Own Our Future

Presentation Skills Training

Malek Najar took learning into her own hands and attended a free training presented by Andy Harrington on Presentation Skills. This is a skill she noticed that she needed and we asked Malek some questions about what she learned.

1. What has been the biggest highlight of the training for you?

Honestly there were a lot of high points that overwhelmed me. The biggest highlight of the training was everyone must be convinced with one idea “I’m a STAR before I’m ready”. Secondly, to acknowledge the power of communication. From a business standpoint, public speaking allows for clarity of communication and persuasion which in turn can instruct, motivate, influence and even inspire change.

Sales is not only about selling, it is about motivating, influencing and building a deeper connection with our customer.

2. What skills have you learned?

To well position oneself and to work hard to be from an unknown to a professional , where you fully commit to what you do in terms of how you present yourself.
The importance of the content that we create, it should be Educational, Entertaining and Emotional.
The correct content will allow the following: Awareness, Adverts, Acquisition, The Free Speaker S.Y.S.T.Y.M (State, Yourself, Stance, Tonality, Eye contact, Movement).
The Science of Story Telling (4 S's) Scenes, Suspense, Stars and Speech – create a story around what you want to say and how you want to say it.

3. What do you know now, that you did not know before the training?

Actually a lot of things but I will focus about the 3 tonalities that we can practice to convince the person in front of us, it depends on the situation, and the speaker shared with us very convincing examples.

4. How can you implement the learning in your day to day role?

I will implement what I learn on 2 levels:

the Personal level: focusing on having a strong brand name for myself with my customers
the Company level: having a meeting with our marketing team and sharing and discussing with them new ideas inspired by the training and the speaker.
Example: live broadcast in Instagram with the specialist team since now social media it is a strong marketing tool.

Self Learning

With the aim to practically implement “Own Our Future at MENA” we interviewed some of our staff members in what they were doing in their personal lives to improve themselves professionally and personally, and how they implement “Own Our Future” day to day. Wallaa Mahmoud, shares that she went on a TV and Radio presentation course as part of her self-learning to improve her presentation, brand, and overall communication skills.

Self learning is where an employee takes accountability to learn skills that would help and assist them out of their own accord to improve their current skills which is self-paced and self-funded.

We love how our staff members engage in their own development and take responsibility for their own learning to help and assist their growth.

We asked Wallaa the following in our interview with her:

1. What were the main skills that you have learned?

How to be presentable in meetings and in front of people where you are representing your team. When you make a speech or normal day to day elocution and speaking. I believe these skills will assist me in my career moving forward and also in my personal life.

2. What was your favourite activity of the training?

Practicing filming a program. I found this very interesting! How to be more confident in front of a number of people to do the speech and connect with them. I felt at ease when delivering my presentation, which improved with time.

3. What do you know now that you did not know before the training?

How important it is to be more confident and speak with ease. My speech should be well tempered and I should be calm in my breath. I had no idea that sometimes our fears makes our speech incoherent and therefore when they taught us how to reduce our fears through breathing, this helped me balance my breathing. However, my favourite part was when they taught me how to clean my heart before I speak to others.

4. Where have you seen yourself using the skills from the training in your day to day life?

Be presentable and more elegant while talking to others accordingly to customers and work mates. How to deliver a speech that would captivate hearts and minds and be presentable when speaking in a meeting and presenting content. However, most importantly have fun whilst doing it.