Our Methodology
At some point, we’re all asked to share our career stories with work teams or in an interview. And that’s because sharing your experiences helps people get to know you and trust you. Your stories make you real, and they can leverage experiences into concrete skills that align to a new opportunity or an expanded role. It’s hard to map out stories because you lived them, and you don’t always see the color that brings your experiences to life. It’s less a chronology of everything you did, and more the cumulative learnings that shape who you’ve become and the stories you use to bring those learnings to life.
In this workshop, we introduce a proactive approach to positioning core skills and illustrating experiences that deliver business results. It shifts a formal interview to a memorable conversation and helps any participant begin to see the adaptability of their skills to a new opportunity.
Content – Most listeners give a communicator about 30 seconds to set a message and direction for their storyline. An effective communicator learns how to format ideas to frame a message and set the structure quickly to keep the listener(s) involved. We teach how to organize a storyline, create a compelling message and leverage stories to be sure sound bites are heard and remembered.
Style – Personal style, is presence, the ability to engage an individual or a group from the start of a conversation. An effective communicator comes across as confident and credible, conveying a sense of commitment to their topic and a personal interest in connecting the topic to each listener. The SW&A approach to style teaches the intentional choices communicators make to deliver on those impressions.
Situational – While the tools stay the same, the situations don’t. Every communicator thinks about their audience differently from those who interact with small groups to those who deliver keynote speeches. They think about outcomes differently, too. From meetings that generate discovery to recommendations that gain approval. That’s why the third dimension of our work applies the fundamentals to specific situations. It helps a communicator shift from competence in their skills to consistent outcomes in their communication.
