JULIA GOODMAN

I formed Personal Presentation Ltd. in 1989, having developed the Performagenics methodology in the late 80’s.  This evolved from an understanding of the mechanics of communication that came from my thirty years’ experience as a professional actress, producer and director, and from a desire to distil this into a blueprint that would be accessible to everyone.

In building the company, I experimented with contributions and approaches from all sorts of different backgrounds (journalists, broadcasters, theatre directors, psychologists, NLP practitioners) and came to a strict company policy: the only people that we recruit and train to work with our methodology are experienced, professional actors. 

This is because, more than anyone else, they live constantly with the reality that we are judged by the way we communicate, that our success depends on it.  And they do it: as professional performers, they put themselves on the line night after night. 

So they are really ‘in there’ with our clients.  They get under their skin, working with them inside the experience of engaged communication, rather than trying to direct them from the outside. 

In addition, good actors have a heightened intuition about people and can spot any incongruence or lack of authenticity: an ‘act’, in other words.  So they’re uniquely positioned to coach clients in a leading role – that of being themselves – and to ensure that they can perform this to its full, wherever and whenever they want. 

This is one of the major strengths of our approach, something that elevates it way above the realm of ‘presentation skills’ and makes it a very potent and focused form of personal development coaching (at the same time as giving people a highly practical skill) … the process of projecting who you are, when done in the right way, requires you to be authentic.  I’m not talking about an intellectual exercise here; the link between projection and authenticity is almost a physical one!  The process reveals who you are and connects you to your true beliefs and values.  In a nutshell, you define yourself through performing yourself.

Over the years I have worked with Chairmen and CEO’s across a wide range of business sectors, using the process to help them crystallise and engage with their ‘message’, whether this is their corporate strategy, their relationship with colleagues and clients, or how they feel about themselves.

And, of course, to help them perform without the ‘strings’ of scripts, notes, autocue, verbatim memorisation – or anything else that blocks the power of their communication and engenders suspicion in their audience. 

More recently, my focus has been on developing people’s awareness of the full scope and power of the work, and taking it into new areas.  By way of example:

• we’ve developed a You brand programme specifically for women, which helps them break through the negative stereotyping that so often limits their careers.  This is coming into its own now as companies are genuinely beginning to look for practical ways to allow this vital pool of talent to flourish, rather than just running ‘lip service’ women’s programmes as a means of demonstrating legislative compliance
• I have developed close links with the Dyslexia Institute and the British Dyslexia Association, and have run workshops, written articles and made keynote speeches for both organisations
• we are now running workshops in prisons to help prisoners (many of them dyslexic) develop their self-awareness and relationship ability, and give them hope
• I am working increasingly with young people to help them improve their self-image and confidence (what are we doing to kids these days?), and to perform at their best in university and job interviews  
• I’ve recently piloted a You brand Coaching Retreat on a wine estate in Tuscany – the perfect combination of intensive coaching with the space and time to relax and let it all sink in.

The scope and power of the Performagenics methodology and You brand Coaching was encapsulated for me recently by a client:

“What you do isn’t coaching, it’s liberating souls.”

                                                     David Telling

                                                     Chime Communications       

SARAH CHARD

I’ve seen people learn more about themselves from You brand Coaching in the space of a day than in weeks of conventional business coaching, and the reason is

this …

There’s a lot of work going on around ‘behavioural change’ – but in my experience the reality of a head-on approach to changing behaviour amounts to a lot of concepts and dictats that are only half understood by the individual and never really taken on board: a load of rules to be broken, in fact! 

The You brand experience is quite different.  It builds an inner awareness and ability that allows a person to control how they interact, both with themselves and with others (our relationships with others are, after all, no more than a reflection of our relationship with ourselves).

So when they develop their You brand, people begin to think and feel differently about themselves and others; and, crucially, they are able to articulate this difference, in the moment of interaction. That’s why the difference is instantly apparent to colleagues and clients alike.  And because it is fuelled from within and visible on the outside, it is the kernel of a real and durable change in both perceived and actual behaviour.

This isn’t just a lot of vacuous theorising! The results of the process have real teeth.  In my recent work I’ve been involved in  …

• helping a client prepare for a meeting with George W. Bush
• developing the awareness of the CEO of a Private Equity firm of the power of being himself, and the confidence to build relationships by sitting back more, being able to let go and allow leadership to flourish in others
• giving a senior consultant in an IT solutions company the self-awareness and confidence to make a radical career change
• raising the profile and the confidence to be themselves of women in a number of global manufacturing, consultancy and professional services firms
• working in partnership with executive coaches and psychologists to support senior individuals through change
• ‘steadying’ a highly creative actuary in order for him to maintain his creativity in a very left-brain organisation

I joined the development team at Personal Presentation Ltd in 2000 after a 17 year career as professional actor and singer.  I’ve worked closely with Julia Goodman to continue the development of the You brand Coaching process through the application of my training and experience as a humanistic therapist. I am also working towards becoming a member of the British Psychological Society.

I’m particularly proud of my contribution to the development of the Women’s Programme, which I feel really sets a new agenda within ‘Diversity’ (individual responsibility for action instead of just damage limitation) and also the Leadership Programme which enables individuals to articulate and express their leadership potential.

Tunirng thnigs updise dwon                                                                                            

I believe firmly in the power of You brand Coaching to change not just how a person is perceived, but also how they feel about themselves and ultimately what they do with their lives.

It’s a magical process that works in myriad ways, but one of its main features is that it moves people towards a place of real emotional connection.  This is the key to authenticity and self-discovery, and lies at the heart of being able to communciate passionately, spontaneously and compellingly. 

Some thumbnails from recent clients, by way of illustration … I’ve helped:

• a young woman in a professional services firm to change her mind-set about her age and turn it to positive advantage when appearing before a promotion panel.
• a director at a building society work out what people actually meant when they told her she should bring more of her ‘home self’ into work.  She’d spent months agonising about it because she didn’t know how, but the coaching helped her discover precisely how to do it.
• a high-ranking public sector officer regain their confidence, dignity and professional status after being badly burned in an accident.