75% of communication is non-verbal.
Developing a strong awareness around the way you are communicating non verbally when you are speaking will allow the message to be received in the way you intended, to get you the result you wanted from the conversation.
If there’s a breakdown in communication, this will result in a drop in staff morale, productivity, loss of sales and negative customer experiences. Effective communication is your primary resource for increasing your bottom line!
Non verbal communication can include:
Body language
Facial expressions
Gestures
Eye contact
Vocal technique
After non-verbal communication, the tone of the delivery is the second factor in how your message will come across. It’s the FEELING behind the words, along with the non-verbal cues that go with them that will create the most impact, not the words themselves!
Have you ever walked into a hotel and had a member of staff come to you and say “Welcome! I hope you enjoy your stay” in a monotone voice, looking behind you and fidgeting with his tie? How did that make you feel? Did you feel welcome? Did you think he really cared about whether you have an enjoyable stay or not? Of course, we all agree the answer would be negative on both counts because there was a contradiction in what was said and in the non-verbal communication and tone that came with it. It was not believable!
Have you ever had a salesperson tell you about the features and benefits of the latest device, and you don’t remember a thing they’ve just said? You were interested in making the purchase, so why did you switch off? Because although you were very interested in hearing what was said, the tone was robotic and boring. The tone has more power than the actual words themselves!
Have you ever witnessed a manager giving their staff a pep talk, but failing to engage and excite? Again, the content of what was said may have been impeccable. That doesn’t make much difference if there was a failure in executing the message.
Listening
“Why would we need to learn to listen? We do all the time!”
No. We hear things all the time.
We hear through our ears, but we listen with our minds.
Being a great listener means we are able to interpret the messages received from the ears correctly. It’s an active mental process which occurs at a conscious level, and it’s a skill that can be developed through training.
Developing listening skills are vital for accurately interpreting information and to effectively implement actions to a higher standard.
As a leader, it will allow you to develop relationships with your staff where they feel valued, resulting in higher motivation and performance.
How about clients? By developing a profound ability to listen, how do you think this will improve their experience? Will they feel that you genuinely care and will they trust what you have to say when you have listened to them intently?
Are you likely to attract more new clients when you have been able to carefully listen to their needs and offer a solution to what they actually want rather than wasting time discussing the things that are not going to motivate them into taking action?
Focus
The ability to concentrate on a particular action without your thoughts drifting.
Did you know that report shows that a third of employees are distracted for up to 3 hours a day according to a survey of 2000 people by Think Money? That’s 759 hours a year. Shocking! Here’s an article about it in the Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/11691728/Employees-waste-759-hours-each-year-due-to-workplace-distractions.html
How much could be achieved in 759 hours? How much money is going down the drain while employees are busy checking their phones, getting caught up in pointless chit chat and staring out of the window?
On another, even more, important note, how is this affecting your customer’s experience? This is one of the most significant differences between a customer feeling like another number, or feeling incredibly special and like they want to shout about you to the world!
Quick thinking
Most of an actors training is around being able to think quickly and creatively solving problems on the spot, without it affecting their flow. An actor doesn’t stop and panic on stage when something goes wrong, they recover seamlessly, often without anyone even knowing that things did not go according to plan.
Imagine if your team had the same ability in tackling day to day situations.
Commitment
If anything is worth doing, it’s worth doing with 100% commitment and conviction.
That means being confident and secure with instructions, giving your all to the task you are focused on, implementing ideas quickly and effectively and following things through and commitment to delivering at an impeccable standard.
Working as a team
Actors absolutely must work together in scenes to deliver a flawless result. They know that for themselves to look good, they must make each other look good. Imagine if all of the employees of your company implemented this attitude?
Initiative
Actors out use their initiative. The script they are provided with is only around 5% of the preparation and thought that needs to go into the final performance.
Let’s flip this back to your company.
What sort of results would your team get if the instruction they were given only accounted for 5% of the magic that was delivered, with every individual inputting their creativity and spark without having to be prompted?
Self-discipline and respect for deadlines
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘The show must go on’.
Regardless of how many obstacles are thrown in the way, the show must go on, and it will be on time! The ‘I’ll just do it later’ or ‘I can’t be bothered today’ mentality cannot exist with actors because they will never let the audience down. They are trained to be meticulous with their preparation and self-disciplined enough to make sure they are up to a very high standard by ‘showtime’ regardless of what happens outside of the show.
Now, imagine this concept being put into play with your projects.
The ability to learn and adapt very quickly
Actors must learn and adapt at an almost superhuman speed to perform to the best of their ability by their deadline. They achieve this through their training where they are put in uncomfortable situations and are catapulted out of their comfort zones where they have no choice but to pull out their inner superhero.
By doing the same training, your team’s performance will rise considerably!
The ability to work under pressure
When the pressure is on, this is when an actor will wake up and thrive!
Too many people go into stress and overwhelm almost shutting down when they are put under pressure. Actors are conditioned through training to do the exact opposite.
The ability to bounce back after a knockback
It is not just the skills they need during a performance that an actor is conditioned for. They need mind blowing confidence, self-belief and the type of mindset that enables them to brush off any failures and to keep pushing forward.
What difference would that mindset make in your company?
If you are interested in learning more, head over to www.luanaribeira.com/consulting.