Public speaking

Coaching objective:

Marie has been promoted to an executive role 3 years ago. She has always found it difficult to be the centre of attention but her new position makes it worse. She wants especially to get rid of "showing her nerves" (flushing and fast breathing) during presentations and critical conversations. It makes others doubt her authority; her energy is spent on worrying about her appearance rather than influencing and getting what she wants from the meeting.

She had tried several approaches to control her anxiety but to no avail.

Coaching process:

Following an initial 1h session and some pre-work, we spend a whole day in 1-1 Intensive coaching.

In the morning, we get to the root cause and identify the limiting decision that is causing her inappropriate reaction when she becomes the centre of attention.

In the afternoon, we work through a number of interventions that help connect the unconscious and the conscious minds, releasing old limiting beliefs.

By the end of the day, she has a plan that will enable her to convince herself that the problem has disappeared.

We then follow up with four 90-minute sessions to embed the change.

Coaching impact:

Back to work, Marie has several opportunities to present and to hold critical conversations, situations where she would have previously "shown her nerves".

To her surprise, she remains calm, not showing any visible signs of anxiety. She is able to focus on the conversation and be fully present with what's happening in the room.

Afterwards she feels ecstatic. Now she can look forward to presenting !

Colleagues are impressed by the change, how professional and compose she comes through while giving presentations and managing the challenging conversation that follows.

Why the Intensive worked with Marie?

First of all, Marie was able to connect easily to her emotions and brave enough to face and release old patterns from her life. Moreover she was ready to get rid of her specific problem and face the consequences of that change: there would be no more excuses about facing difficult conversations or presenting in front of impressive audiences.

Marie's perspective:

"Having tried other coaching methods to approaching this issue to no avail, I felt addressing the root cause was my best (and last!) hope.  My desire to change played an important role but also believing in the process; knowing that my issue was buried deep in my sub-conscious I knew I had to put my more rational nature aside. 

Nathalie was able to lead me through the process which was, at times, very emotional.  Her ability to quickly build a relationship based on not just on ability but trust was hugely important to my progress. 

The results have been immediate both physically and emotionally."